FGD and DeNOx
NEWSLETTER
February 2022
No. 525
Table of Contents
MARKETS
•
$30 Billion Market for Air, Water, Energy Products for Hydrogen Production by
2030
•
Air Pollution Control is Checkers, but Climate Change is Chess
•
$60 Billion Annual Market for Air, Water, Energy (AWE) Products and Services for
Hydrogen
•
Connect Things and People! So Why Not knowledge?
•
Reducing AWE Product Cost of Ownership While Increasing Supplier EBITA
PROCESSES
•
Rare Earth Elements Await in Waste
•
Coal-Free Steel Plans Accelerate in Europe
•
SCR is Solution for Higher NOx With Hydrogen
BUSINESS
•
Babcock & Wilcox Environmental Awarded $13 Million Contract to Provide Advanced
Technology to Reduce Environmental Impact of Power Plant Ash
•
Babcock & Wilcox Renewable Awarded $22 Million Waste-to-Energy Technology
Contract to Support Customer’s Clean Energy Transition
•
Dubai Announces Aim of Converting Hassyan Plant to Run on Gas
•
U.S. Funding for Biomass to Hydrogen Research
•
Zero Carbon Number Moving Forward
•
Georgia Power Planning More Gas Turbines, Long Term Storage and Hydrogen
•
45-MW Dandora Landfill Power Plant Installation Plan Gets Nods from KenGen and
NMS
•
Evonik Supports Cutting CO2 Emissions by Turning Flare Gas Into a
Valuable Energy Source With Membranes
•
Sinopec Completes China's First Megaton Scale Carbon Capture Project
•
Howden Compressors Used on a Variety of Hydrogen Applications
•
Cormetech Selected to Optimize Point Source Capture to Decarbonize the Natural
Gas Power and Industrial Sectors Using Carbon Capture
•
Valmet to Supply a Waste-to-Energy Boiler to Thang Long Energy Environment Joint
Stock Company in Vietnam
•
Doosan Heavy Wins KRW 160 bn WtE Plant Project in Germany
•
Emerson Provides Measurement and Control for Hydrogen Storage, Transmission and
Dispensing
•
Babcock & Wilcox Renewable Awarded $11 Million Contract to Provide Technologies
for Biomass Boiler Upgrade
•
CECO Environmental Solutions Enable Industrial Process Recovery and Recycling
for Aluminum Manufacturer
•
Contract for Flue Gas Treatment Systems at Acciaierie d´Italia Plant Awarded to
Primetals Technologies and YARA Environmental Technologies
•
Unifrax and Lydall Are Now Alkegen
•
BWF Envirotec Group Acquires ACMA in Spain
•
International Private Equity Consortium to Buy DuPont Clean Technologies
•
NWL Acquires European Transformer Supplier
MARKETS
$30 Billion Market for Air, Water, Energy Products for Hydrogen Production by
2030
By 2030
there will be over 200 million tons of hydrogen produced under the Net Zero
climate change program. Hydrogen sales will generate revenues of over $300
billion. This will require purchases of pumps, valves, compressors, adsorbers,
instrumentation, controls, catalysts, and filters totaling more than $30
billion.
The IEA forecast for 2030 projects electrolysis as the largest production mode
followed by fossil fuels (mostly natural gas) without carbon capture. An equal
amount will be produced with carbon capture and sequestration. A relatively
small amount will be produced with carbon capture and beneficial utilization.
McIlvaine
believes that biomass, including waste, can be a significant source of hydrogen.
An analysis has been prepared showing 20 million tons of biomass-based hydrogen
by 2030.
AWE product
sales for hydrogen production could exceed $30 billion in 2030. One variable is
the mix of technologies. The relative AWE revenues per ton of hydrogen for
electrolyzers is tiny compared to fossil with CCS. So electrolyzers will not be
a significant source of AWE revenue compared to the other production processes.
It should be
noted that these estimates are only for hydrogen production. Separate estimates
are being made for hydrogen liquefaction, transport, storage, and combustion.
For electrolyzer produced hydrogen the AWE products for liquefaction, storage,
and transport will be greater than for production.
The detailed
forecasts are provided in AWE Markets explained at http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets/air/n064-air-gas-water-fluid-treatment-and-control-world-market
Forecasts
for specific AWE products are explained at www.mcilvainecompany.com and
then click on markets at the top of the page.
Bob
McIlvaine can answer your questions at 847 226 2391 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
Air Pollution Control is Checkers, but Climate Change is Chess
The fight
against air pollution has been greatly hampered by an opponent making
unanticipated moves. Climate change is an opponent with the capability of making
so many unanticipated moves, that is chess and not checkers.
When
cigarette advertisements extolled the health benefits, air pollution control
focused on limiting the emission of large particles. The harm from SO2
was perceived as forest destruction and damage to buildings.
The move by
the opponent was to react the SO2 with ambient ammonia and other
chemicals in the atmosphere which created fine particulate. These particles, the
size of cigarette smoke, are now arguably the largest pollutant killer of
people.
The
challenge in air pollution control has been to use the niche experts in many
fields to develop a winning strategy. With climate change the number of needed
niche experts is many times more.
Air
pollution experts were not wrong but those who came to the conclusions were.
When the global warming game expanded to climate change and the potential that a
50 ppm increase in CO2 can cause both drought and floods, it is
definitely chess and not checkers.
If fighting
climate change is a chess game, then the strategy has to deal with the potential
for the opponent to pursue a number of unanticipated tactics. The strategy
needs to be flexible to handle whatever tactic is employed by the opponent. It
also needs to be one based on winning the game even if pawns are sacrificed
along the way.
Solar and
wind are obvious tactics. If long term storage becomes economic, they can be the
queen and bishops in the game. However, there are many citizens of the world
without electricity. Fossil fired power is the quickest way to provide them with
what they need.
The most
flexible approach is one where carbon negative technologies are also employed.
This eliminates a tipping point.
