Chambana Sun

Power generation without increasing greenhouse gas emissions could be an option for utility companies to continue using natural gas and lessening their contribution to the global warming problem. 

That’s the vision of Net Power, a startup with plans to build new natural gas power plants that capture and bury the emissions deep underground. 

The startup has developed technology that burns natural gas in oxygen with a new kind of turbine that produces carbon dioxide and water as the byproducts. Net Power licensed their technology to 8 Rivers Capital LLC. This developer will work with Archer-Daniels-Midlands Co. to replace the emissions of a coal power plant in Illinois. 

"Congrats to Decatur! Great for Central Illinois Jobs! I filed legislation earlier this year to encourage more job creation like this in our region," Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Champaign) wrote in a Facebook post on April 15 that linked to a report about the plant in Decatur.

The developer is working with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Growth Fund in Colorado for the second plant. The design and development of the two plants are slated for this year, but a final decision is expected next year.

This isn’t the first plant that Net Power has built – they built one in 2018 in Texas that generates around 25 megawatts of power, but plants in Illinois and Colorado will generate up to 280 megawatts of electricity.

The emissions from the Illinois power plant will go into an existing carbon dioxide well that buries emissions from an ethanol production facility.

“Big projects take time,” said Cam Hosie, chief executive officer of 8 Rivers. “The most important thing for the rapid adoption of this technology is going to be that the first projects are successful.”