本文转自《Utility Dive》发表的题为“Congress, DOE continue carbon capture push, but utilities wary”的报道。

日期：2018.05.25

原文链接：https://www.utilitydive.com/news/congress-doe-continue-carbon-capture-push-but-utilities-wary/524375/

Despite Trump administration support for coal and the newly extended tax incentive for carbon capture, the technology to reduce carbon emissions is too expensive for most utilities.

尽管特朗普政府支持煤炭以及新扩大的碳捕集税收激励措施，但对于大多数公用事业来说，减少碳排放的技术太昂贵了。

Carbon capture technology is touted as a way to reduce the emissions of fossil fuel burning power plants, but it comes at a high cost.

碳捕集技术被吹捧为减少化石燃料燃烧发电厂排放的一种方式，但其成本很高。

To spur investment in the technology, Congress passed in February an extension of a carbon capture tax credit, known as 45Q, as part of the budget. However, the tax incentive isn’t garnering enthusiasm from power generators, who say the technology is still too expensive and lack sufficient policy drivers to reduce their emissions.

为激励对该技术的投资，国会在2月份通过了一项名为45Q的碳捕获税收抵免的法案，作为预算的一部分。 然而，税收激励并没有引起发电商的热情，他们认为该技术仍然过于昂贵，缺乏足够的减排政策驱动因素。

This may be surprising, considering the breadth of support that the technology has garnered from the Trump administration for its application at coal-fired power plants, following President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to save coal.

考虑到唐纳德特朗普总统的在竞选中承诺要节约煤炭，特朗普政府为CCUS技术在燃煤电厂的应用提供了广泛支持，这可能令人惊讶。

The recent changes to the 45Q tax incentive, which had bipartisan support in Congress, removed a previous program cap of 75 million tons of stored carbon dioxide (CO2), making it more attractive for projects in development that could count on it being available for several years. Among other changes, Congress also extended the period of eligibility so that to qualify for the credit, construction must begin by January 1, 2024, for projects that would capture CO2, often injecting it into the ground for storage or enhanced oil recovery.

在国会两党支持下，最近对45Q税收激励政策的修改，取消了之前的7500万吨储存二氧化碳（CO2）的项目，使其对发展项目更具吸引力并且这些项目可以在未来数年内获得。在其他变化中，国会还延长了资格期限，以便有资格获得信贷，建设必须从2024年1月1日开始，因为这些项目将捕获二氧化碳，并将其注入地下储存或提高石油采收率。

The bipartisan group of Senators, led by Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., that championed the revision of 45Q are continuing to address challenges in the market implementation of carbon capture. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a new bipartisan bill May 22, meant to enhance carbon capture incentives, supporting research and collaboration in the development of CO2 pipelines and carbon capture facilities.

两党参议员小组由Sens领导。 John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., 以及Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.等支持对45Q的修订来继续应对碳捕获市场实施中的挑战。参议院环境和公共工程委员会5月22日通过了一项新的两党法案，旨在加强碳捕获激励措施，支持开发二氧化碳管道和碳捕集设施的研究和合作。

"I doubt you're going to see wholesale adoption of carbon capture at every coal plant in the country [because of the 45Q] but it is an enormous first step."

 Hunter Johnston

Partner at Steptoe & Johnson

“我怀疑你们会在全国所有的煤炭工厂大规模采用碳捕集技术（因为45Q），但这是一个巨大工程的第一步。”—— Hunter Johnston

However, gas prices, which most analysts expect to remain low for the foreseeable future, are bad news for the prospects of carbon capture in the absence of any strong federal restrictions on carbon.

然而，大多数分析师预计在可预见的未来，天然气价格仍将维持在低位，这对于在没有任何强有力的碳排放限制的情况下捕获碳的前景来说是坏消息。

Some carbon capture experts say that given the growing state-level and shareholder interest in lowering emissions, many utilities will continue to consider the carbon capture proposition.

一些碳捕集专家说，鉴于国家层面和股东对降低排放的兴趣不断增加，许多公用事业公司将继续考虑碳捕获的提议。

Plant owners could certainly look at the longer term benefits to reduce carbon emissions, “which can be mitigated through a post-combustion capture system,” Roger Ballentine, president of the consulting group Green Strategies, told Utility Dive.