Carbon
negative approaches involve biomass. The trees or plants absorb CO2
as they grow. If they are then combusted and the CO2 sequestered the
CO2 in the atmosphere is reduced. This technology is labeled Biomass
Energy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS)
Solar and
wind are carbon neutral. So is biomass combustion. Sequestration can be a
subsequent move. Solid fuel boilers and gas turbines can be utilized. The
problem is that if you tear down existing fossil plants you eliminate possibly
one of the best moves.
With a
fossil-fired boiler you can incrementally replace coal with biomass. With a gas
turbine you can incrementally increase the percentage of hydrogen burned. This
can come from biomass gasification. You can also burn syngas from biomass.
Very little
capital cost is required to switch a coal-fired boiler to burn biomass. Little
time is required for the conversion. A number of gas turbines are hydrogen
ready.
The UK has
embraced this flexible strategy. The 4,000 MW Drax station now is carbon neutral
with biomass combustion. By 2030 this one station will sequester CO2
and meet the national carbon negative goals.
More new
coal-fired plants are being built in Asia than ever existed in the U.S. and
Europe. At nominal increased cost these plants could be made biomass ready from
inception. They can switch gradually to 100 percent biomass combustion.
Eventually they can capture and sequester the CO2.
If all the
world’s coal plants and gas turbines switched to BECCS, the CO2
content in the atmosphere would go down as rapidly as it rose.
This
flexible game strategy will be able to deal with the surprises which are sure to
come. To say that we knew nothing at the cigarette peak but now know everything
would be very unwise. The climate change opponent will inevitably surprise us.
We don’t
want to be like Cheshire, Ohio which benefited not only from SO2
reduction from the nearby power plant but also from a new NOx control
system. The benefit was short lived since a catalytic reaction spewed sulfuric
acid on the town and made it uninhabitable. Better NOx catalysts
solved the problem but not before cities around the country experienced similar
problems.
The
McIlvaine Company tracks all the technology and projects in http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/databases/42ei-utility-tracking-system
Market
forecasts for all the air, water, and energy products and services required for
net zero are described under markets at www.mcilvainecompany.com
For more
information contact Bob McIlvaine at 847 226 2391.
$60 Billion Annual Market for Air, Water, Energy (AWE) Products and Services for
Hydrogen
There is a hydrogen based annual market for valves, pumps, filters, compressors,
and digital solutions of more than $60 billion. This will involve products which
are just now being tailored to handle the physical, chemical, and safety aspects
of the lightest of all gases.
One result is that most of the AWE products will be bigger and more expensive
than if combusting methane.
AWE product vendors will have a $200 billion opportunity to combine the hydrogen
specific products with standard AWE products in the same projects. For example
the ultrapure water and wastewater treatment valves will be unchanged. However,
the successful valve vendor is likely to be the supplier who can furnish all the
valve needs. In any case the total valve market expands.
One option is green hydrogen using electrolyzers. The main use of AWE products
is in the transportation and storage of the hydrogen and final end use but not
in the creation. On the other hand blue hydrogen with ammonia production, carbon
sequestration, ocean transport and use in combustion turbines requires a bigger
AWE investment than does a coal fired boiler.
The market
has been broadly segmented into power, industrial, and mobile. In each case the
fuel production, transport and storage has been included. Only 20% of the
market represents products which have to be designed to handle hydrogen. In the
case of a hydrogen fueled power plant only 10% of the AWE products would have to
be hydrogen ready (special).
Suppliers
need a novel approach to keep up with all the technological, business, and
regulatory developments. McIlvaine is working with the consultants, suppliers,
purchasers, and the media to set up a large number of Industrial Internet of
Wisdom Causation Loops. These are similar to ones already in use for plasma
fractionation, indoor air filtration, and a few other subjects.
Causation
loops are also being initiated for competing approaches such as BECCS.
In each loop
McIlvaine is providing the detailed forecasts and acting as a catalyst to assist
the the suppliers develop superior products. It is also working with media
and event organizers to publish cost of ownership factors and help validate the
products.
One set of
loops is the use of hydrogen in combustion turbines. Details on this initiative
are shown at HYDROGEN
COMBUSTION
The detailed
forecasts for each product such as valves, pumps, compressors, filters, and
digital solutions are available for hydrogen combustion. There is the
opportunity for the media, suppliers, consultants, and end users to
participate.
For more
information on this program contact
Bob
McIlvaine
847 226 2391
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
Connect Things and People! So Why Not knowledge?
With the internet we are progressing with the Industrial Internet of Things
(IIoT). Physical and virtual communication tools insure easy contact. We are
making great progress in connecting things and people but not knowledge.
What good is a sensor which is not connected to a control device? What can a
person contribute if he does not have the needed knowledge?
If a great analysis is not available or its importance easily digested, it has
lost its value.
Magazines and associations are doing a
good job of posting important knowledge on line. But like the unconnected
sensor, knowledge needs to be utilized and debated or questioned. Just as a
sensor in a control system needs to be checked, knowledge needs the input of the
“wise crowd”.
This organized approach to utilizing knowledge is called the Industrial Internet
of Wisdom. If suppliers,
consultants, media, and purchasers are all connected in a causation loop, the
EBITA of suppliers rises and the costs of ownership decreases.
Reducing AWE Product Cost of Ownership While Increasing Supplier EBITA
The win-win
situation for suppliers and purchasers in the $300 billion air, water and energy
industry are products which cost more but reduce cost of ownership by an even
greater amount. the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW) can be leveraged to
create interlocking Causation Loops which create win-win results.
They will
provide suppliers, consultants, media, and event organizers with the opportunity
to increase sales and profits while lowering cost of ownership for the
purchasers.
The
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has achieved these goals by organized
interconnection.
The
potential for IIoW is even greater.
There are at
least five interlocking IIoW Causation Loops.
Participant IIoW Causation Loop
Management
consultants provide an overview and trends which market forecasters can convert
to specific opportunities. Suppliers can develop superior products for each
opportunity. Media and Event organizers can communicate the cost factors and
provide validation directly to the purchasers.
