Reflecting its growing leadership in carbon capture technology innovation, the National Carbon Capture Center – which is managed and operated by Southern Company – has welcomed ExxonMobil as a new partner. As the first major oil and gas producer to sponsor the project, ExxonMobil’s participation marks the center’s growing focus on advancing carbon capture technologies for natural gas power plants.
“Collaboration and outreach to new partners and technology developers is a key part of Southern Company’s industry-leading approach to research and development,” said John Northington, National Carbon Capture Center director. “Gaining the endorsement, support and investment of an important stakeholder like ExxonMobil is a great honor and will aid us in exploring and accelerating exciting new breakthroughs in carbon capture.”
A U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored research facility, the National Carbon Capture Center has become nationally and internationally recognized for its work to take early stage carbon capture technologies out of the laboratory and demonstrate them in the real-world operating conditions of a power plant. Through this approach, the center furthers development of the most promising, cost-effective technologies for scale-up and full commercial deployment. The center is currently planning new infrastructure to expand its testing of carbon capture technologies for natural gas combustion sources.
“Our partnership with the National Carbon Capture Center represents another important facet of our broad research and development program,” said Bruce H. March, president of the ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. “The center, which is an example of our numerous partnerships around the world to help advance various technologies, provides an important venue for helping to accelerate commercialization of advanced carbon capture technologies by creating a collaborative environment to share research results across the energy sector.”
Since its creation as a neutral research facility in 2009, the National Carbon Capture Center has worked with over 30 government, industry, university and research organizations from seven countries. In 2017, the facility surpassed 100,000 hours of technology testing. Through the pilot testing and development of over 60 technologies, the center has already reduced the projected cost of carbon capture by one-third.