Southern Company with DOE expands its focus for NCCC

Strengthening its commitment to energy innovation, Southern Company, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has announced an expanded focus for the National Carbon Capture Center.

The center’s future scope of work for DOE, its National Energy Technology Laboratory and carbon capture innovators is now expected to include testing of carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization and direct air capture (DAC) technologies. Additionally, a major new addition at the center will significantly broaden its testing and evaluation of carbon capture technologies for natural gas power generation.

The center’s work on utilization technologies will help advance applications where CO2 emissions are captured and used to manufacture value-added products like building materials, fuels, plastics, and chemicals. The facility plans to host a Carbon XPRIZE finalist for testing later this year, along with other CO2 utilization research projects.

In addition to advancing next-generation carbon capture technologies, Southern Company leads a geologic sequestration R&D program that has demonstrated the ability to safely store large volumes of anthropogenic CO2 in Environmental Protection Agency-permitted wells. Ongoing research in collaboration with DOE and numerous partners is evaluating carbon source and sink synergies in the Southeast.