Focused IIoW Causation Loop
Focus needs
to be undertaken in each niche which has a unique cost of ownership
factor. This includes how a product would be specially applied within the
process, the plant, the corporation, and the industry. If the corporation has an
approved bidders list, then the plant is limited in its decision making. If
there are industry standards or regulations, they must be considered. This loop
is completed with detailed forecasts of the opportunities.
Validation IIoW Causation Loop
Total cost
of ownership analysis needs to be undertaken by the supplier for his
product and those of direct competitors. The superiority of the product needs
to be validated through the media and event organizers including webinar hosts.
Pricing IIoW Causation Loop
Presently,
it is much easier to buy the familiar product than a better one. With the
interlocking causation loops it will be easy to buy the better product at a
higher price if it reduces total costs.
Geographic IIoW Causation Loop
Companies
such as BASF, Shell, Arcelor Mittal, Merck, and Intel have corporate initiatives
to “buy better” on an international basis. Basic steps such as assigning a
number to every corporate entity regardless of name changes or Chinese to
English translations is needed.
Creating a
universally used database for cost of ownership factors such as energy in each
geographic niche is important.
The use of
the interlocking causation loops will reduce cost of ownership for the
purchasers, increase EBITA for the suppliers, and change the strategy to pursue
the most profitable market (MPM) in the following ways.
For more
information on the AWE IIoW interlocking causation loops and the Most Profitable
Market contact Bob McIlvaine at 847 226 2391 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
PROCESSES
Rare Earth Elements Await in Waste
Rare earth elements are hard to get and hard to recycle, but a flash of
intuition led Rice University scientists toward a possible
solution.
The Rice lab of chemist James Tour reports it has successfully extracted
valuable rare earth elements (REE) from waste at yields high enough to resolve
issues for manufacturers while boosting their profits.
The lab’s flash Joule heating process, introduced several years ago to produce
graphene from any solid carbon source, has now been applied to three sources of
rare earth elements—coal fly ash, bauxite residue and
electronic waste — to recover rare earth metals, which have magnetic and
electronic properties critical to modern electronics and green technologies.
The researchers say their process is kinder to the environment by using far less
energy and turning the stream of acid often used to recover the elements into a
trickle.
The study appears in Science Advances.
Rare earth elements aren’t actually rare. One of them, cerium, is more abundant
than copper, and all are more abundant than gold. But these 15 lanthanide
elements, along with yttrium and scandium, are widely distributed and difficult
to extract from mined materials.
“The U.S. used to mine rare earth elements, but you get a lot of radioactive
elements as well,” Tour said. “You’re not allowed to reinject the water, and it
has to be disposed of, which is expensive and problematic. On the day the U.S.
did away with all rare earth mining, the foreign sources raised their price
tenfold.”
So there’s plenty of incentive to recycle what’s been mined already, he said.
Much of that is piled up or buried in fly ash, the byproduct of coal-fired power
plants. “We have mountains of it,” he said. “The residue of burning coal is
silicon, aluminum, iron and calcium oxides that form glass around the trace
elements, making them very hard to extract.” Bauxite residue, sometimes called
red mud, is the toxic byproduct of aluminum production, while electronic waste
is from outdated devices like computers and smart phones.
While industrial extraction from these wastes commonly involves leaching with
strong acid, a time-consuming, non-green process, the Rice lab heats fly ash and
other materials (combined with carbon black to enhance conductivity) to about
3,000 degrees Celsius (5,432 degrees Fahrenheit) in a second. The process turns
the waste into highly soluble “activated REE species.”
Tour said treating fly ash by flash Joule heating “breaks the glass that encases
these elements and converts REE phosphates to metal oxides that dissolve much
more easily.” Industrial processes use a 15-molar concentration of nitric acid
to extract the materials; the Rice process uses a much milder 0.1-molar
concentration of hydrochloric acid that still yields more product.
In experiments led by postdoctoral researcher and lead author Bing Deng, the
researchers found flash Joule heating coal fly ash (CFA) more than doubled the
yield of most of the rare earth elements using very mild acid compared to
leaching untreated CFA in strong acids.
“The strategy is general for various wastes,” Bing said. “We proved that the REE
recovery yields were improved from coal fly ash, bauxite residue and electronic
wastes by the same activation process.”
The generality of the process makes it especially promising, Bing said, as
millions of tons of bauxite residue and electronic waste are also produced every
year.
“The Department of Energy has determined this is a critical need that has to be
resolved,” Tour said. “Our process tells the country that we’re no longer
dependent on environmentally detrimental mining or foreign sources for rare
earth elements.”
Tour’s lab introduced flash Joule heating in 2020 to convert coal, petroleum
coke and trash into graphene, the single-atom-thick form of carbon, a process
now being commercialized. The lab has since adapted the process to convert
plastic waste into graphene and to extract precious metals from electronic
waste.
Co-authors of the study are graduate students Xin Wang and Zhe Wang, alumnus Duy
Xuan Luong, undergraduate Robert Carter and Mason Tomson, a professor of civil
and environmental engineering. Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry
as well as a professor of computer science and of materials science and
nanoengineering.
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-19-1-0296) and the
Department of Energy (DE-FE0031794) supported the research.
Coal-Free Steel Plans Accelerate in Europe
Changes to the European Union’s emissions trading system are one of the factors
contributing to the shift to cleaner steel production. The German steel producer
Salzgitter has announced it will convert its first coal-based blast furnaces to
hydrogen and renewable energy-based direct iron reduction and electric arc
production by 2026 and complete the full conversion of its steelworks by 2033.
Salzgitter, which has formed a partnership with Orsted for offshore wind power
and the use of renewable hydrogen, is aiming to supply low-carbon steel to all
BMW’s European car manufacturing plants. This comes as ArcelorMittal announced a
€1.7 billion (US$1.9 billion) plan to build an electric arc furnace at
Fos-sur-Mer and a 2.5 million ton direct reduction iron unit at Dunkirk. The
company plans for both plants to be commissioned by 2027 and replace three of
its five French blast furnaces by 2030.
