The Clean Energy Research Institute was formed by Huaneng Power International Inc., the largest power company in the world. Under the memorandum of understanding, the Laboratory will create a stronger relationship with Huaneng and both parties will conduct research analysis and data exchange as established under the US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) that was set up last year.

Specifically, LLNL brings expertise in CCS, advanced material science, engineering and design and energy systems analysis. LLNL has a strong relationship with the Chinese through the CERC, a project that facilitates joint research and development of clean energy technologies including CCS by the United States and China.

Huaneng operates GreenGen (earlier post), the first large-scale coal-fueled power plant to employ integrated CCS. In addition, the company has operated the world’s largest CCS pilot at the Shanghai Shidongkou Coal Power Plant, which uses about 15 megawatts of energy to capture 120,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year. Julio Friedmann, LLNL’s director of the carbon management program, said Huaneng plans to scale up to produce 600 megawatts of energy and sequester up to 2.5 million tons of CO₂ per year.

Livermore has a long history in CCS technology by blending computer science, geology, ecology, atmospheric science and other disciplines to find solutions to a number of challenges facing the development and safe operation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities. Areas that Livermore specializes in are: development of novel CO₂ capture technologies and processes; evaluating strategies for the co-production of water; predicting the consequences of releases of CO₂; simulating subsurface pressure build-up; modeling reactive transport of CO₂ in groundwater; monitoring CO₂ plumes in subsurface; and characterizing and assessing subsurface geology.