Gillette’s Dry Fork Station Could Become World’s Largest Carbon Capture Plant

An energy research association and a California filtration business have received millions from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue developing a project in Gillette that could make Dry Fork the largest carbon capture power plant in the world.

A research lab located on the doorstep of the Dry Fork Station power plant about 10 miles north of Gillette could become the catalyst for boosting coal burning fuel in the future.

A strategic partnership between an energy research organization associated with the University of Wyoming and a California filtration business received $4.6 million Thursday from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue cutting-edge work on capturing and storing carbon dioxide at one of the nation’s youngest coal-fired power plants.

Newark, California-based Membrane Technology and Research Inc. (MTR), and UW’s School of Energy Resources (SER) are working on a pilot project to test out their work at the nearly 500-megawatt Dry Fork plant owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative in North Dakota.

The pilot project could tee up for commercial applications to capture carbon dioxide and for storing the gas emitted from power plants and industrial factories, said Fred McLaughlin, director of SER’s Center for Economic Geology Research.

“We feel like we are at a breaking point,” McLaughlin told Cowboy State Daily.

Construction began last year on MTR’s large pilot plant at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC), located adjacent to the power generation station that became operational 13 years ago.