Carbon Capture Costs: FEED & pre-FEED Cost Reports

Milton R. Young Station Unit 2 is conducting a FEED study to add a post-combustion CO₂ capture system using Fluor’s Econamine FG Plus™ technology to its lignite-fueled power plant in North Dakota. The design targets 3.6 million tonnes of CO₂ captured annually—twice the scale of the largest existing facility—while integrating advanced heat recovery, aerosol and solvent degradation controls, and cold-climate optimization to achieve the lowest levelized cost of capture at world scale. The study will deliver detailed design, cost, and performance data for financing, permitting, and final project scheduling.

Membrane Technology and Research Inc., with Technology Centre Mongstad, Dresser-Rand, Trimeric Corporation, and WorleyParsons/Advisian, is scaling up its advanced Polaris™ membranes for post-combustion CO₂ capture and testing them at engineering scale at TCM in Norway. The Polaris membranes, about 20 times more permeable than prior commercial versions, use a patented selective recycle design to boost CO₂ concentration in flue gas and lower capture costs. The project will design, build, and operate a modular membrane system for a six-month field test, including performance verification, steady-state operation, techno-economic updates, and integration studies with advanced compression technology.

Analysis sets the design and cost-estimating basis for evaluating pulp and board mills with and without CCS. Two base cases are considered: a market pulp mill and an integrated pulp and board mill. Six CCS cases are evaluated, capturing CO₂ from the recovery boiler, multi-fuel boiler, lime kiln, or their combinations. The mills are assumed to be energy independent, with black liquor and bark burned to produce steam and electricity, and excess electricity exported to the grid. The CO₂ capture system uses post-combustion MEA technology with a 90% capture rate, and if on-site electricity is insufficient, an auxiliary boiler firing forest residues will supply the additional energy. Capture of CO2 in both Kraft & Multi-boilers