Power Air Quality Insights No

· Every Region Is a Winner and a Loser in the Flow and Treatment Export Battle

· “Update on Gasification Projects and Technology” is the “Hot Topic Hour” on December 12, 2013

Route maps at the Chem Show next week provide links to very specific data which should not only lead the visitor to the relevant stands, but provide him preliminary information on how the product fits his application. We will be updating the maps continuously during the show as well as in between now and Tuesday.

Six applications oriented Route Maps allow you to determine which stands to visit and even to arrange meetings by mobile phone. Just click on any Decision Tree for the details.

We will keep updating this Orchard during the show so be sure to keep checking. You can also contact Bob McIlvaine during the show at mobile #847-226-2391 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com. Alternatively, you can reach Ross or Denise at #847-784-0012.

Constant innovation of filters and media used to capture pollutants from exhaust stacks results in many new products and new applications. These innovations are continually analyzed and reported in the Fabric Filter Knowledge System published by the McIlvaine Company. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)

The expansion of the range of pollutants captured has been a function of both collector design and media. The biggest expansion has been to capture acid gases. Reagents are injected ahead of the fabric filter. They react with the acid gases to produce sulfates, chlorides and fluorides which can then be captured in a downstream fabric filter. The waste-to-energy, aluminum and power industries are now widely using this technology.

The collector innovations have been to handle the much larger quantity of particulate which is being captured. The media developments have been to find materials which will stand both the temperature and acidic conditions which have been encountered. PPS has proven to be an answer.

The development of microfibers, nanofibers and films has allowed media to capture sub-micron particles with modest pressure loss across the medium. With the greater emphasis on regulating particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, these innovations are important.

The introduction of media which can operate economically at 850^oF creates opportunities to reduce total cost of operation for boilers and furnaces. If the dust can be extracted at high temperatures, then conventional heat exchangers can be used to extract the valuable heat. Thermal efficiency can be greatly increased if the heat is utilized rather than being converted to a steam plume exiting the stack.

The biggest balance of plant saving is the elimination of selective catalytic reduction for NO_xcontrol. By embedding catalyst into the filter media, the filter can provide both particulate control and NO_x reduction. Clear Edge and W. L. Gore are two companies developing this technology.

Decreasing the cost of ownership has been achieved by the improvement in cleaning mechanisms and media. Filter bag life is extended and the average pressure loss across the bag is reduced.

Every Region Is a Winner and a Loser in the Flow and Treatment Export Battle

Suppliers of flow control and treatment products including those dealing with air, gases, water and other liquids are generating annual revenues of over $300 billion. Each region of the world is participating both in the manufacture and consumption of these products. In Air/Gas/Water/Fluid Treatment and Control: World Market, McIlvaine Company analyzes the production, imports and exports in each region and country. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)

China is now a major exporter of filter bags and filter media. Much of the finished bag export is by local companies. However, the export of filter media as roll goods is from Chinese factories owned by the big international media companies such as Ahlstrom, Lydall, Hollingsworth & Vose, BWF and Andrew.

Europe is a major net exporter of sophisticated decanter and disc type centrifuges used in municipal wastewater treatment as well as chemical and food and beverage applications. Europe enjoys a lead in the export of industrial and municipal pumps, although it should be noted that Flygt is part of the U.S. based Xylem.

In terms of air pollution control systems for power plants, the Chinese dominate the market but not the exports. The reason is the huge size of the domestic market. It is anticipated that the Chinese air pollution companies will play a significant role in Southeast Asia. This market is very international. Alstom which is headquartered in France conducts its air pollution control business from the U.S. Hitachi and Mitsubishi have large operations in Europe and the U.S as well as in Japan.

The U.S. continues to enjoy the export lead in the valve segment. The top three companies Pentair, Flowserve and Emerson are U.S. based and have ten percent of the global market. Chinese companies are starting to play a bigger role. Neway now has a major presence in Europe.

The U.S. also holds a slight edge over Europe in terms of exports of air and water instrumentation. However, Thermo Fisher recently set up its main air pollution research center in China. This initiative by Thermo Fisher lends credence to the belief that the whole emphasis on national exports and imports is outdated. International companies rather than national governments are proving to be more influential in creating jobs and wealth than are any of the individual countries in which they operate.