绿色战略咨询公司总裁Roger Ballentine告诉公用事业公司：“工厂所有者当然可以考虑减少碳排放的长期效益，”这可以通过燃烧后捕集系统来缓解。“

As it stands, while other industries are interested in using the carbon capture incentive, utilities aren’t very interested in 45Q.

目前，其他行业有意使用碳捕集激励措施，公用事业公司对45Q并不感兴趣。

"I doubt you're going to see wholesale adoption of carbon capture at every coal plant in the country [because of the 45Q] but it is an enormous first step," Hunter Johnston, partner at Steptoe & Johnson and counsel to a proposed carbon capture and storage facility in Louisiana, told Utility Dive.

“我怀疑你们会在全国所有的煤炭工厂大规模采用碳捕集技术（因为45Q），但这是一个巨大工程的第一步，”Steptoe＆Johnson的合伙人兼拟议的碳法律顾问Hunter Johnston在路易斯安那州提议的碳捕获和存储设施，他这样告诉公用事业潜水者。

Southern Company will not be using 45Q, CEO Tom Fanning told Utility Dive in April, "or if we do, it will be very marginal."

南方公司将不会使用45Q，首席执行官Tom Fanning在4月份告诉实用潜水公司，“或者如果我们这样做，这将是非常边缘的。”

Southern does not operate a carbon capture facility but has experience with the technology, including the abandoned coal gasification and carbon capture efforts at its Kemper County plant in Mississippi. Still, Fanning said carbon capture will remain a part of the company’s future.

南方不运营碳捕集设施，但拥有该技术的经验，包括在密西西比州Kemper县工厂的废弃煤气化和碳捕获工作。 Fanning说，碳捕获仍将是公司未来的一部分。

The Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), a think tank established by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, released a report May 23 about the expansion of the 45Q tax credit. The report identified several limitations to deploying carbon capture at coal or natural gas generation facilities. Primarily, the high cost of new or retrofitted carbon capture projects will likely exceed the value of the credits.

由前能源部长Ernest Moniz建立的智囊团能源期货协会（EFI）于5月23日发布了一份关于扩大45Q税收抵免的报告。该报告确定了在煤炭或天然气发电设施部署碳捕集的几个限制。首先，新的或改造后的碳捕集项目的高成本可能会超过信贷的价值。

"Other market factors, such as facility age, configuration and performance, as well as market structures for cost recovery, also will limit applicability,” the EFI authors wrote.

EFI的作者写道：“其他市场因素，如设施的使用年限，配置和性能，以及成本回收的市场结构，也会限制适用性。

If the 45Q does not entirely make up the cost of constructing a carbon capture system, electric utilities will have to wait for a better value proposition, such as a price on CO2 emissions that would drive the need for carbon capture.

如果45Q不能完全弥补建设碳捕集系统的成本，电力公司将不得不等待更好的价值主张，比如二氧化碳排放的价格会推动碳捕获的需求。

Trying to hold back the ocean

试图阻止海洋

The Trump administration has pledged to bring back coal and increase the economic proposition of coal-burning power plants. But can carbon capture and other technologies return the country to a point where coal generated 40% of electricity?

特朗普政府承诺将恢复煤炭发电，并增加燃煤电厂的经济主张。 但是碳捕获和其他技术能否使该国恢复到煤炭发电量的40％吗？

Ballentine said that the administration’s efforts are futile.

Ballentine说，政府的努力是徒劳的。

"They’re trying to hold back the ocean, that’s not going to work," Ballentine said. "The market signals are too strong."

“他们试图阻止海洋，这是行不通的，”Ballentine说。 “市场信号太强。”

Carbon capture coal-burning plant infrastructure at Fort Bend County, Texas. Credit:  NRG Energy

碳捕集火力发电厂的基础设施，在德克萨斯州的本特县。

Still, the Department of Energy (DOE) continues to fund research on commercial-scale storage of more than 50 million metric tons of carbon per site. For perspective, 45Q requires power utilities to capture a minimum of 500,000 metric tons of CO2 annually per project, which can be stored or utilized. Last fall, the DOE announced about $36 million of financial assistance for advanced carbon capture technologies.

