Operators of facilities that burn coal, whether they are producing electricity, steam, or supporting industrial processes, are facing increasingly stringent environmental regulations. ADA Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES) has responded to these changing regulations and our customer's needs through the research and development of new, innovative technologies.

The projected costs of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and sequestration are expected to be much higher than any other pollutant currently regulated.  As part of our corporate mission statement, ADA-ES is dedicated to finding a cost-effective and reliable solution:

"ADA Environmental Solutions develops and commercializes innovative technologies to sustain the viability of coal as a critical national resource. We provide cost-effective products to reduce emissions, increase efficiency and improve the competitive position of our customers . . . ."  - Excerpt from ADA-ES's corporate mission statement

ADA-ES has modeled its approach to CO2 capture on our 20 years of experience developing and commercializing solutions for particulate and mercury control.  We have set the goal of developing a commercially available, cost effective, post-combustion CO2 capture technology by the year 2020. We are currently working on several projects to develop a CO2 capture technology based on solid regenerable sorbents.

ADA-ES is using a multi-phased development plan to meet our commercial goal. In 2008, ADA-ES was awarded a $2.0 million collaborative research and development agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) for CO2 capture research. In addition, we have received $1.2 million in cost share funding and technical guidance from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and several electrical utility companies that will also participate in the research.

The objective of the initial phase of our development process is to assess the viability of solid sorbents as a CO2 capture technology that can be retrofit to the existing fleet of coal-fired power plants.  An important part of this process is to accelerate the development of solid sorbents and the related process and equipment. The end goal of the initial phase of work is to confirm that a solid sorbent-based CO2 capture process has the potential to be a less expensive alternative to other more costly technologies such as conventional aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA).

The initial research program includes sorbent screening at both a laboratory-scale and at a one kilowatt pilot scale using a slipstream of actual flue gas from a coal-fired power plant. Another important component of the initial stage of our effort is to develop a conceptual design for a full-scale carbon capture system. This conceptual design is being used to conduct a high level cost analysis for the process.

Based on the success of the initial phase of research and development, in 2010, ADA-ES was awarded a $15 million collaborative agreement from the U.S. DOE, with another $3.75 million in cost share provided by several utility partners, to move the technology development and pilot-scale demonstration phase. Under the multi-year contract, ADA-ES will scale up the technology to a 1 megawatt (~24 tons CO2/ day) pilot-scale using a slipstream of flue gas from a coal-fired power plant and conduct a detailed engineering analysis to provide technology cost estimates for post combustion capture for both power-fired power plants and industrial applications.