SCR is Solution for Higher NOx With Hydrogen
Selective
catalytic reduction (SCR) might provide a retrofit solution to the problem of NOx formation.
Through a catalytic reduction process, NOx is converted to nitrogen
and water. Usually, ammonia or an ammonia derivative is used as a reductant. The
reductant is added to the flue gas and reacted onto a catalyst.
Limitations
of SCR systems include contamination, plugging, and a finite lifetime. When
temperatures are low, NOx reduction will not occur, causing ammonia
slip when ammonia passes through the SCR unreacted. For existing power plants,
there may be some ability to accept increases in NOx emissions based
on existing SCR capabilities, if installed. Otherwise, retrofitting an SCR or
increasing the capacity of the already installed SCR might provide a solution.
https://www.powermag.com/ready-for-the-energy-transition-hydrogen-considerations-for-combined-cycle-power-plants/
BUSINESS
Babcock & Wilcox Environmental Awarded $13 Million Contract to Provide Advanced
Technology to Reduce Environmental Impact of Power Plant Ash
Babcock & Wilcox Renewable Awarded $22 Million Waste-to-Energy Technology
Contract to Support Customer’s Clean Energy Transition
Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) announced its B&W Renewable business segment has been
awarded a contract for approximately $22 million to design and supply advanced
waste-to-energy technology to help a power producer in Asia reduce its reliance
on coal and decrease the amount of waste sent to landfills.
B&W Renewable will design and supply a 440-ton-per-day waste-to-energy boiler,
DynaGrate® combustion grate and other combustion equipment, including
burners and sootblowers. The plant will generate cleaner electricity for the
community while processing approximately 160,000 tons of industrial waste
annually.
“Decarbonization efforts are gaining momentum worldwide, especially in Asia,
while the need to responsibly and sustainably manage industrial and municipal
waste continues to grow,” said B&W Executive Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer Jimmy Morgan. “Waste-to-energy technologies are an ideal solution to
produce renewable, baseload power while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
reliance on landfills.”
“Our business in the Asia-Pacific region continues to grow, with significant
opportunities for B&W’s renewable, environmental and thermal technologies,” said
Nick Carter, Managing Director of B&W’s Asia-Pacific region. “We look forward to
continuing to provide solutions to help our customers throughout the region with
their clean energy transition.”
Dubai Announces Aim of Converting Hassyan Plant to Run on Gas
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of
Energy, has announced Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s 2400 megawatt (MW)
Hassyan coal plant will be converted to run on gas.
The first two 600 MW units of the plant were commissioned in 2020 and 2021. Two
additional units are under construction and scheduled to be brought online in
2022 and 2023. The sheikh’s statement on achieving carbon neutrality by 2050
provided no details on the planned gas conversion.
Dubai is one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates. The US$3.4 billion
Hassyan plant has been financed by a coalition of banks, including the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China, with Harbin Electric
of China building the plant.
U.S. Funding for Biomass to Hydrogen Research
In the United States, there is more biomass available than is required for food
and animal feed needs. A recent report projects that with anticipated
improvements in agricultural practices and plant breeding, up to 1 billion dry
tons of biomass could be available for energy use annually. For more
information, see U.S.
Billion-Ton Update: Biomass Supply for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry.
Plants consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of their natural
growth process as they make biomass, off-setting the carbon dioxide released
from producing hydrogen through biomass gasification and resulting in low net
greenhouse gas emissions.
Key challenges to hydrogen production via biomass gasification involve reducing
costs associated with capital equipment and biomass feedstocks.
Research to lower capital costs:
•
Replacing the cryogenic process currently used to separate oxygen from air when
oxygen is used in the gasifier with new membrane technology.
•
Developing new membrane technologies to better separate and purify hydrogen from
the gas stream produced (similar to coal gasification).
•
Intensifying the process (combining steps into fewer operations).
Research to lower biomass feedstock costs:
•
Improved agricultural practices and breeding efforts should result in low and
stable feedstock costs.
•
As biomass gasification is a mature technology, feedstock costs and lessons
learned from commercial demonstrations will determine its potential as a viable
pathway for cost-competitive hydrogen production.
Zero Carbon Number Moving Forward
Equinor-led Hydrogen
to Humber (H2H) Saltend is
Zero Carbon Humber’s anchor project. It will establish the world’s largest
hydrogen production plant with carbon capture at px Group’s Saltend Chemicals
Park.
The H2H Saltend project will be the starting point for a carbon dioxide (CO2)
and hydrogen pipeline network developed by National Grid Ventures, connecting
energy-intensive industrial sites throughout the region, offering businesses the
options to directly capture their emissions or fuel-switch to hydrogen.
All captured CO2 will be compressed at Centrica Storage’s Easington
site and stored under the southern North Sea using offshore infrastructure
shared with the Teesside industrial cluster.
As this shared infrastructure is delivered, other Zero Carbon Humber partners
will connect their infrastructure, currently in development, to the pipelines.
For example:
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS),
at Drax Power Station near Selby, from 2027, scaled up to become the world’s
first carbon negative power station by 2030.
SSE Thermal’s Keadby
3,
near Scunthorpe, the UK’s first gas-fired power station with carbon capture and
storage (CCS) by the mid-2020s.
At Uniper’s Killingholme site in Immingham, clean hydrogen production, in line
with the company’s pledge to be carbon neutral in Europe by 2035.
Georgia Power Planning More Gas Turbines, Long Term Storage and Hydrogen
Georgia Power has filed plans with state regulators outlining how it plans to
transition its fleet to be cleaner and more economical.
