Hitachi Announces Partnership with SaskPower on Test Facility for CO2 Capture Technology

March 20, 2012

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Hitachi Announces Partnership with SaskPower
on Test Facility for CO2 Capture Technology

Saskatoon Saskatchewan, March 20, 2012 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT/TSE: 6501, "Hitachi") announced today that the Company has agreed to collaborate with Saskatchewan Power Corporation ("SaskPower") to jointly construct a Carbon Capture Test Facility, ("CCTF"). The test facility will be a part of SaskPower's larger "Clean Coal Project", which is a comprehensive initiative to select and apply emerging carbon capture technologies to coal fired power plants to manage their emission of greenhouse gases.

In this project equipment to capture CO2 will be installed at SaskPower's Shand Power Station (298MW), which is located near the city of Estevan, Saskatchewan. SaskPower and Hitachi will jointly invest 5 billion yen to cover the cost of the project. Operations of the CCTF will begin mid 2014.

While the demand for electric power is increasing in Canada, power companies are being required to implement countermeasures against global warming, including measures to suppress CO2 emissions, and to reinforce these initiatives, Canada is currently promoting the development of CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage) technology and the implementation of demonstration projects as a national strategy. SaskPower, in line with this initiative, is currently constructing a world leading, large CO2 capture and storage demonstration project at the Boundary Dam Power Station. Hitachi was selected to supply the steam turbine and generator for this carbon capture and storage demonstration project and will build the crucial system that is needed to efficiently supply the steam required for the CO2 capture and storage equipment.

Hitachi began researching and developing technology to capture CO2 in the 1990s and since then, the company has conducted demonstration projects using its own research equipment as well as domestic and overseas pilot facilities. SaskPower's experience in integrating CCS into commercial projects combined with Hitachi's expertise in Carbon Capture Technology will contribute to a comprehensive evaluation and demonstration of the equipment's overall reliability, economic feasibility, and the necessary properties to scale-up to a large, commercial-scale facility. Hitachi will produce and supply its CO2 capture solvent (H3-1) and the main equipment for the facility. The Hitachi Group companies Babcock-Hitachi K.K. (President : Tetsuro Wakino) and Hitachi Canadian Industries Ltd. (President and CEO : Tom Kishchuk) at the Province of Saskatchewan will be in charge of production and supply.

Through this demonstration project with SaskPower, Hitachi will focus on achieving commercial operations, reducing costs, realizing innovative technologies, and will contribute to the realization of a low-carbon society.

Hitachi is also deepening its collaboration with the province of Saskatchewan through exchange activities sponsored by the Japan Coal Energy Center and the Coal Division of the Natural Resources and Fuel Department of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and will further endeavor to contribute to this mission.

Overview of the CCTF Demonstration Project

Amount of CO2 that is captured	120 tons/day
Equipment Installation Site	Shand Power Station (Coal-Fired Thermal Power Station)
CO2 Capturing Process	Chemical Scrubbing
Evaluation Items	CO2 capture efficiency, energy usage, reliability, etc.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totaled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Duke Energy & Carbon Sequestration

News release from Duke Energy:


Duke Energy and China Huaneng Group Expand Cooperation to Develop Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies
Feb. 13, 2012

LOS ANGELES -
Duke Energy and China Huaneng Group have signed a new, three-year agreement expanding their research cooperation in the areas of advanced coal and carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

The two parties initially signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2009 to pursue high-level discussions and information sharing on a number of renewable and clean-energy fronts. In 2009, Huaneng Group developed a facility that economically captured 120,000 tons of the carbon dioxide per year emitted from the 1,320-megawatt coal-fired Shidongkou power station in China.

The expanded agreement signed today calls for an engineering study to determine the potential feasibility of applying Huaneng Group’s low-cost carbon capture process at unit 3 of Duke Energy’s Gibson Station in Indiana. There are no plans to make any modifications to the power plant at this stage of the study. There are five units at Gibson with a combined capacity of 3,145 megawatts.

Funding for the project will be provided by the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), which was established by the two countries in 2009 for such collaborative endeavors.

Duke and Huaneng will create a Joint Working Group that will begin meeting in the near future to coordinate the project.

“We’re very excited to explore the possibilities of Huaneng Group’s technology here in the United States,” said David Mohler, chief technology officer of Duke Energy, an electric utility company based in Charlotte, N.C. “Our assessment will help put this technology in context with other options,” he added.

