409 CO2 Decisions for Utilities is the Hot Topic on April 2, 2009 at 10 a.m. CDT

CO₂ Decisions for Utilities is the Hot Topic on April 2, 2009 at 10 a.m. CDT

President Obama's climate czar recently said that the Environmental Protection Agency will soon determine that carbon-dioxide emissions represent a danger to the public and propose new rules to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gases. How will fossil fuel burning utilities cope with these new regulations? What options are available?

Carbon capture and sequestration is one option that has been widely discussed and promoted by many interested parties. This option also recently received a boost from the economic recovery package by Congress on October 3, 2008. The bailout package included $2.5 billion in incentives for developing carbon capture and storage. An additional $1.1 billion in tax incentives will be available in the form of a $20 per ton tax credit for geologic carbon storage and a $10 per ton tax credit for enhanced oil recovery, providing the carbon dioxide comes from an industrial or power project that captures a minimum of half a million tons of carbon dioxide per year. But can this really be done? Is the technology ready? What are the problems that will be encountered? Also, the reduction of CO₂ emissions by a variety of strategies including co-firing of biomass and adding energy to the utility output by renewable methods are other alternatives.

The following presenters will address the technology, economics and problems that might be expected for these and other alternatives available for reducing CO₂ emissions.

Megan Parsons, PE, the CO₂ Technology Business Manager for Burns & McDonnell

Engineering Company will address the challenges utility companies face when planning for new generation in a time of carbon legislation uncertainty focusing on the challenges of technology pre-and post-combustion selection, economic forecasting, financing, and permitting for both new and retrofit applications.

David St. Angelo, VP Field Operations, Skyonic, Inc. will provide an update on the operation and results of the use of the SkyMine™ process to capture and mineralize CO₂ as sodium bicarbonate that has been operating at the Big Brown Steam Electric Station for almost two years.

Ms. Naomi Goff, an air quality engineer in the Oakland, California office of AECOM Environmental will describe the use of the Steam Flow Method in conjunction with using ASTM Method D6866-06a for determination of the biogenic fraction of CO₂ from the combustion of heterogeneous fuels as an alternative to monitoring CO₂ with a CEMs and will present a specific example from a MSW facility in California.

George Peridas, a scientist working at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC's) Climate Center. He is involved in NRDC's efforts in Carbon Capture & Sequestration technology, policy and regulation and will present the view point of NDRC on the reduction of CO₂ from power plants. "The world's growing demand for energy and rising atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ are currently on a collision course, calling for significant rethinking of the energy infrastructure investments we make today. Coal-fired power generation in particular is the sector in more urgent need of decarbonization. We examine the options and the latest policy developments driving this transformation."

Timothy (Tim) Fout, a project manager at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of the U.S. Department of Energy will present an update on the NETL programs to develop advanced CO₂ capture technologies that can be retrofit to existing coal-fired power plants as well designed into new plants.

Frank Princiotta, Director, Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division, U.S. EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards will discuss key technology options for CO₂ mitigation at power generation facilities including fossil fuel carbon emission reduction via higher efficiency conversion and carbon capture and storage technologies and inherently lower carbon emission power generators such as nuclear and renewable.  All of these approaches have serious issues which will limit the extent of their application in the near-term.  Key technologies will be discussed along with their mitigation potential and factors limiting their universal applicability.

John Wheeldon, a project manager, Coal Technology will provide an update of EPRI programs to solve the CO₂ capture and storage problems.

To register for the “Hot Topic Hour” on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. CDT, click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/FGDnetoppbroch/Default1.htm .

Bob McIlvaine

847 784-0012 ext 112

rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com