An example of this increasing importance of international companies is the acquisition of Howden (UK) by Colfax. This U.S. company now operates the world’s largest fan manufacturing facilities.

PNM, a subsidiary of PNM Resources and New Mexico's largest electric utility, issued a request for proposals (RFP) for renewable energy resources totaling 150,000 megawatt-hours produced and delivered to customers in 2016.

"We are looking for solid proposals that will help us provide affordable and reliable power to meet state renewable energy requirements," said PNM Director of Resources and Planning Pat O'Connell. "A robust, competitive bidding process helps us identify the best options available to serve our customers with PNM's expanding renewable portfolio."

PNM will consider cost-competitive offers for asset purchases, design-build-transfer projects or purchased power agreements, in addition to renewable energy certificate (or REC-only) bids. (RECs are certificates that document that energy was generated by a renewable resource.)

Projects should be located in or deliver electricity to customers in New Mexico. REC-only purchases must be from a facility located in New Mexico. Renewable energy sources sought include wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower and biomass technologies. Fossil fuel and nuclear resources will not be considered.

Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) Approves 300 MW Solar Project in Partnership with Two U.S. Firms

Global Trade Development Consulting and its Project Development Partner, Energy Ventures, both Maryland Companies, announced that they have been awarded the contract by the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy and the Board of Directors of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation to build, operate, and transfer three 100-MW solar farms in Eastern Ethiopia.

The Integrated energy policy of Ethiopia envisages electricity generation installed capacity of more than 20,000 MW by 2020 and substantial contribution would be from renewable energy, resource.

Ethiopia is in the initial set of countries in President Obama's "Power Africa" initiative. In addition to the needed power generation capacity, this 300 Megawatt Solar Project will contribute to economic development resulting in the creation of more than 2,000 construction jobs that would inject additional revenue to the Ethiopian economy. Ongoing plant operations would yield several hundred new jobs as well.

Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy, has begun construction of three utility-scale solar power projects totaling 30 megawatts (MW) AC in Eastern North Carolina.

The 20-MW Dogwood Solar Power Project is located in Halifax County, near Scotland Neck. The company is also building two 5-MW projects, one in Bertie County near Windsor, named Windsor Cooper Hill Solar. The other, Bethel Price Solar, is in Pitt County, near Bethel.

Power from these projects will be sold through long-term, fixed price contracts.

SunEnergy1, a solar design, engineering and construction company based in Mooresville, N.C., is building the photovoltaic (PV) projects, which are projected to be complete by the end of 2013.

The 140,000 high efficiency Virtus II PV modules for the three sites are being supplied by ReneSola. The projects consist of a mix of 72-cell 300-watt and 305-watt polycrystalline PV modules.

These projects, located in Dominion NC Power’s service territory, bring Duke Energy Renewables’ wholly owned commercial solar farms to 20 across the U.S. In addition to its 12.5- and 5-MW solar sites in Beaufort County and the 5-MW Murfreesboro Solar Power Project, also in Eastern North Carolina, Duke Energy Renewables owns six 1-MW solar facilities in the western part of the state.

Ex-Im Bank Approves $61.1 Million for Export of U.S. Made Wind Turbine Generators to Costa Rica

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has approved a $61.1 million direct loan to Inversiones Eolicas de Orosi Dos S.A. (Orosi), a subsidiary of the leading Central American wind-generation company Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy, for the purchase of wind-turbine generators manufactured by Gamesa in Fairless Hills, PA.

The authorization, which represents Ex-Im Bank's first wind transaction in Costa Rica and fourth utility-scale wind project overall, will support approximately 200 U.S. jobs, according to bank estimates derived from Departments of Commerce and Labor data and methodology.

The Nevis Cabinet announced that Nevis Renewable Energy International (NREI) is their choice as the developer of its geothermal energy project.

This much anticipated project, spearheaded by Acting Premier, Hon. Mark A.G. Brantley will reduce and eventually eliminate Nevis' need for existing diesel-fired electrical generation and replace it with renewable energy.