尽管如此，能源部（DOE）将继续资助每个地点超过5000万公吨碳商业规模储存的研究。从长远来看，45Q要求电力公司每个项目每年至少捕获50万公吨的二氧化碳，这些CO2可以存储或利用。去年秋天，美国能源部宣布了为先进的碳捕获技术提供约3600万美元的援助。

On May 24, DOE announced that its Office of Fossil Energy selected three projects for cost-shared research to be managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The projects will receive nearly $30 million in federal funding. Also on May 24, the DOE launched initiatives on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and on nuclear innovation. The CCUS initiative will focus on building collaborative partnerships between the public and private sectors, calling the technology critical to reducing CO2 emissions from fossil-fueled power plants.

美国能源部于5月24日宣布，其化石能源办公室选择了三个项目进行成本分摊研究，由国家能源技术实验室负责管理。这些项目将获得近3000万美元的联邦资助。同样在5月24日，美国能源部启动了碳捕获，利用和存储（CCUS）以及核创新举措。 CCUS倡议将侧重于建立公共部门和私营部门之间的合作伙伴关系，称这项技术对减少化石燃料发电厂的二氧化碳排放至关重要。

And on May 23, the DOE opened an inquiry into possible improvements to the country's fleet of coal-based power plants, with emphasis on making them more efficient, flexible and reliable.

5月23日，美国能源部开始对该国煤基发电厂的改进进行调查，重点是提高效率，灵活性和可靠性。

"The ability to reduce the carbon emissions from a plant certainly is a de-risking factor, because I think most plant owners agree that the likelihood of some carbon control or carbon pricing is still very, very real," Ballentine said.

Ballentine说：“减少工厂碳排放量的能力当然是一个降低风险的因素，因为我认为大多数工厂拥有者都认同碳控制或碳定价的可能性仍然非常真实。

But, in leaving the Paris climate agreement, the Trump administration moved farther from such restrictions.

但是，在实现巴黎气候协议过程中，特朗普政府采取了进一步的措施。

Due to the costly investment and lack of additional regulatory motivation to invest in the technology that would reduce the greenhouse gas, coal-plant operators aren’t expected to jump for the 45Q. Even if the technology is already proven.

由于昂贵的投资和缺乏额外的监管机理政策来投资减少温室气体的技术，煤电运营商预计不会在45Q政策政策支撑下变得积极主动，即使这项技术已被证实。

Petra Nova: You can have it all

Petra Nova：你可以拥有一切

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), there are only two operating electricity generators in the world that use carbon capture and sequestration: Petra Nova, near Houston, Texas, and Boundary Dam plant in Saskatchewan, Canada.

根据能源信息管理局（EIA）的资料，全球只有两家使用碳捕获和封存的运行发电机组：位于德克萨斯州休斯敦附近的Petra Nova和加拿大萨斯喀彻温省的Boundary Dam工厂。

Petra Nova is a joint venture between NRG Energy and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration and serves as a success story for carbon capture in power generation. Petra Nova involved retrofitting a post-combustion CO2 capture system onto a 654 MW capacity unit of a coal-fired plant and transferring the captured CO2 to a nearby oil field for enhanced oil recovery.

Petra Nova是NRG Energy与JX Nippon石油天然气勘探公司的合资企业，是发电领域碳捕获的成功案例。 Petra Nova涉及将燃烧后二氧化碳捕集系统改造为燃煤电厂的654兆瓦容量单元，并将捕获的二氧化碳转移至附近的油田以提高采收率。

Petra Nova project, retrofitted onto Unit 8 of WA Parish plant.  Credit: NRG Energy

Petar Nova项目

The program is regarded as a success for stripping 90% of the CO2 emissions from a flue gas slipstream, which is about 33% of the total emissions from the WA Parish coal-fired plant’s unit, according to the EIA. The process itself is energy intensive.

