The Energy Blog

The Beginning of the End for Coal

A post on Earth Policy Institute describes the difficulty power companies are having in getting coal fired power plants approved. There first paragraph sums up the difficulty they are having:

With concerns about climate change mounting, the era of coal-fired electricity generation in the United States may be coming to a close. In early 2007, a U.S. Department of Energy report listed 151 coal-fired power plants in the planning stages in the United States. But during 2007, 59 proposed plants were either refused licenses by state governments or quietly abandoned. In addition, close to 50 coal plants are being contested in the courts, and the remaining plants will likely be challenged when they reach the permitting stage.

The post goes on to outline 18 events that have occurred in the last year that have contributed to this dilemma.  The latest action was the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives that would block the EPA and states from issuing permits to new coal-fired power plants that lack state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage, CCS, technology. A comment added to this item was: Since this technology is at least a decade away from commercial viability, if this bill passes it would essentially place a near-term moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.

We have an urgent need for more power production and some way of providing this power must be provided. If the bill introduced in house should pass, as proposed, we would be dependent on renewable energy, nuclear power and conservation to provide the power in the near term. Since these options would not be sufficient, we could only hope that this bill would not pass or it would be modified before passage.

I disagree that CCS technology is at least a decade from commercial viability -- I believe that at least one technology will be successfully demonstrated in 5-7 years. We have at least four CCS technologies in the testing stage and I would propose that coal fired power plants be allowed to be built, 1) under more stringent conditions that the power is needed, 2) that they be located where carbon sequestration can take place and 3) that they be built so that the emerging CCS technologies can be easily adapted to the plant. Their are two ammonia based systems and two amine based systems that I am aware of. It may be necessary to pick one of these technologies or it may be possible to provide (perhaps massive) piping connections that would allow any process to be connected.

While many will say that conservation of electricity is the answer, it is only part of the solution. It will take many years before a structured plan could be put in place.  It may be possible that certain industries could be found where conservation could be mandated, if that can be done constitutionally. Higher prices for electricity may end up being the the greatest force causing conservation. Practices that reduce electrical consumption in the home have been written about by many and these should receive more widespread availability. A simple search on your favorite search engine using the search words "home electricity efficiency" brings up several sources including this one, How to Save Electricity in Your Home from the Edison Electric Institute.

Nuclear and Renewable energy simply cannot be brought up to speed fast enough to meet all our needs, although I think they should be accelerated as fast as possible.  Incentives for renewables should be maintained until the industries are fully sustainable. Geothermal energy has become my favorite renewable energy because it is a baseload power provider, and with new, hot dry rock, HDR, technology can be located in almost all areas of the world, as such it should receive much more funding for demonstration plants from the government. At least four geothermal projects, two funded by DOE and one in France and one in Germany using HDR technology are already underway. Although a large number of HDR plants could be built with existing technology, it might take 10 or 15 years before this technology can be applied universally.

An exception could be made on my, and the US governments, stand that only a few generation III+ nuclear plants can be be built until they have demonstrated that they can operated safely.  If it could be shown that the AP1000 and AREVA plants, and any other that meet US criteria, have been safely and successfully operated in a foreign country, the requirement for operation in the US could be waived.

Basin Electric Selects Powerspan's ECO2 Carbon Capture Process for Commercial Demonstration Project

Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Powerspan Corp. today announced the selection of Powerspan's carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology, called "ECO2(TM)," for a commercial demonstration at Basin Electric's Antelope Valley Station, a coal-based electrical generation facility located near Beulah, North Dakota. Approximately one million tons of CO2 will be captured annually from the 120 megawatt slipstream project, making this demonstration among the largest in the world.

ECO2 is a post-combustion, regenerative process, which uses an ammonia-based solution to capture CO2 from the flue gas of a power plant and release it in a form that is ready for further compression, safe transportation, and geological storage.