"The use of geothermal energy will not only make Nevis a greener place in the future, but also makes it less vulnerable to volatile oil prices, as the cost of geothermal energy is stabilized under a long-term contract," stated Minister Alexis Jeffers, Senior Minister in the Ministry of Utilities. He added that Nevis currently needs to import 4,250,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year.

Beginning in January 2014, NREI will construct a geothermal power plant and injection and production wells on 79 acres of Crown Land leased from the Nevis Island Administration. In addition to providing lower cost, cleaner electricity for Nevis, this can potentially be expanded to include St Kitts and other islands in the future. With the support and expertise of NREI, the project will utilize local resources as much as possible for site development, planning and construction; create new economic opportunities for local businesses; and mentor Nevisian government, educational and other organizations by providing technology transfer and training in areas of geology, modeling, well design/drilling, power plant development, operation, maintenance and technical/financial risk assessment. In so doing, NREI will assist NEVLEC and NIA to design and implement a geothermal program that will enable Nevis to develop the expertise needed to serve as a center of excellence for geothermal development throughout the West Indies.

§ Exxon Mobile to sell Majority Stake in Hong Kong Utility and a Power Storage Firm for $3.4 Billion

§ Emera buys 1,050 MW Combined Cycle Gas-fired Power Plants in New England for $541Million

§ Power Plant Operators will spend $8.5 Billion on Precipitators Next Year

“Update on Gasification Projects and Technology” is the “Hot Topic Hour” on December 12, 2013

With all of the talk in political and environmentalist circles about re-powering America with natural gas and the huge gas reserves now proven and flowing from the shale deposits, you might wonder if there is a future for gasification of coal, biomass and waste such as sewage sludge. However, if natural gas prices rise, and they will because of increasing international and industrial demand, utilities and large industrial users will need to have alternate sources. Gasification of coal, biomass and sludge is an alternate that can offer an alternative to high priced natural gas and also offer environmental benefits.

Gasification of coal, our most abundant natural resource, can provide the power, chemical and refining industries with an economically competitive and environmentally conscious technology option to produce electricity, fuels and chemicals. The gasification process basically removes 99 percent or more of the pollutant materials such as sulfur, mercury and other heavy metals in coal before combustion making it much easier to have almost “zero emissions” from the combustion and power producing process. In addition, some of the gasification processes can have as byproducts other important chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide, elemental sulfur, sulfuric acid and nitrogen compounds such as ammonium nitrate for fertilizer or other ammonia based chemicals. If necessary, it is also cheaper and easier to capture CO₂ during gasification prior to the combustion process. With gasification, utilization of IGCC for power production can also offer significantly greater combustion efficiency than conventional combustion of coal or any other fuel – up to 50 or 60 percent efficiency compared to 30 to 40 percent for other combustion power generation technologies resulting in reduced GHG emissions.

Detractors say the gasification process is too expensive and environmentalists protest any use of mined coal. However, a potential solution is underground coal gasification. The advantages in the use of this technology are the low plant costs (as no surface gasifiers are required), the absence of coal transport costs and elimination of surface mining environmental affects.

Employing biomass as a feedstock to generate chemical feedstock or power has the advantage of being carbon neutral or even becoming carbon negative, if carbon is captured and sequestrated. However, there are many challenges to the effective utilization of biomass wastes including seasonality and shortages of suitable materials, transportation costs and for various reasons it can be difficult to gasify along with coal.

The following speakers will update us on the status of gasification technology, describe their experience with the permitting, design, construction, operation and maintenance of gasification plants, and discuss the economic and environmental performance of these plants especially the production of saleable byproducts. We should also hear about new equipment designs, technology and systems being developed to improve gasification and IGCC performance and economics, discuss the research and development that must be conducted to perfect this technology and address how the gasification of coal and biomass coupled with IGCC for power production compares to re-powering with natural gas relative to the risk, economics, ability to achieve “zero emissions” and ability to reduce GHGs.

