(EnergyAsia, March 7 2012, Wednesday) — US-based Duke Energy said it and China Huaneng Group have signed a three-year agreement expanding their research cooperation in the areas of advanced coal and carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

The agreement builds on a memorandum of understanding the companies signed in 2009 to pursue high-level discussions and information sharing on renewable and clean-energy projects and ideas. Then, China’s largest power producer developed a facility to “economically capture” 120,000 tons of the carbon dioxide emitted each year from its 1,320MW coal-fired Shidongkou power station in China.

The expanded agreement calls for an engineering study to determine the potential feasibility of applying Huaneng’s low-cost carbon capture process at unit 3 of Duke Energy’s Gibson Station in Indiana state in the US. Gibson’s five units have a combined capacity of 3,145 MW.

Duke, an electric utility company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said there are no plans to make any modifications to the power plant at this stage of the study.

Funding for the project will be provided by the US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) that was established by the two countries in 2009 for such collaborative endeavours.

The two companies will create a joint working group that will soon begin meeting to start work on the project. 

David Mohler, chief technology officer of Duke Energy, said:

“We’re very excited to explore the possibilities of Huaneng Group’s technology here in the US. Our assessment will help put this technology in context with other options,” he added.

Jiang Minhua, assistant president of China Huaneng Group, said:

“The carbon capture technology is well-proven, and cost-effective. We are keen to work with Duke Energy in exploring the feasibility of large-scale carbon capture, utilisation and sequestration.”