By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

WILSONVILLE— Clad in vibrant yellow vests, multi-colored hard hats and protective glasses, members of the Greater Shelby Chamber took a tour of Southern Company’s National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville June 29.

The quarterly industry tour invited chamber members out for a presentation by Southern Company personnel related to the organization’s day-to-day activities, as well as a tour of part of the facility.

Southern Company research engineer Michele Corser explained the NCCC responds to the call for the development of cost-effective Carbon Dioxide capture technologies for coal-fired power generation.

“That’s what we do at the National Carbon Capture Center,” she said. “We need the carbon capture because of climate change. Our nation is concerned about climate change and they believe that greenhouse gas emissions are a major contributor.”

The center is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and also provides first-class facilities to test developers’ technologies for extended periods under commercially representative conditions with coal-derived flue gas and syngas.

By doing so, the facility helps to accelerate the development of cost-effective Carbon Dioxide capture technologies and ensures continued use of coal for power generation.

“We partner with many different countries because this is not just something the U.S. is interested in doing,” Corser said. “This is something worldwide.”

The chamber members weren’t the only visitors to the plant June 29. Grad students from the University of Texas at Austin and Ohio State were both there, along with representative from testing organizations, such as General Electric.

At any given time, the NCCC can have companies, such as Chevron or the National Engineering Test Lab, as well as small private companies.

“You would be proud to know right here in Shelby County, every year, we have people from all over the globe come right here to work with us, to look at technology, to visit,” said process engineer Doug McCarty. “I’ve given tours to at least a dozen different countries, this year.”