Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne received a $1 million federal contract to study an economical way to capture greenhouse gases from coal-fired plants. The feasibility study is phase one in a two-phase project by the U.S. Department of Energy. Canoga Park-based Pratt & Whitney is reviewing oxy-fuel combustion, a process that generates electricity by burning fuel using pure oxygen instead of air. “The goal is to capture more than 90 percent of produced carbon dioxide with no more than a 35 percent increase in electricity costs,” said Neeta Patel, director of Energy Systems at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, in a prepared statement. The second phase of the project will be developing and testing a pilot energy plant using oxy-fuel combustion. Mark R. Madler