根据环境影响评估报告，该计划被视为一项成功措施，用于从烟道气尾流中去除90％的二氧化碳排放量，该排放量约为WA教区燃煤电厂机组总排放量的33％。这个过程本身是高能耗的。

Despite its success, the conditions of the plant are not easily replicated. First, it’s perfectly located next to oil fields that can use the captured carbon. Certain oil fields will react better to CO2 injections, increasing the amount of crude oil being extracted from the ground. This creates an additional way to monetize CO2, besides the 45Q credit.

尽管取得了成功，但工厂的条件并不容易复制。首先，它位于可以使用捕获的碳的油田旁边。某些油田对二氧化碳注入的反应会更好，从而增加了从地下提取的原油量。除45Q法案外，这还创造了另一种CO2货币化方式。

One of the key considerations for power utilities looking at carbon capture will be "the ability to move that CO2 to an appropriate oil field," Ballentine said.

Ballentine说，电力企业考虑碳捕集的一个关键考虑因素是“将二氧化碳转移到适当的油田的能力”。

Second, Petra Nova is a merchant plant, without financing from ratepayers.Regulated generation facilities could still see these types of retrofits, but their case for such a big investment would likely be tainted by recent failures in the industry.

其次，Petra Nova是一个商业工厂，没有从纳税人那里获得资金。规定的发电设施仍然可以看到这些类型的改造，但是对于这么大的投资来说，他们的情况很可能会因行业近期的失败而受到污染。

For instance, Mississippi Power abandoned plans to use carbon capture technology at its Kemper power plant in June 2017. The plant was meant to burn lignite coal along with natural gas. But it operated primarily as a combined-cycle natural gas plant after failing to implement its coal gasification process, which would reduce carbon emissions from the resource.

例如，密西西比电力公司于2017年6月放弃了在其Kemper电厂使用碳捕集技术的计划。该工厂旨在将褐煤与天然气一起燃烧。但由于未能实施煤气化过程，主要作为联合循环天然气工厂运行，这将减少资源的碳排放。

Kemper cost Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, a hefty amount, running behind schedule and with expected construction costs that reached $7.5 billion. State regulators allowed the utility to collect $112.6 million from ratepayers for the Kemper facility. Mississippi Power had sought to collect $200 million.

Kemper花费南方公司的子公司密西西比电力公司的资金，数量巨大，计划进度落后，预计建设成本达到75亿美元。州监管机构允许该公用事业单位向Kemper工厂的纳税人收取1.126亿美元。密西西比电力公司曾试图收取2亿美元。

"Among those who haven’t analyzed the differences between the [CCS] plants to a significant degree, there was a lot of bad press and a lot of bad feelings around Kemper," Ballentine said. He added that the plant tested unique technology, whereas Petra Nova was scaling up proven technology for a commercial-scale.

Ballentine说：“那些没有在很大程度上分析[CCS]植物之间的差异的人当中，Kemper周围出现了很多不良的新闻和许多不好的感受。他补充说，该工厂测试了独特的技术，而Petra Nova正在扩大商业规模的成熟技术。

Petra Nova’s circumstances made carbon capture ideal at a coal-fired power plant. But the technology, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, can be applied to any post-combustion system at a fossil fuel plant, including oil and natural gas.

New company powered by 45Q

由45Q法案提供动力的新公司

A new type of natural gas plant has been under construction in La Porte, Texas, sited there due to its proximity to oxygen pipelines. NET Power’s plant is a pilot for natural gas power generators that will use the oxy-combustion process and a closed supercritical CO2 loop to collect nearly pure CO2.

由于靠近输氧管道，位于德克萨斯州La Porte的新型天然气厂正在建设中。 NET Power的工厂是一个天然气发电机的试点项目，该发电机将使用富氧燃烧过程和封闭的超临界二氧化碳循环来收集几乎纯净的二氧化碳。

 NET Power's pilot natural gas plant with an oxy-combustion carbon capture system in La Porte, Texas. Credit: 8 Rivers Capital

Net Power 的试验天然气厂和一个富氧燃烧碳捕获系统，在La Porte市

NET Power is a joint venture among 8 Rivers Capital, Exelon Generation and Chicago Bridge & Iron — which announced a merger with McDermott International earlier this month.