The company proposed retiring 3,500 MW of coal-fired generating capacity by
2028, including Plant Wansley Units 1, 2 & 5A, Plant Boulevard Unit 1, Plant
Bowen Units 1-2, Plant Gaston Units 1-4 & A, and Plant Scherer Unit 3. It said
its Bowen Units 3 & 4, would remain in service until 2035.
The company files an Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) with the state’s utility
regulators every three years. In the 2022 IRP, Georgia Power highlighted
long-duration storage, hydrogen, tall wind technologies and distributed energy
resources as areas of potential investment. The plan needs to be approved by the
Georgia Public Service Commission.
To make up for the coal retirements, the company proposed adding 2,356 MW of
natural gas capacity through RFPs during the next few years. This includes six
power purchase agreements for capacity from Plant Wansley Unit 7, Plant Dahlberg
Units 2 & 6, Plant Harris Unit 2, Plant Dahlberg Units 1, 3 & 5, Plant Monroe
Units 1 & 2, and Plant Dahlberg Units 8-10.
45-MW Dandora Landfill Power Plant Installation Plan Gets Nods from KenGen and
NMS
The plan to install a 45-megawatt (MW) garbage-fired power plant at the Dandora
dump has moved a step closer after Nairobi Metropolitan Services and KenGen
approved feasibility study findings giving a thumbs up. good to the project.
However, the project will now be located in the Ruai sewage treatment plans,
following a court order last July to move the Dandora landfill within six
months.
KenGen said that the proposal has already been submitted to the government
through the Ministry of Energy and is currently under review for approval to
implement the project and seek financing.
Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) and KenGen signed an agreement to establish
the plant in August 2020. Under the agreement, KenGen said the NMS will make
available land in or around the Dandora landfill in addition to solid waste,
while KenGen will finance, develop, and operate the power plant.
However, the implementation of the project has been hampered by the delay in the
completion of the feasibility study, which was supposed to last six months.
The plant is expected to sustainably solve Nairobi’s litter problem while
opening up a new source of revenue for the city council.
Evonik Supports Cutting CO2 Emissions by Turning Flare Gas Into a
Valuable Energy Source With Membranes
•
PuraMem® VOC membrane turns flare gas into valuable energy
•
Reducing CO2 emissions in the oil industry
•
Supporting World Bank initiative to end routine flaring by 2030
By offering its innovative PuraMem®VOC membrane separation technology
for flare gas recovery, Evonik enables the energy industry to cut CO2
emissions and supports the World Bank's “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030”
initiative.
Oil production generates significant amounts of associated gas that is, wherever
possible, used as an energy source because oil companies and governments have
made substantial investments to capture it. Nevertheless, a considerable amount
of the gas is flared because of economical or technical challenges. Associated
gas is often very heavy, hydrocarbon rich (i.e. high C3+ content) and cannot be
used at the well head. According to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction
Partnership, thousands of gas flares at oil production sites around the globe
burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, causing
more than 300 million tons of CO2 to be emitted to the atmosphere.
Evonik’s PuraMem® VOC membrane separation technology offers a safe
and efficient way to process such heavy gas with the lowest operating cost of
any available technology. The membrane separates heavy hydrocarbons as natural
gas liquids (NGL), water and hydrogen sulfide and generates a clean gas stream
that can be used to generate power without flaring. The recovered NGL can be
converted to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
“Our innovative membrane technology enables today's energy industry to increase
efficiency and reduce emissions at many single processing points. The sum of the
applications results in
attractive sustainability benefits for the industry," says Dr. Iordanis
Savvopoulos, Head of the Fibres, Foams and Membranes Product Line at Evonik.
PuraMem® VOC stands for a robust, spiral-wound membrane which is
based on Evonik’s high-performance polymer. It features a stable performance
over long time periods under challenging operating conditions. PuraMem®
VOC has been specially designed with the flexibility to be seamlessly
retrofitted in the existing infrastructure. The standard dimension of an 8”
diameter and the flexible adapter system makes it possible for PuraMem VOC to
easily plug-in as a drop-in replacement to the existing system installations.
Sinopec Completes China's
First Megaton Scale Carbon Capture Project
China Petroleum & Chemical
Corporation has completed the construction of China's first megaton carbon
capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project, the Qilu-Shengli Oilfield CCUS
(the "Project") on January 29, which will reduce carbon emission by 1 million
tons per year, the equivalent of planting nearly 9 million trees and shutting
down 600,000 economy cars.
As China's largest full
industrial chain CCUS demonstration base and industry benchmark, the Project is
estimated to increase the oil production by 2.965 million tons in the next 15
years. It's of great significance to China's scaled development of CCUS and
building an "artificial carbon cycle" model to increase China's carbon emissions
reduction capabilities as the country advances to achieve the "dual carbon"
goals of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
The construction of the
Project was initiated in July 2021 and is consisted of two parts – Sinopec
Qilu's carbon dioxide capture and Shengli Oilfield's carbon dioxide displacement
and storage. The carbon dioxide captured by Sinopec Qilu will be transported to
Shengli Oilfield for further displacement and storage via green transport mode,
achieving an integrated application of carbon capture, displacement, and storage
to seal the carbon dioxide underground and drive the oil out – turning the waste
into treasure.
Sinopec Qilu has newly
constructed a liquid carbon dioxide recovery and utilization unit with a
capacity of 1 million tons per year, which includes compression unit,
refrigeration unit, liquefaction refining unit and supporting facilities to
recover carbon dioxide from the tail gas of coal-to-hydrogen plant with a
purification rate of over 99 percent.
Meanwhile, Shengli
Oilfield is applying the principle of supercritical carbon dioxide's easy
miscibility with crude oil to build 10 unattended gas injection stations in
Zhenglizhuang Oilfield to inject carbon dioxide into the 73 wells nearby to
increase crude oil fluidity and improve oil recovery while adopting a closed
pipeline transportation of oil and gas to further enhance carbon dioxide
sequestration rate.