The demonstration will draw the equivalent of a 120 megawatt slipstream and will be designed to capture 90 percent of the incoming CO2. The captured CO2 would then be delivered by pipe to the existing compressor station at Dakota Gasification's adjacent Synfuels Plant and injected into Dakota Gasification's 205-mile pipeline system for delivery to Canada where it will be used in an EOR project.

Chilled Ammonia Carbon Capture Process to be Demonstrated

A pilot plant that uses chilled ammonia to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-fueled power plants was launched by Alstom, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and We Energies, at We Energies’ Pleasant Prairie Power Plant in Wisconsin. Alstom designed, constructed and will operate the 1.7 MW system that captures CO2 from a portion of coal-fired boiler flue gas at the power plant, a 1,224 MW coal-fired generating station.

Alstom’s process uses chilled ammonia to capture CO2 and isolates it in a highly concentrated, high-pressure form. In laboratory testing it has demonstrated the potential to capture more than 90 percent of CO2 at a cost that is far less than other carbon capture technologies. Once captured, the CO2 can be used commercially or sequestered in suitable underground geologic sites.

“Developing cost-effective carbon capture technology is one of the most important environmental challenges facing the utility industry in the 21st century and it’s important that we take steps now to achieve a long-term technology solution”

-- Gale Klappa, Chairman, President and CEO of Wisconsin Energy, parent company of We Energies

This process sounds like one that could be fairly easily integrated into existing power plants and lead the way towards the government requiring carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) at all coal fired power plants.  Note that this project is being done with no government financing. Other technologies that are being developed and that have been reported on by TEB, include: ones using ZIFs, sodium hydroxide, or amine based solvents, another, I believe ambient temperature ammonia system, algae systems, and an e.coli system.  These processes are aimed at conventional coal fired plants.  IGCC and Oxyfuel plants isolate the CO2 as part of the processes so carbon capture is a much simpler process, but these plants cost more than conventional coal plants.  There is disagreement whether conventional plants with CCS or IGCC plants with just sequestration are the most economical and which plants will dominate the industry in the future.  In any case there is a huge number of existing conventional coal plants that need CCS, once legislation is passed requiring it.

Bank of America to Assess Cost of Carbon on Loans to Utility Companies

The banking industry is taking an increasing interest in green energy and carbon emissions, in lieu of the Federal government not taking any action. Because of this failing, the Bank of America has decided to start assessing the cost of carbon in their risk and underwriting processes for loans to power companies, currently estimating the cost of carbon will fall between $20-$40 per ton of carbon dioxide, anticipating that either a carbon tax will be assessed in the future or that CCS will be required at some point. This follows the establishment of the Carbon Principles, which established guidelines for banks to use in considering the risk factors in making loans to power companies, as announced by a consortium of banks on Feb. 4.

This action effectively acts as a carbon tax and will raise the cost of electricity from power plants emitting carbon to a cost that will give renewable energy a fairer playing field.  This action could increase the spread between the cost of electricity made from nuclear power and coal power, considering that nuclear does not produce any carbon due to the operation of their plants. While I support Gen III+ nuclear (the next generation of nuclear plants), I also believe that the direct and indirect subsidies that the government gives nuclear plants should be eliminated (not much chance of this happening though), which would probably bring coal plants with CCS back into more favorable economics as compared to nuclear.

This action should help clear up the logjam that has been developing regarding construction of new coal fired plants. Because the procedures for approval of Gen III+ plants have not been ironed out, it will still take an extended period to get the first few of these on line. Also the nuclear industry has said that it will not build additional plants until the first 6-8 of these plants are in operation. Thus coal plants will probably start being built again in the not to distant future.  Wind power is near the point where their manufacturing capacity is significant and this should keep their growth rate growing strong.  Solar has many years (5-7) before their capacity could reasonably be expected to be significant and their costs reduced, so the immediate impact on them is nil -- still waiting for more silicon capacity and thin-film technologies to be more developed. However these factors have not kept solar from growing at a high pace.   

