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· “Impact of Ambient Air Quality Rule” is “Hot Topic Hour” on December 15, 2011
· Headlines for the December 2, 2011 – Utility E Alert
· Large Potential for Biogas Energy
The “Impact of Ambient Air Quality Rules on Power Plants” is the Subject of the Hot Topic Hour on Thursday December 15, 2011 at 10 am CST
The utility industry is preparing to deal with the Utility MACT due to be promulgated soon and the Cross State Air Pollution (transport) Rule (CSAPR) but the real driver for their pollution control strategy may well be the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The states are now in the process of finalizing and beginning implementation of their SIP’s required to meet the NAAQS. The NAAQS regulations establish standards for CO, lead, NO2, ozone, particulate matter and SO2 all of which (except perhaps CO and lead) can have a significant impact on current or planned facilities combusting fossil fuels to generate electricity. But it may well be the NAAQS PM2.5 standard that will ultimately trump all other rules in terms of efficiency requirements for scrubbers, SCRs and particulate control equipment.
One ton of SO2 reacts to form 13 billion micrograms of sulfates. So just one ton of SO2 emissions will cause nearly 1 billion cubic feet of ambient air to exceed the ambient limit. When the States review the inventory of SO2 emissions they will quickly determine that requiring an increase in SO2 efficiency at power plants to 99 percent will be the most cost effective and certainly most politically acceptable approach. In the Western States, it is nitrates not sulfates that are the biggest contributor to PM2.5 in the air. So the same analogy holds for SCR efficiency. Although fossil-fueled power plants are not the only sources of NOx, SO2 and PM2.5 emissions, they are a major source and are seen as perhaps the easiest source to control. They will therefore, most certainly face state regulations requiring greater reductions of PM2.5 particulates as well as the ozone precursor NOx and SO2. Outlawing all barbecues will be unpalatable compared to additional reductions in utility power plant emissions, and industrial boilers will be next highest on the hit list.
The following speakers will discuss the problems that will be faced by operators of fossil- fueled power plants as a result of the NAAQS for PM2.5, SO2, NO2 and ozone and suggest possible solutions or strategies and courses of action for utilities to consider short of plant closure to deal with these regulations.
Robert Paine, Director Technical Environment at AECOM, will discuss the “Challenges for Modeling Compliance with Short-term NO2 and PM2.5 Ambient Standards.” EPA’s strict ambient standards for NO2 and PM2.5 provide a host of implementation challenges regarding the application of dispersion models to assess compliance. Due to the shrinking margin of compliance associated with these new standards, the skill of regulatory models such as AERMOD is more severely tested, and refined methods to incorporate background concentrations and deal with the need to model numerous background emission sources will need to be developed. This presentation reviews the issues and provides recommendations for refined compliance assessment approaches.
Mr. Gale F. Hoffnagle, CCM, QEP, Senior Vice-President and Technical Director, Air Quality Consulting Practice Manager at TRC Environmental Corporation.
John Kinsman, Senior Director Environment at Edison Electric Institute.
To register for this “Hot Topic Hour” on Thursday, December15, 2011 at 10 a.m. CST, click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/hot_topic_hour_registration.htm.
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Here are the Headlines for the December 2, 2011 – Utility E Alert
UTILITY E-ALERT
#1052 – December 2, 2011
Table of Contents
COAL – US
COAL – WORLD
GAS / OIL – US
GAS / OIL – WORLD
CO2
NUCLEAR
BUSINESS
HOT TOPIC HOUR
§ Upcoming Hot Topic Hours
For more information on the Utility Environmental Upgrade Tracking System, click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/energy.html#42ei.
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Large Potential for Biogas Energy
Biogas projects represent a win-win situation. Not only are pollutants removed but energy is created. A variety of materials can be used to produce biogas. These projects are tracked in McIlvaine’s Renewable Update and Projects.
Veolia Environnement North America (VENA) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the commencement of operations for its new landfill gas-to-energy project (LFGTE) at the Veolia ES Hickory Meadows Landfill, located at Hilbert in eastern Wisconsin. State, community and business leaders gathered at the project site to recognize the environmental and economic benefits of the project for the state of Wisconsin.
This project represents a comprehensive, beginning-to-end environmental solution that begins with the collection of solid waste, continues with the land-filling process and decomposition of matter, progresses through the collection of landfill gas, and ends with the efficient production of clean energy for use by the local utility.
The Hickory Meadows landfill gas-to-energy project has the capacity to generate 42,000 megawatt hours (MHz) of renewable electricity per year, enough to power 2,800 Wisconsin homes. The renewable power facility features three landfill reciprocating engine generator sets with a capacity of 1.6 MW each, fueled exclusively by the landfill gas.
The gas, which consists of about 50 percent methane and 50 percent carbon dioxide, is naturally generated through the anaerobic decomposition of organic material in a landfill. At the site, the gas had previously been captured and flared off by the site in a controlled manner. With the addition of the plant, the gas is distributed via the landfill’s existing gas collection system to the renewable power facility, where liquid and particulate matter is removed. The landfill gas is then injected into the internal combustion engines to produce environmentally clean electric power, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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RWE is planning to erect a 7.4-MW biogas plant in Bergheim Paffendorf. RWE Innogy will build and operate the plant, and RWE Power will be responsible for resource management. Through its opencast mine reclamation activities, the company has developed a high level of competence in the agricultural sector. To supply the plant, a wide range of raw materials including maize and whole crop silage, sugar beet and alfalfa as well as liquid manure will be used. Some of the raw materials will come from the areas surrounding the open cast mines. The majority of the raw materials, however, will be supplied by regional farmers. The raw biogas produced in the Paffendorf plant will be upgraded to natural gas quality, fed into the natural gas network as biomethane and be supplied to CHP plants in the region. The total investment amounts to around €13 million.
*****
FlexEnergy Inc., a clean tech company with a process to generate clean energy with near-zero emissions, has selected MISCOwater + energy, a leading integrator of clean energy generation systems, as its sales representative in the municipal wastewater environment in the western United States. The two companies will promote systems that generate renewable energy for on-site use at municipal wastewater treatment plants, using methane from anaerobic digesters as fuel.
Ideal for wastewater treatment plants and other sources of biogas, FlexEnergy’s Flex Powerstation™ FP250 uses digester gas as fuel to generate electricity and useful heat while destroying methane, a harmful source of greenhouse gases. The Flex Powerstation™ FP250 uses an advanced thermal oxidizer to destroy methane from digesters using its unique ability to operate reliably within a target temperature range that is high enough to destroy volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO), yet low enough to prevent the formation of oxides of nitrogen (NOx). This one of a kind operating environment allows the Flex Powerstation™ FP250 to meet all current and planned state and federal air quality regulations. An optional heat recovery system can be used to create the industry’s only integrated single-platform package for combined heat and power to optimize digester temperatures and boost overall energy efficiency.
For more information on Renewable Energy Projects and Update please visit
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You can register for our free McIlvaine Newsletters at: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/Free_Newsletter_Registration_Form.htm.
Bob McIlvaine
President
847 784 0012 ext 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
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Reserved
191 Waukegan Road Suite 208 | Northfield | IL 60093
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