Taking an early start of
CCUS R&D and construction, Sinopec has developed its own CCUS technology system
that has achieved good results in improving crude oil recovery and reducing
carbon emissions, and some of the capture technologies is in leading position
domestically and advanced level in the world.
Sinopec's low partial
pressure carbon dioxide capture technology has been successfully applied in more
than 50 units of devices across 16 provinces and cities in China, capturing more
than 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. The company has tackled multiple
key technological problems. By actively conducting mineral field tests in the
East China and Shengli oilfields and exploring the development mode of
high-pressure miscible flooding of carbon dioxide, Sinopec has effectively
solved the problem of difficult water inject and oil well production in
reservoirs of ultra-low permeability, proposed the innovative "throughput
displacement coordination" carbon dioxide injection development mode to carry
out efficient development of sealed small block reservoirs. Sinopec has also
built China's first exhaust gas displacement, cyclic utilization, and storage
base of high water-cut oil reservoir industrial refinery in Sinopec Zhongyuan
Oilfield.
Backed by systematic
investigation of China's large-scale carbon dioxide emission sources, Sinopec
has researched and drafted the CCUS potential evaluation method and established
the Sinopec source & sink database. To date, Sinopec has implemented 36 carbon
dioxide flooding projects.
Sinopec is looking to
advance the constructions and realize the industrialized development of CCUS.
Sinopec will build a CCUS R&D center to focus on the cutting-edge technological
breakthroughs including the integration of CCUS with new energy, hydrogen energy
and biomass energy. The company will advance the technology applications such as
the carbon dioxide production of high-value chemicals and carbon dioxide
mineralization and utilization to make breakthroughs in the core technologies
and solving the equipment bottlenecks in carbon capture, transportation,
utilization, and storage.
With the goal of building
a carbon dioxide technological innovation system of "technology
development-construction project demonstration and industrialization," Sinopec
will extend the clean carbon sequestration industrial chain and build the
foundation for carbon emission reduction technology innovation.
Between 2021 and 2025,
Sinopec will build another megaton CCUS demonstration project in partnership
with Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industries Co., Ltd. in its affiliated Sinopec
East China oil and gas fields and Sinopec Jiangsu Oilfield to achieve the
industrialized development of CCUS and widen the prospects as China advances to
achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
Howden Compressors Used on
a Variety of Hydrogen Applications
Hydrogen storage (whether
in metal vessels or underground including salt caverns) is a key enabler for the
advancement of hydrogen and related fuel cell technologies throughout the world.
Cost-effective hydrogen storage is required to support the use of hydrogen in
current and future industrial applications including transportation, portable
and stationary power. While hydrogen has the highest energy per mass of any
fuel, its low ambient temperature density results in a low energy per unit
volume. This makes it important to develop advanced storage methods that have
potential for higher energy density.
Physically, hydrogen can
be stored as either a gas or a liquid. Storage of hydrogen as a gas typically
requires high-pressure tanks (350–1000 bar tank pressure). Storage of hydrogen
as a liquid requires cryogenic temperatures because the boiling point of
hydrogen at one atmosphere pressure is −252.8°C. Howden has extensive experience
in offering cost-effective compression solutions for the hydrogen storage across
different applications. Solutions offer exceptional performance, high
availability and reliability which result in reducing the total cost of
ownership of their operations.
One hydrogen project
involves Everfuel’s green hydrogen production facility – HySynergy – designated
for construction in Fredericia, Denmark. Everfuel has selected Howden to provide
two compressor packages that will compress hydrogen for storage and
distribution. Green hydrogen is sourced from renewables.
Howden’s scope of supply
includes two reciprocating compressor packages, as well as auxiliary systems and
Howden Uptime, a digital platform that gathers, integrates, and analyzes data
from rotating equipment. The oil-free compressors will compress hydrogen from
atmospheric pressure to 2900 psi (200 bar).
Everfuel owns and operates
green hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure and partners with
vehicle manufacturers to connect to the entire hydrogen value chain, providing
hydrogen fuel to enterprise customers under long-term contracts.
The HySynergy facility
will have a production capacity of up to 8 tpd of green hydrogen, made from
renewable wind power, with 10 tons of storage capacity. The Howden compression
solution to serve this specific application is an ideal fit with the hydrogen
production provided by Nel electrolyzers, which Everfuel ordered.
Cormetech Selected to
Optimize Point Source Capture to Decarbonize the Natural Gas Power and
Industrial Sectors Using Carbon Capture
The U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) announced $45 million in funding for 12 projects to advance point-source
carbon capture and storage technologies that can capture at least 95% of carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from natural gas power and
industrial facilities that produce commodities like cement and steel.
Cormetech, Inc. (Charlotte,
NC) has been selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to further develop,
optimize, and test a new, lower cost technology to capture CO2 from
the flue gas of Natural Gas Combined Cycle Plants (NGCC), which will enhance
scalability to large NGCC plants. The award will focus on point-source carbon
capture, which seeks to stop carbon dioxide emissions from entering the
atmosphere by filtering out CO2 and other harmful gases from a power
plant or industrial facility.
Valmet has signed a contract
to deliver a waste-to-energy (WtE) boiler fired with refuse-derived fuel (RDF)
to Thang Long Energy Environment’s greenfield waste-to-energy plant in Bac Ninh
province, Vietnam. A Valmet Flue Gas Cleaning system and a Valmet DNA
Distributed Control System (DCS) are also included in the delivery. The
investment aims to support a clean and green economy and protect Bac Ninh
province’s environment through more sustainable energy production.
The order is included in
Valmet’s orders received of the first quarter 2022. The value of an order of
this type is around EUR 20–30 million.
This is Valmet’s first
circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler delivery to the growing Southeast Asian
waste-to-energy market. The installation work is scheduled to start in 2023, and
the plant will commence commercial operation at the end of 2023.
“We are proud to take this step in
Southeast Asia for more sustainable growth and high-efficiency energy conversion
from waste. The solution will enable significant reductions of CO2 emissions
and promote the circular economy,” says Jouko
Latva-Somppi, Director, Heat and Power Plants, Valmet.