NET Power是8 Rivers Capital，Exelon Generation和Chicago Bridge＆Iron的合资企业，该公司于本月早些时候宣布与McDermott International合并。

"To get further to a deep decarbonization in the electricity sector over the next several decades," the natural gas sector needs to be decarbonized in a cost effective way, said Ballentine, who serves on the board of 8 Rivers.

“为了在未来几十年进一步深化电力行业的脱碳，”天然气行业需要以具有成本效益的方式进行脱碳，8 Rivers的董事会成员Ballentine表示。

"One of the answers to that is going to be building gas plants on a zero emission basis from the get-go, using Allam Cycle technology," which is the proprietary technology that NET Power is using, Ballentine said.

Ballentine表示：“其中一个答案是，将使用Allam Cycle技术从零开始建立天然气工厂，这是NET Power正在使用的专有技术。”

The pilot is being made at a tenth of the size of the first commercial-sized oxy-combustion natural gas plant, which will collect 890,000 metric tons of CO2 a year, according to NET Power spokesman Walker Dimmig.

根据NET Power发言人Walker Dimmig的说法，该试点项目的规模为第一座商业规模的富氧燃烧天然气厂的十分之一，该厂每年将收集890,000公吨二氧化碳。

Dimmig said the commercial-sized projects from NET Power will be taking advantage of 45Q. Net Power estimates that their larger plants will be cost competitive the more traditional combined-cycle natural gas plants.

Dimmig表示，NET Power的商业规模项目将利用45Q。 Net Power估计，与传统的联合循环天然气工厂相比，他们的大型工厂将具有成本竞争力。

While the pilot is sited next to an oxygen pipeline for convenience, the commercial-sized plants can be sited anywhere by being outfitted with a cryogenic air separation unit. Dimmig said the company plans to monetize other byproducts of the cryogenic air separator as well, such as nitrogen.

尽管为方便起见，飞行员位于氧气管道附近，但商业规模的工厂可通过安装低温空气分离装置安装在任何地方。 Dimmig表示，该公司计划将低温空气分离器的其他副产品（如氮气）货币化。

Unlike the post-combustion or pre-combustion carbon capture systems, oxy-combustion strips CO2 a lot easier, by cooling down the gas and separating water from CO2. Therefore, it avoids having to separate gaseous molecules from the flue gas.

与燃烧后捕集或预燃碳捕集系统不同的是，富氧燃烧通过冷却气体并将水与CO2分离而更容易地去除CO2。因此，它避免了必须从烟气中分离气态分子。

The question remains if low power prices would create sufficient economic incentives for natural gas plants with oxy-combustion carbon capture.

问题在于，如果低氧电价能够为含氧燃烧碳捕获的天然气工厂带来足够的经济激励措施。

"Even gas plants are having trouble bidding on prices in some competitive markets," Steptoe’s Johnston said.

“即使天然气工厂在竞争激烈的市场上也会遇到麻烦，”Steptoe的约翰斯顿说。

But NET Power believes their efficiency will be widely applied after the pilot plant’s technology is proven. In addition to selling byproducts from the air separation process, 45Q will help make their gas plants economically viable "even in some of the more depressed power markets," Dimmig said.

但NET Power相信，在试点工厂的技术得到证实后，其效率将得到广泛应用。 Dimmig说，除了销售空分过程中的副产品外，45Q还将帮助他们的天然气工厂在经济上可行，“即使在一些更为低迷的电力市场中”。

Experts have said that investing in technology to lower CO2 emissions in the power sector is not practical when those emissions are not being regulated.

专家们表示，当这些排放没有受到管制时，投资技术来降低电力行业的二氧化碳排放量是不现实的。

"If you can put carbon in the atmosphere for free, why snap [CCS] on?" Howard Herzog, senior research engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative, told Utility Dive last year.

“如果你可以免费将碳置于大气中，为什么要打开[CCS]？”麻省理工学院能源计划高级研究工程师Howard Herzog去年告诉实用潜水者。