Keith Moore, President of CastleLight Energy Corp., will discuss the field demonstrated “hybrid of coal-gasification” coupled with recent developments in Coal Beneficiation for significant reduction in operating costs and pollutant emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Jeff Phillips, Senior Program Manager for Advanced Generation at EPRI, will discuss some of the current worldwide gasification projects. The famous opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities would provide an appropriate description for the current status of gasification technology: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” This presentation will review some of the current projects that have generated good news about gasification and some projects that have generated bad news. The bad news has come from the U.S. and Europe while the good news has come from a wide swath of Asia.

Alison Kerester, Executive Director of the Gasification Technologies Council

As the world's population continues to grow so does the demand for energy and the amount of waste generated. Gasification can help convert that waste and other materials, such as coal, petroleum coke and biomass into that needed energy. Gasification is a thermal manufacturing process that converts hydrocarbon materials into a "synthesis gas" consisting primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The syngas can be burned in a turbine to generate power or further processed to manufacture chemicals, fertilizers, transportation fuels, hydrogen or substitute natural gas.

Dan Ripes of PEAT International, Inc., will discuss “Plasma Gasification.”

On Thursday at 10 a.m. Central time, McIlvaine hosts a 90 minute web meeting on important energy and pollution control subjects. Power webinars are free for subscribers to either Power Plant Air Quality Decisions or Utility Tracking System. The cost is $125.00 for non-subscribers. Market Intelligence webinars are free to McIlvaine market report subscribers and are $400.00 for non-subscribers.

DATE	Non-Subscribers Cost	SUBJECT	Webinar Type
December 12, 2013	$125.00	Update on Gasification Projects and Technology	Power
December 19, 2013	$125.00	Selecting FGD Scrubber Components	Power
January 9, 2014	$125.00	Air Preheaters & Heat Exchangers	Power
January 16, 2014	$125.00	Corrosion Issues and Materials for APC Systems	Power
January 23, 2014	$125.00	Co-Firing Sewage Sludge, Biomass and Municipal Waste	Power
February 6, 2014	$125.00	Review of EUEC	Power
February 13, 2014	$125.00	Impact of Ambient Air Quality Rules on Fossil Fueled Boilers and Gas Turbines	Power
February 27, 2014	$125.00	Dry FGD: Spray Dry vs. CFB vs. DSI	Power
March 6, 2014	$125.00	Update on IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle)	Power
March 13, 2014	$125.00	Update on Oxy-Fuel Combustion	Power
March 20, 2014	$125.00	Improving ESP Performance	Power
March 27, 2014	$125.00	Mercury Control and Removal	Power
April 3, 2014	$125.00	HRSG Design, Operation and Maintenance Considerations	Power
April 10, 2014	$125.00	Measurement and Control Instrumentation for Power Plants	Power
April 17, 2014	$125.00	Measurement and Control of PM_2.5	Power
April 24, 2014	$125.00	Status of Carbon-to-Liquid Projects and Technology	Power
May 1, 2014	$125.00	Renewable Energy, Status, Options, Technology Update	Power
May 8, 2014	$125.00	Valves for Power Plant Steam and Cooling Water	Power
May 15, 2014	$125.00	Water Treatment During Gas and Oil Production	Power
May 22, 2014	$125.00	Advances in Coal Blending	Power
May 29, 2014	$125.00	Clean Coal Technologies	Power
June 5, 2014	$125.00	Material Handling in Fossil Fueled Power Plants	Power
June 12, 2014	$125.00	Industrial Boiler MACT - Impact and Control Options	Power
June 19, 2014	$125.00	Multi-emissions Control Technologies	Power
June 26, 2014	$125.00	Next Generation of Coal Combustion Technologies	Power
July 10, 2014	$125.00	Compliance Strategies for PM_2.5

	Process Fluids/Gases and Wastewater				Common Processes
Product	Food /Beverage	Pharmaceuticals Cosmetics	Organic, Petro Chemicals	Inorganic Chemicals	Power/ Cogen	Intake/ Cooling Water
Thermal Treatment
Scrubbers
Adsorption/Recovery
Particulate Removal
Distillation/ Evaporation/ Heat Exchange
Pumps
Valves
Liquid-Solid Separation
Instrumentation