Doosan Heavy Wins KRW 160 bn WtE Plant Project in Germany
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction’s recent winning of a
waste-to-energy(WtE) plant project in Germany is helping to further solidify the
company’s position in the European WtE market.
Doosan Lentjes, the German subsidiary of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction,
recently announced on January 24th that it had received the Notice to Proceed
(NTP) for the Wiesbaden WtE Plant project, which is valued to be KRW 160
billion, from its client, MHKW Wiesbaden GmbH*.
* MHKW Wiesbaden GmbH: A joint venture company that was formed together by
Knettenbrech+Guadulic (a German waste management company), ESWE (the Wiesbaden
district heating corporation) and ENTEGA (a public power company in Darmstadt)
for overseeing the operation of the Wiesbaden WtE plant.
Doosan Lentjes will be taking on the role of EPC contractor and as such, will be
handling the WtE plant engineering, equipment supply and installation, as well
as the commissioning process. The Wiesbaden WtE plant, which is slated to be
built by 2024 in this central western city of Germany, will have the capacity to
process 600 tons of municipal solid waste per day to produce 22-MW worth of
electricity and provide 40MW-scale district heating.
A WtE plant is a facility that converts the various types of combustible waste
generated by industrial sites and households into energy through the
gasification, incineration, or pyrolysis process. Not only can these WtE
plants be used to supply heat and electricity, but they can also help with
minimizing landfill waste, leading to less environmental pollution. The order
intake for WtE plants is on the rise particularly in Europe, where there is a
growing need for replacement of old power plants and strict policies restricting
waste landfills are in place.
“With tighter environmental standards being adopted for waste management in
Europe, the WtE market is growing steadily in the region, as can be seen from
how there has been around ten new WtE orders being placed annually over the past
five years,” said Hongook Park, CEO of Doosan Heavy’s Power Services Business
Group. He added, “As we forecast there will be around 80 new WtE plant
orders being placed by 2025, we aim to use our existing track record to
aggressively target the European WtE market.”
Doosan Lentjes has been successively winning numerous WtE contracts in Europe,
such as the KRW 126 billion-worth Olsztyn WtE plant in Poland, which was won
back in August 2020, the KRW 120 billion-worth Dinslaken WtE plant in Germany,
which was won in October 2020, followed by the KRW 67 billion-worth Warsaw WtE
plant in Poland, which was won in May 2021.
Emerson Provides Measurement and Control for Hydrogen Storage, Transmission and
Dispensing
Electrolyzers are being built to create large amounts of hydrogen. This requires
storage and transmission. Gordon Muir, president of Automation Solutions
at Emerson addresses the challenges in a recent paper. Integrating components,
which reliably monitor and measure H2 is essential. Accurate measurement at
dispensing stations is also critical.
https://www.emerson.com/documents/automation/accelerating-future-of-green-hydrogen-en-7527988.pdf
Babcock & Wilcox Renewable Awarded
$11 Million Contract to Provide Technologies for Biomass Boiler Upgrade
Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) announced that
its B&W Renewable segment has been awarded a contract for more than $11 million
to design, manufacture, supply, and install boiler equipment for a biomass
boiler in Canada.
B&W Renewable will replace pressure parts for the boiler and upgrade the design
of its wood feed and air systems. Babcock & Wilcox Canada Corp. will provide the
installation services.
“B&W’s pulp and paper and forestry products customers can rely on us for
advanced equipment, construction and other services for their renewable
biomass-fired plants,” said B&W Executive Vice President & Chief Operating
Officer Jimmy Morgan. “Meeting energy and environmental goals, maximizing
efficiency, and ensuring our customers’ equipment continues to operate reliably
presents complex challenges, and B&W Renewable has the knowledge and decades of
industry experience necessary to meet these needs.”
B&W co-developed the world’s first Kraft recovery boiler and has continued to
improve and deliver a best-in-class suite of products and services for pulp and
paper facilities and forestry products plants around the world. The company’s
biomass-fueled boilers are used to generate heat, process steam, electricity,
syngas, and/or bio-oil in a wide range of industrial and utility plants around
the world.
CECO Environmental Solutions Enable Industrial Process Recovery and Recycling
for Aluminum Manufacturer
CECO Environmental Corp. announced that its CECO Busch brand recently delivered
an integrated, multi-product line, aluminum chip collection and recycling
solution to a leading provider of aluminum plates, sheeting, and extrusions in
North America for its new milling system. This system is currently under
construction and will be fully operational in early 2022.
The integrated solution is designed to efficiently collect tons of aluminum
scrap that is a standard byproduct of aluminum mill producers.
As aluminum producers mill the surface of slabs prior to finish rolling,
the scrap material is generated at a rate of up to 25 tons per hour. CECO's
custom-engineered solution integrates and leverages the strength of CECO
technologies, including CECO Flex-Kleen dust collection and CECO Fisher-Klosterman
cyclone separation systems, to collect this scrap material and recycle it.
"CECO is pleased to provide aluminum manufacturers with advanced solutions to
help our customers recover high volumes of aluminum scrap for recycling," said
Todd Gleason, CEO, CECO Environmental. "Our solutions deliver an efficient way
to recycle excess aluminum that is discarded during the manufacturing process
thereby significantly reducing waste, which reduces a manufacturer's impact on
the environment and assists with meeting sustainability initiatives. Aluminum
manufacturing continues to be critically important to a range of industries
including food and beverage packaging, automotive, aerospace and construction."
Contract for Flue Gas Treatment Systems at Acciaierie d´Italia Plant Awarded to
Primetals Technologies and YARA Environmental Technologies
Three 160 MW boilers will be equipped with state-of-the-art flue gas treatment
systems. NOx, SOx, and dust emissions will be
significantly reduced. Startup of the first unit is scheduled for fourth quarter
of 2022 A consortium consisting of Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH and YARA
Environmental Technologies GmbH, both based in Austria, has been awarded by
Acciaierie d’Italia a contract for a new flue-gas treating (FGT) systems for the
three 160 MW boilers at its power plant No.2 in Taranto, Italy.
