CO₂ Capture and Sequestration is the Hot Topic on June 25, 2009

The Obama Administration has demonstrated its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by putting money behind all of the rhetoric.  President Obama’s budget plan assumes $78.7 billion in revenue in 2012 from the sale of greenhouse gas emission permits.  The Administration’s 2010 budget increases EPA funding by $3.0 billion to allow them to take on the task of regulating CO₂.  Under pressure from the Administration, Congress is working to pass legislation implementing GHG reduction by early next year.  This leaves little doubt that the utility industry will be required to reduce CO₂ emissions sooner rather than later and this also puts the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States in danger.  Already new plants are being cancelled or postponed for years because of permitting and cost issues related to reducing CO₂ emissions.

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has been proposed as the best available technology but with today’s technology it will be extremely expensive.  The much delayed then cancelled FutureGen project, intended to test on a commercial scale and develop affordable technology that can remove 90 percent of emissions produced by coal-fired power plants, is on the verge of resurrection with funding in the stimulus package passed by Congress.  But it will take years to construct the plant and demonstrate results.  

A number of other technologies for CO₂ capture are being tested in smaller scale demonstration projects at power plants and showing some promise. Also a number of research projects are exploring the issues related to sequestration.  But will a cost effective CCS technology be ready in time to save the industry?  Some experts predict that CO₂ capture will not be commercially viable for ten years and sequestration on a large scale will not be possible for another ten after that.

The following speakers will address some of these issues and describe the current demonstration projects and other issues involved in carbon capture and sequestration.

Pete Baldwin, President Ramgen Power Systems will present an update on the technical and commercial status of the family of “High-Efficiency/Low-Cost CO₂ Compressors for Carbon Capture and Storage” being developed by Ramgen.  These compressors combine many of the aspects of shock compression systems commonly used in supersonic flight inlets, with turbo-machinery design practices employed in conventional axial and centrifugal compressor design to provide a compressor with an all-in installed capital cost expected to be 50-60 percent of the conventional approaches.

Karen Ratcliff at Siemens Energy, Inc. Fossil - New Technologies, is responsible for the U.S. market introduction of the Siemens post-combustion carbon capture process.  She will discuss Siemens newest offering for pre-and post-combustion CO₂ capture and describe development projects underway to pave the path to commercialization.

Jim Lepinski, President Headwaters Clean Carbon Services LLC, will discuss how to overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities for CO₂ Capture and Sequestration.

Kurt Waltzer of the Clean Air Task Force

Lyle Witham, Manager Environmental Services at Basin Electric Power Co-operative

Deepak Khajouria, Manager for Power Projects at Doosan Babcock Energy America LLC

To register for the “Hot Topic Hour” on Thursday, June 25^th 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