311 Carbon Management Programs for Fossil Fueled Boilers is Hot Topic Hour March 31, 2011

Carbon Management Programs for Fossil Fueled Boilers is Hot Topic Hour March 31, 2011

In December, the DOE’s Energy Information Agency released a preliminary forecast for the nation’s energy production that predicts coal will supply 43 percent of the U.S.’s electricity demand in 2035, down just two percent from 2009. This may occur if greenhouse gas regulations do not close down a large portion of today’s fleet of coal-fired power plants or change the economics of energy production to favor oil or gas.

With efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions via legislation stalled in Congress, the Obama Administration is now utilizing unilateral regulation by the EPA to achieve his goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. Late last year under orders from the administration EPA, as part of a legal settlement with several states, local governments and environmental groups, announced that it would regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Under the December settlement, EPA will propose rules regulating CO₂ emissions from power plants by July 26, 2011, and finalize them by May 26, 2012. Although many key legislators are promising to block the EPA’s actions, whether they are successful and for how long remains to be seen.

Since it is almost a certainty that power plant operators will face regulations restricting and reducing CO₂emissions in the not so distant future, they need to be considering now how to achieve reductions. There are many ways that operators of existing boilers can achieve reductions in CO₂ emissions per unit of energy produced and consumed or per ton of coal consumed. These include:

· Production of byproducts such as gypsum, hydrochloric acid, ammonium sulfate and sulfuric acid

However, the real reductions in CO₂ emissions that will allow coal to be combusted to generate power for a long time come with the efficiencies that can be gained by building new multi-purpose power plants with new technologies such as IGCC, Oxy- combustion, CFB, co-generation and by strategically locating these plants. If the power plants are located near chemical or other plants needing low cost, low quality steam such as for production of cellulosic ethanol, there will be more energy extracted from each unit of coal reducing the CO₂ per unit of energy. In the case of production of cellulosic ethanol, it will also provide a large source of biomass to supplement coal-firing further reducing emissions per unit of energy.

Jim Sutton, Director at Alstom Power, will discuss CO₂ reduction through increasing energy efficiency in coal-fired boilers. His presentation will cover how much CO₂ could potentially be avoided, breakdown of areas in a power plant that can be improved, and some case studies of Alstom efficiency improvement products.

Jim Staudt PhD, President of Andover Technology Partners, will provide an overview of ongoing activities in the Greenhouse Gas mitigation area with particular focus on the U.S. EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options Database (G-MOD). G-MOD is a database that will span multiple industry sectors. Dr. Staudt will describe some of the features and functionality that are planned for G-MOD.

John Wheeldon, a Technical Executive in EPRI’s Generation Division – “CO₂ emissions are expected to become restricted in the near future and, as a consequence, coal-fired power plant technology must re-invent itself if it is to remain a major provider of electricity. Raising generating efficiency offers a “no-regrets” approach to lowering emissions of CO₂/MWh. The presentation will discuss progress being made in raising generating efficiency up to 50 percent (HHV) and identifying how the technology might be demonstrated.”

Ph: 847-784-0012 | Fax; 847-784-0061

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