Within this consortium, Yara will deliver the new economizer and SCR (selective
catalytic reduction) DeNOx elements and Primetals Technologies will cover the
DeSOx- and dedusting part. The startup of the first FGT unit is scheduled for
the fourth quarter of 2022 with the other two units following in short
succession.
Built in the early 1970s, power plant No.2 (CET 2) is a conventional
thermo-electric power plant which will now undergo a major environmental upgrade
through the installation of state-of-the-art flue gas treatment technologies,
including SCR DeNOx system (integrated in a new economizer) for reduction of NOx
emissions by 80%, Meros DeSOx technology for reduction of SOx emissions to less
than 130 mg/Nm³ and high-end fabric filters for removal of fine dust emission to
less than 2 mg/Nm³. In order to utilize the existing power plant configuration
and the limited available space, several special considerations had been
incorporated in the design of the new FGT systems already during the development
phase of the project.
Unifrax and Lydall Are Now Alkegen
Unifrax, a leading manufacturer of high performance specialty materials used in
advanced applications, announced that it has changed its name to Alkegen, to
reflect the new company created following the acquisition of Lydall late last
year, and will also move its corporate headquarters to Dallas, Texas. Alkegen
brings together two of the world’s leading specialty materials platforms and
represents a new chapter for a unified, innovation-driven company.
Alkegen is well positioned to be the specialty materials leader serving
mission-critical systems that the world is focused on for the future, including
battery technologies, electric vehicles, filtration media, and specialty
insulation materials that enable customers to reduce fossil fuel consumption,
save energy, and live greener.
The name Alkegen is a modern adaptation of two words that are central to the
Company’s identity and mission. “Alke” is derived from the word “Alchemy,” which
evokes transformational innovation and breakthroughs in what is possible. “Gen”
is a shortened form of “Next Generation” and speaks to Alkegen’s focus on human
health and a sustainable future. The green Alkegen “arc” in the logo represents
collaboration, connectivity, and a horizon signifying the global nature of the
company and its constant innovation and forward progress.
BWF Envirotec Group Acquires ACMA in Spain
The BWF Envirotec Group acquired its long-time partner, ACMA, in Spain on
January 1, 2022. This acquisition will enable the BWF Envirotec Group to further
expand its leading market position in the global growth market of air pollution
control.
ACMA was established in 1995 and offers high-quality and individual filtration
solutions for industry. Just 30 employees work at the Badalona location, a
Catalan industrial town, about ten kilometers north-east of Barcelona. Filter
bags for industrial filtration are produced with a flexible fleet of machinery.
The production capacity for manufacturing is 120,000 filter bags. Services such
as the inspection of filter systems, technical advice, filter bag installation
and filter bag exchange are offered as well as filter bag inspections that are
performed in the in-house R & D lab. The production spectrum is supplemented by
the sales of filter cartridges and accessory parts such as supporting cages,
valves, hose pipes, pressure tanks, electronic controls, or emissions control
probes.
ACMA supplies and services the most varied of industries. This includes, for
example, metal processing, the biomass/waste recycling industry, coal processing
as well as the cement industry, power plant industry, chemical and
pharmaceutical industries or even the automobile or textile industries.
ACMA has a very large market presence and employs a highly qualified and
long-standing team at the location in Badalona. BWF Envirotec and ACMA look back
on decades of successful and cooperative collaboration. Especially in the OEM
and end-customer market there are outstanding synergies for our customers, and
we will continue to be a reliable partner for equipment manufacturers and
operators of flue gas cleaning plants with unified strength. We are thrilled to
welcome our new employees to the BWF Group.
The BWF Envirotec Group as the largest corporate division in the BWF Group in
Offingen (260 million € in sales, 1,800 employees) has a global presence with
production, sales and service locations in Germany, China, USA, Poland, Russia,
Spain, Italy, Turkey, South Africa, India, Austria, Australia, and the Czech
Republic. From the roll goods of needle felt to filter bags and filter elements
to comprehensive Services and an R & D Competence Centre, BWF Envirotec covers
the complete product portfolio for industrial filtration as the world's market
leader.
An international private equity
consortium consisting of BroadPeak Global LP, Asia Green Fund and The Saudi
Arabian Industrial Investments Company announced that they have signed a
definitive agreement whereby the Group will purchase the Clean Technologies
business of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. for $510 million in
cash. As part of the transaction, Tensile Capital Management LP is providing
preferred equity financing. The transaction is expected to close in the second
quarter of 2021 subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory
approvals.
Since first producing sulfuric acid
catalyst in 1925, DuPont Clean Technologies has become the global leader in:
advanced catalyst and process technologies to produce and regenerate sulfuric
acid, hydro processing technology to desulfurize motor fuels, alkylation
technology to produce clean gasoline and advanced air pollution control systems
for refineries and chemical facilities. DuPont Clean Technologies also offers a
comprehensive suite of aftermarket services and solutions. The Group and DuPont
are working together to execute a seamless transition plan that will serve Clean
Technologies and its global customer base both reliably and safely.
NWL Acquires European Transformer Supplier
NWL is very pleased to announce that we have acquired the Belos Unit Electrical
Devices (BUED) from Belos PLP-SA in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. This company will
operate under the name NWL Europe. This acquisition will enable us to expand our
manufacturing and service footprint into the European precipitator market.
Belos started business in 1954 and began to manufacture precipitator transformer
rectifiers in 1956. BUED will continue to deliver field service and
commissioning support for NWL products and will continue to manufacture single
phase and three phase transformer rectifiers and controls. BUED will also
continue to make and service motor starters.
Dave Seitz, President of NWL, says: “We are very excited for the opportunity
this acquisition brings us to deliver more NWL products and services in
Europe.”.