“Greenhouse Gas Strategies for Coal-fired Plant Operators” was the Hot Topic February 24 and February 25, 2010

 

The speakers on February 24 were:

 

Frank Princiotta, Director, Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division, U.S. EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, reviewed modeling conducted by the IEA.  To reach IEA’s target scenario of reducing greenhouse gases 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, a daunting number of new power stations would have to be built. Roughly two-thirds of the technologies needed to reach the target are “new” technologies, not yet in commercial-scale applications.  Frank also discussed Obama’s recently created Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Task Force and the corresponding goal of having 5-10 commercial scale demonstration projects online in the US by 2016.

 

Dr. James (Jim) E. Staudt, President, Andover Technology Partners, discussed the development of a GHG Technology Database with the USEPA. The database would be a searchable, on-line tool with cost and performance data for various CO2 mitigation options. The database is expected to come on-line later this year and will also presumably serve as a foundation for future BACT reviews. Jim also discussed the technologies that are likely to be deployed first -- retrofits using post-combustion or oxy-combustion technologies. He said the biggest obstacle to CCS is not capture but storage. Proximity to a CO2 pipeline or sequestration site is critical. Other retrofit issues include space constraints, loss of generating capacity, impact on the steam system and impact on the quality of the flue gas.

 

Block M. Andrews, Strategic Environmental Solutions Director at Burns & McDonnell, discussed many greenhouse gas drivers that will have an impact on the electric utility industry and concluded that there are no clean answers for the best GHG reduction strategies. Each mitigation option has implementation issues and constraints and regulatory uncertainty. For example, co-firing with biomass is an attractive option, but that requires a separate fuel feed system and large on-site storage facilities. Corn stover, which has a high chlorine content, could trigger MACT requirements. Similarly, using CO2 to grow algae for biofuels production is attractive because of the potential revenue stream, but that requires a huge land area. 

 

Mark Schoenfield, Senior Vice-President of Operations and General Counsel of Jupiter Oxygen Corporation, discussed an oxy-combustion retrofit option using a high flame temperature combustion process currently used in industrial melting furnaces.  The process results in ultra-low NOx emissions, uses 5-15 percent less fuel and eliminates the need to separate CO2 from nitrogen.  So far, Jupiter Oxygen has completed two successful oxy-combustion retrofits. Their Indiana test facility includes an Integrated Pollutant Removal (IPR) system with mercury, sulfur and particulate removal, as well as carbon capture. Mark said an oxy-combustion retrofit with IPR would meet current Clean Air Act requirements and be “capture ready” at a third of the cost of building a new plant. 

 

The speakers on February 25 were:

 

Peter Spinney, Director, Marketing & Technology Assessment at NeuCo, Inc., discussed the role of optimization software in improving power plant efficiency and thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A new rule is expected to be issued in April which will trigger PSD and Title V permit provisions for greenhouse gas emissions from large stationary sources.  Roughly 400 facilities per year will be impacted by the rule beginning in 2011. Optimization and efficiency improvements (in the form of heat rate) are currently the only commercially available CO2 reduction option.  NeuCo’s suite of products can reduce CO2 emissions 1 1/2 – 2 percent, while also reducing other emissions, the number of unplanned plant outages and maintenance expenses.

 

Lorence Moot, KeLa Energy, LLC, discussed KeLa’s engineered fuel product which is a combination of 1) coal fines (a raw material recovered from impoundments), 2) biomass, 3) recycled carpeting, and 4) recycled plastics. The fuel is produced in pellet form, can be blended with coal and can be used without any equipment modifications. The fuel results in a 3-5 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and reductions in SOx, NOx and HAP emissions. The pellets also have a high heating value, can be stored and handled like coal, and integrate biomass without the necessity of a separate handling facility.

 

Chris Nichols, U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL), discussed the lab’s effort to set realistic goals for efficiency improvements on a fleet-wide basis in the US.  Their analyses suggest that efficiency improvements of 2 to 5 percentage points can be achieved fleet-wide over the next ten years.  This would also result in a 1.5 percent to 3.3 percent reduction in total US CO2 emissions. Chris said that efficiency improvements will be the key to near term CO2 reductions, letting other technologies have time to develop to the commercialization stage. 

 

Joe Sullivan, Managing Consultant Trinity Consultants, reviewed EPA’s proposed Tailoring Rule for regulated greenhouse gas emissions and identified the potential impacts of GHG regulation under the PSD and Title V permitting programs. In particular, he discussed a letter issued by the EPA Administration this week which suggests that GHG permitting for stationary sources will be phased-in over a longer period of time than originally proposed and with much higher thresholds.  Joe also discussed BACT analyses in the context of CO2 emissions and indicated that a traditional “top-down” BACT analysis was recently conducted for a facility in California.  For our participants’ reference, that facility was Calpine’s Russell City Energy Center in Hayward, California.  For a copy of the permit, see RussellCity.pdf.

 

BIOS, PHOTOS, ABSTRACTS - FEBRUARY 24, 2010.htm

 

BIOS, PHOTOS, ABSTRACTS - FEBRUARY 25, 2010.htm