Environmental Leader released an article on the new, five-year cooperative agreement between the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Southern Company, valued at $187 million. The DOE is contributing $150 million and Southern Company is contributing $37 million.  This combined effort is designed to evaluate advanced carbon-capture and gasification technologies at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, AL.

Specifically, Southern Company will test both pre- and post-combustion carbon-capture technologies, as well as material and processes that support advanced fossil-fuel conversion systems, primarily coal gasification.

Efforts at the NCCC will include:

• Demonstrating integrated coal-based energy technology, like carbon capture, for plants with clean coal technology.

• Developing technologies to be scaled directly to commercial-sized equipment and/or integrated with commercial projects, including those under DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative.

• Advancing lower-cost technologies to capture carbon dioxide while enabling affordable, reliable, and clean coal-based power generation.