In a speech at the Feb. 12 North Carolina Issues Forum Ken Lewis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America made the following statements outlining his banks position on this subject: 

Historic Data Suggest Geosequestration of CO2 Safe

Alpha Galileo reports that a new study has revealed that storing carbon dioxide beneath the earth may be a safer and longer term method of reducing emissions in the atmosphere than previously thought. Researchers at the University of Manchester found that carbon dioxide (CO2) has been naturally stored for up to 40 million years in CO2 gas fields in the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains of the USA. The researchers took CO2 samples from five natural gas fields and measured their noble gases. Their findings allowed them to ‘fingerprint’ the Colorado CO2 for the first time. “The results show that the gas in the fields has been released from molten magma within the Earth’s crust. In all of these fields, the last time the magma melted and CO2 was released was more than eight thousand years ago. In three of the fields, it last occurred over a million years ago, and in one it was at least 40 million years ago. This proves that the CO2 has been stored naturally and safely in the earth for periods between eight thousand years and 40 million years. We hope this study will pave the way for selection of similar safe sites for storage of CO2 from power plants in both the UK and abroad. Underground CO2 storage, in the correct place, should be a safe option to help us cope with emissions until we can develop cleaner energy sources. A suitable storage place for the UK could be in the North Sea, where similar rocks to those in the gas fields can be found.” Dr. Stuart Gilfillan, the researcher running the project

New Materials Can Isolate and Capture CO2 More Efficiently with Five Times More Density than Current State of the Art

UCLA scientists have demonstrated that they can successfully isolate and capture carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, rising sea levels and the increased acidity of oceans. Their findings could lead to power plants efficiently capturing carbon dioxide without using toxic materials.

The carbon dioxide is captured using a new class of materials designed by Omar M. Yaghi, UCLA's Christopher S. Foote Professor of Chemistry and his group, shown above, called zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, or ZIFs. These are porous and chemically robust structures, with large surface areas, that can be heated to high temperatures without decomposition and boiled in water or organic solvents for a week and still remain stable.

"Now we have structures that can be tailored precisely to capture carbon dioxide and store it like a reservoir, as we have demonstrated. No carbon dioxide escapes. Nothing escapes — unless you want it to do so. We believe this to be a turning point in capturing carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere."

-- Omar M. Yaghi

Currently, the process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants involves the use of toxic materials and requires 20 to 30 percent of the plant's energy output, Yaghi said. By contrast, ZIFs can pluck carbon dioxide from other gases that are emitted and can store five times more carbon dioxide than the porous carbon materials that represent the current state-of-art.

Georgia Tech: CCS from Vehicles with Carbon Recyle = Zero Emission Car

Georgia Tech abridged press release:

The Georgia Tech team’s goal is to create a sustainable transportation system that uses a liquid fuel and traps the carbon emission in the vehicle for later processing at a fueling station. The carbon would then be shuttled back to a processing plant where it could be transformed into liquid fuel. Currently, Georgia Tech researchers are developing a fuel processing device to separate the carbon and store it in the vehicle in liquid form.

Georgia Tech’s near-future strategy involves capturing carbon emissions from conventional (fossil) liquid hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles with an onboard fuel processor designed to separate the hydrogen in the fuel from the carbon. Hydrogen is then used to power the vehicle, while the carbon is stored on board the vehicle in a liquid form until it is disposed at a refueling station. It is then transported to a centralized site to be sequestered in a permanent location currently under investigation by scientists, such as geological formations, under the oceans or in solid carbonate form.

In the long-term strategy, the carbon dioxide will be recycled forming a closed-loop system, involving synthesis of high energy density liquid fuel suitable for the transportation sector.

Georgia Tech settled on a hydrogen-fueled vehicle for its carbon capture plan because pure hydrogen produces no carbon emissions when it is used as a fuel to power the vehicle. The fuel processor produces the hydrogen on-board the vehicle from the hydrocarbon fuel without introducing air into the process, resulting in an enriched carbon byproduct that can be captured with minimal energetic penalty. Traditional combustion systems, including current gasoline-powered automobiles, have a combustion process that combines fuel and air — leaving the carbon dioxide emissions highly diluted and very difficult to capture.