“The carbon capture technology is well-proven, and cost-effective,” said Jiang Minhua, assistant president of China Huaneng Group, China’s largest power producer. “We are keen to work with Duke Energy in exploring the feasibility of large-scale carbon capture, utilization and sequestration.”

About Duke Energy Corporation
Duke Energy is the third largest electric power holding company in the United States, based on kilowatt-hour sales. Its regulated utility operations serve approximately 4 million customers located in five states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky -- representing a population of approximately 11 million people. Duke Energy’s commercial power and international business segments operate diverse power generation assets in North America and Latin America, including a growing portfolio of renewable energy assets in the United States.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: www.duke-energy.com.

About China Huaneng Group
China Huaneng Group is an integrated energy company primarily focused on power generation. The Company is also engaged in sectors of coal, finance, technology R&D, and transportation etc. that support the core business of power. By the end of 2011, China Huaneng Group had total installed capacity of over 125GW, ranking No.1 in China, and No.2 in the world in terms of installed capacity. The company was the first Chinese power producer to join the ranks of Fortune 500 Companies, and ranked 275th in 2011.

The company now has overseas assets in seven countries, Australia, Singapore, Myanmar, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: www.chng.com.cn.

Utility to Purchase Low-Carbon Power from Innovative Clean Coal Plant

Blog post from the U.S. Dept of Energy web site.  The photo doesn't seem to go with the story, except that the photo depicts a coal gasification facility.

Utility to Purchase Low-Carbon Power from Innovative Clean Coal Plant

January 19, 2012 

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated coal gasification in large-scale field experiments at the Rocky Mountain Test Facility (above) near Hanna, Wyoming. Coal gasification and sequestration of the carbon dioxide produced are among the technologies being used in the Texas Clean Energy Project. | Photo courtesy of llnlphotos.

Michael Hess

New Media Specialist, Office of Public Affairs

Carbon emissions for this plant will be...

• less than 10 percent of a conventional coal plant of similar output.
• less than 25 percent of an high-efficiency natural gas-powered power plant.

The Department of Energy is working with industry to keep the United States at the forefront of carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies. An innovative clean coal demonstration project in Texas, supported by the Department’s Office of Fossil Energy, recently took a big step forward.  

The Energy Department announced that CPS Energy of San Antonio will purchase approximately 200 megawatts of power annually from the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) when the facility is complete in 2015. The $2.4 billion plant will receive $450 million in funding from the Department’s Clean Coal Power Initiative; of this, $211 million comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
This is the first purchase in the United States of low-carbon power from a power plant that uses carbon capture technology.

When operational, the 400-MW facility located just west of Midland-Odessa, Texas, will be the cleanest coal-fueled power plant in the world. Using a state-of-the-art process known as integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from this plant will be less than 10 percent of a conventional coal plant with similar energy output, and less than 25 percent of a high-efficiency natural gas-powered power plant.

It will also be capable of capturing 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) it produces, as well as 99 percent of sulfur dioxide, 90 percent of nitrogen oxide, and 99 percent of mercury.

In the gasification process, coal is not burned as if you were shoveling coal into a furnace or a steam locomotive boiler. Instead, the coal is sealed in a gasifier -- an airtight chamber that allows only controlled amounts of oxygen to enter. Starved for oxygen, the coal bakes rather than ignites and creates enough heat and pressure in the chamber to squeeze hydrogen and carbon monoxide out of the coal. The gases squeezed from the coal are then processed into synthetic gas, or syngas.

Next, water vapor is added to the syngas, which chemically reacts with the carbon monoxide to create additional hydrogen and also carbon dioxide. The gas is then cleaned of impurities, and separated into pure streams of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen powers an advanced turbine to generate electricity and its carbon-free exhaust heats water to generate steam that’s fed to a turbine to produce even more electricity.

Of the nearly 2.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to be captured annually at the Texas plant, 83 percent will be used in the West Texas Permian Basin for enhanced oil recovery -- a technique where carbon dioxide is pumped into a known reservoir where it expands and forces the oil out of the well. The rest of the captured carbon dioxide will go to producing urea -- a valuable compound with many industrial applications.

Today, approximately 80 percent of the energy consumed in the United States comes from coal, petroleum, and natural gas, with coal-fired power plants accounting for approximately half of the electricity generated. The implementation of clean, state-of-the-art coal-based technologies will help ensure America’s energy security while mitigating the environmental impacts of fossil fuel use.