Son Of Kemper, Or Kemper II? -- But If It Works, Another Win For GE, San Antonio, TX -- October 17, 2016

Data points from the DOE press release (below):

• $80 million, 6-year project
• San Antonio, TX
• 10-MWe (megawatts electrical)
• supercritical CO2 (sCO2) pilot plant
• General Electric: lead 
• goal: to increase steam Rankine cycle power plant efficiency from sub-30% to 50+ efficiency
• this will be a first

DOE press release:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding up to $80 million for a six-year project to design, build, and operate a 10-MWe (megawatts electrical) supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) pilot plant test facility in San Antonio, TX. The project will be managed by a team led by the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®), and General Electric Global Research (GE-GR).

The new facility will support the future commercialization of sCO2 Brayton cycle energy conversion systems by testing and demonstrating the potential energy efficiency and cost benefits of this technology. Today the average efficiency of the U.S. fleet of steam Rankine cycle power plants is in the lower 30 percent range. This new facility has the potential to demonstrate greater than 50 percent cycle efficiency. If successfully developed, the supercritical CO2 power cycles could provide significant efficiency gains in geothermal, coal, nuclear, and solar thermal power production.

“Supercritical CO2 power systems have the potential to improve the efficiency and reduce the size of future power plants significantly. Smaller size and increased efficiency can lead to lower costs and fewer greenhouse gas emissions,” said Franklin Orr, DOE’s Under Secretary for Science and Energy. “The selection of this test facility will help to further our nation’s climate goals by bringing us one step closer to deploying this exciting technology on a commercial scale.”

Currently, no commercially-feasible sCO2 facility exists for high temperature and high-efficiency system testing. The 10-MWe test facility developed under the selected project will serve as an opportunity for industry and government to work together to develop and mature the sCO2 power cycles at the pilot-scale, bringing it one step closer to commercialization.

Supercritical CO2 is carbon dioxide that is above its critical temperature and pressure so that it is in a fluid state, enabling a power plant to generate the same amount of electricity from less fuel when compared to traditional steam and water (Rankine cycle) systems commonly used today. This, in turn, decreases CO2 emissions and operating costs. Furthermore, because sCO2 has a high-fluid density relative to steam, sCO2 power plants may be fitted with compact turbomachinery, which would help to reduce capital costs.

The information generated through this project has the potential to inform scale-ups for larger scale demonstrations in the future. While sCO2 technology has been proven in a lab setting, this pilot project will provide important data on potential challenges of operating it on a larger scale. It will also provide an opportunity to test the performance of the system's components when operated on a continuous and fully integrated basis.

The project is part of DOE’s sCO2 crosscutting initiative that includes the Offices of Fossil Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and Nuclear Energy. This collaborative effort seeks to reduce the technical barriers and risks to commercializing the sCO2 power cycle, with a common goal of establishing a 10 MWe scale Supercritical Transformational Electric Power facility for evaluating the power cycle and component performance over a range of operating conditions.

The Office of Fossil Energy funds research, development and demonstration projects to reduce the risk and cost of advanced carbon technologies and further the sustainable use of the Nation’s fossil resources.

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CLR's Traxel 1-31H: The Surface Owner Should Get The Use Of His/Her Land Back

A reader sent me the following screenshot: note that the pumper, et al, have been removed from this CLR pad. This well never did much. For all intents and purposes, it was a dry well.

From the June 17, 2015, daily activity report:  CLR plugged / abandoned one producer: Traxel 1-31, in Mercer County (#17877). The original permit was issued in 2008. This well was truly a wildcat, and well off the beaten path; not much activity in this area. CLR probable learned a lot about the geology in this area, but an expensive lesson.

• 17877, 84, CLR, Traxel 1-31H, Wildcat/Beaver Creek Bay, Mercer County; s8/09; t12/09; cum 12K 12/13; even so, it continues to show up on the NDIC dockets requesting spacing and permission to develop; I don't get it, but if this well ever pans out, ..... [it did not]

Out in the middle of nowhere, south of the reservation, due east of Killdeer (you may have to click on the image to see it better):

Five hundred miles away from home:

500 Miles Away From Home, Bobby Bare
Traxel was only 22 miles southeast of Watford City. That's all the bigger the Bakken is. Wow. Twenty-two miles as the bald eagle flies, but it probably felt like 500 miles to the roughnecks driving there from Watford City or Williston.