Program Description

Coal-fired power plants generate approximately 45 percent of electricity for the United States. While coal is a cheap and abundant natural resource, continued use of coal as an energy source will lead to increasing levels of greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Capturing the emitted carbon dioxide and storing it would enable the continued use of domestic coal resources while reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. The primary challenge is the current cost of capturing carbon dioxide from a coal power plant, which is unacceptably high.

The IMPACCT program seeks to reduce the cost of carbon capture significantly through a combination of new materials, improvements to existing processes, and demonstration of new capture processes. Fifteen high-risk, high-reward projects are underway among a group of universities, businesses, and national laboratories. IMPACCT is pushing the boundaries of carbon capture research through technologies such as new liquid chemistries that dissolve carbon dioxide and a capture system inspired by jet engines that transforms carbon dioxide from a gas into pellets of dry ice. If successful, the IMPACCT program will secure the continued use of America’s coal infrastructure without further increases in harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Projects

• ATK: A High Efficiency Inertial CO2 Extraction System - ICES
• Codexis, Inc.: Low-Cost Biological Catalyst to Enable Efficient CO2 Capture
• Earth & Environmental Engineering, Columbia University: Chemical and Biological Catalytic Enhancement of Weathering of Silicate Minerals as Novel Carbon Capture and Storage Technology
• GE Global Research: CO2 Capture Process Using Phase-Changing Absorbents
• Georgia Tech Research Corporation: High Performance MOF-polymer Composite Membranes for CO2 Capture
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: High-Throughput Discovery of Robust Metal-Organic Frameworks for CO2 Capture
• Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLNS: Catalytic Improvement of Solvent Capture Systems
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Electrochemically Mediated Separation for Carbon Capture and Mitigation
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory: High Performance CO2 Scrubbing Based on Hollow Fiber-Supported Designer Ionic Liquid Sponges
• Research Triangle Institute (RTI International): Novel Non-Aqueous CO2 Solvent-based Capture Process with Substantially Reduced Energy Penalties
• Sustainable Energy Solutions: Cryogenic Carbon Capture
• Texas A&M University: Stimuli-Responsive Metal-Organic Frameworks for Energy-Efficient Post-Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture
• The Regents of the University of Colorado: Achieving a 10,000 GPU Permeance for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture with Gelled Ionic Liquid-Based Membranes
• University of Kentucky Research Foundation: A Solvent-Membrane Hybrid Post-combustion CO2 Capture Process for Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants
• University of Notre Dame: CO2 Capture with Ionic Liquids Involving Phase Change