Carbon Capture Facility Starts Operations at Southern Company’s Plant Barry in Alabama

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America declared that a 25 MW carbon capture and sequestration facility at Plant Barry power plant of Southern Company has commenced operations.

Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, owns and operates Plant Barry located in Mobile, Alabama.

The carbon capture plant, recognized as the largest facility of its kind in the world, uses the KM CDR Process capture technology, which was co-developed by The Kansai Electric Power and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Southern Company partnered in the development of the carbon capture facility, which can capture nearly 500 tons of CO₂ per day in a deep saline geologic form for permanent underground storage.

The KM CDR Process technology utilizes a unique solvent known as KS-1 to entrap CO₂ from a flue gas stack. During the process, the solvent reacts and entraps the CO₂, which can be isolated from the solvent and compressed for transportation through pipeline.

The Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership will transport the captured CO₂ through a pipeline to the Citronelle Oil Field where the gas will be injected 9,500 ft. below the ground. This process makes the gas to be stored permanently in the geologic formation. Denbury Resources is the operator of the Citronelle Oil Field.

The President and Chief Executive Officer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Mitch Morimoto commented that the carbon capture facility is an important landmark and is part of the company’s strategy to promote the KM CDR Process CO₂ technology.