Leading Wall Street Banks Establish The Carbon Principles

Guidelines to strengthen environmental and economic risk management in the financing and construction of electricity generation.

Three of the world's leading financial institutions announced the formation of The Carbon Principles, climate change guidelines for advisors and lenders to power companies in the United States. The need for these Principles is driven by the risks faced by the power industry as utilities, independent producers, regulators, lenders and investors deal with the uncertainties around regional and national climate change policy.

The Principles were developed in partnership by Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, and in consultation with leading power companies American Electric Power, CMS Energy, DTE Energy, NRG Energy, PSEG, Sempra and Southern Company. Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council, environmental non-governmental organizations, also advised on the creation of the Principles.

Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have pledged their commitment to the Principles to use as a framework when talking about these issues with clients. This effort creates a consistent approach among major lenders and advisors in evaluating climate change risks and opportunities in the US electric power industry. The Principles and associated Enhanced Diligence represent a first step in a process aimed at providing banks and their power industry clients with a consistent roadmap for reducing the regulatory and financial risks associated with greenhouse gas emissions.

The Principles are:

FutureGen Scrapped, CCS to be Demonstrated on Multiple Clean Coal Power Plants

From a DOE announcement:

DOE announced a restructured approach to its FutureGen project that aims to demonstrate cutting-edge carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at multiple commercial-scale Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) clean coal power plants.

Under this strategy, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will join industry in its efforts to build IGCC plants by providing funding for the addition of CCS technology to multiple plants that will be operational by 2015.  This approach builds on technological research and development advancements in IGCC and CCS technology achieved over the past five years and is expected to at least double the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered compared to the concept announced in 2003.  . . .

The Department today issued a Request for Information (RFI) that seeks industry’s input by March 3, 2008, on the costs and feasibility associated with building clean coal facilities that achieve the intended goals of FutureGen.  Following this period and consideration of industry comment, DOE intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement – or competitive solicitation – to provide federal funding under cooperative agreements to equip IGCC (or other clean coal technology) commercial power plants that generate at least 300 megawatts, with CCS technology aimed at accelerating near-term technology deployment.  . . .

Under this plan, DOE’s investment would provide funding for no more than the CCS component of the power plant – not the entire plant construction, compared with the FutureGen concept announced in 2003 where the federal government would incur 74% of rising costs.  This would allow for commercial operation of IGCC power plants equipped with CCS technology to begin as soon as the plants are commissioned, between 2015 and 2016.  . . .

The four sites – two in Illinois and two in Texas – evaluated in the Department’s Environmental Impact Statement issued in November 2007, including the site announced by the FutureGen Alliance in December 2007, Mattoon, IL, may be eligible to host a commercial-scale IGCC plant with CCS technology.

I think this approach is much better than the original, provided it does not delay the demonstration of CCS and the following legislation to require CCS, or equivalent technology, on future coal fired plants.

DOE Awards First Three Large-Scale Carbon Sequestration Projects

U.S Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell today announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the first three large-scale carbon sequestration projects in the United States and the largest single set in the world to date. DOE plans to invest $197 million over ten years, subject to annual appropriations from Congress, for the projects, whose estimated value including partnership cost share is $318 million.

The three projects - Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership; Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership; and Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration - will conduct large volume tests for the storage of one million or more tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep saline reservoirs. These projects will double the number of large-volume carbon storage demonstrations in operation worldwide.

The formations to be tested during this third phase of the regional partnerships program are recognized as the most promising of the geologic basins in the United States. Collectively, these formations have the potential to store more than one hundred years of CO2 emissions from all major point sources in North America.

The projects will demonstrate the entire CO2 injection process - pre-injection characterization, injection process monitoring, and post-injection monitoring - at large volumes to determine the ability of different geologic settings to permanently store CO2.