North Dakota Energy Potential -- A Reader -- July 8, 2018

A reader writes:

The Allam Cycle plant has been successfully tested in Texas. North Dakota is carefully watching.

I see several blogs are critical because the CO2 has to be sequestered after it is captured.

I think North Dakota could figure out what to do with the CO2.

North Dakota could produce "clean electricity" with coal using the Allam Cycle and using excess CO2 to enhance oil and gas production. I think this will mean we should stop thinking of North Dakota producing energy for 50 years and start thinking in terms of 200 years.

Other readers are watching the same thing. One of the leaders of CO2 enhancement of crude oil production in North Dakota/Montana is Denbury Resources.

With regard to the Allam Cycle in Texas, see this article over at Vox, dated June 1, 2018.

Back in April of 2016, I wrote about an exciting new technology for which construction was just getting underway: the Net Power natural gas power plant.

It promised to capture its own carbon dioxide emissions, not in a separate, expensive, power-intensive process like conventional carbon-capture facilities, but as part of the combustion cycle. The company claimed that the technology will ultimately enable it to produce power at prices cheaper than conventional fossil fuel power plants — with carbon capture built in.

Net Power had just started work on a small, 50 MW power plant in La Porte, Texas, meant to demonstrate that the technology can work.

As of last year, the plant completed construction.

And as of this week, it has achieved “first fire” and is running a battery of tests meant to ensure that everything is working up to snuff.

If all goes well — lead designer and chemical engineer Rodney Allam recently told Nature, “we’re still smiling” — the plant will begin generating electricity in earnest later this year. The company plans to build another 300 MW plant for sometime in 2020.

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And Now The Real Fun Begins

All times above are central time. It's 4:46 a.m. in Moscow right now; it's 8:46 a.m. in Texas right now. So a 1:00 p.m. game here in Texas means the game starts at 9:00 p.m. in Moscow (?). 

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Mandolin Wind