Carbon Management Strategies and Technologies is Hot Topic Hour on June 24, 2010

Two weeks ago the utility industry got a good look at what the future will be relative to Green House Gases. The EPA announced a final rule on May 13 to addressing GHG emissions from the largest stationary sources, primarily fossil fueled power plants and refineries. Starting in January 2011, facilities that are already obtaining Clean Air Act permits for other pollutants will be required to include GHG’s in their permit if they increase these emissions by at least 75,000 tons per year (tpy). In July 2011, permitting requirements will expand to cover all new facilities with GHG emissions of at least 100,000 tpy and modifications at existing facilities that would increase GHG emissions by at least 75,000 tpy. These permits must demonstrate the use of best available control technologies (BACT) to minimize GHG emission increases when facilities are constructed or significantly modified. What is BACT today?

The same week, Senator Lieberman released his climate change bill called the “American Power Act”. The bill would reduce CO2 emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and include “Cap and Trade” as well as incentives for industry to develop and deploy effective carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

How will industry respond to these new regulations and the proposed legislation? Is the announcement by Georgia Power on May 7th that they will suspend the planned environmental improvements at its Branch and Yates plants because pending rules for NOx, SO2, mercury and particulates combined with potential carbon restrictions from Congress, could undermine “the economic viability of some of the company’s coal-fired generating units,” including those at the Branch and Yates plants an indicator of things to come?

Also in late April, the Environmental Defense Fund and Tenaska announced an agreement whereby the EDF will withdraw from an ongoing Texas permit hearing that seeks to block the new 600 MW West Texas Trailblazer coal-fired power plant in exchange for Tenaska’s pledge to cut 85 percent of the plants CO2 emissions and reduce potential water use. Will this be the only way that new coal-fired power plants will get permitted in the future?

The following speakers will help us understand the current state of development of various GHG mitigation technologies, the economics, the potential GHG reductions achievable and the advantages or disadvantages of these various options. We will also hear about the results of current demonstration projects and technologies that have been commercialized at power plants and the strategies that are being considered and adopted by utilities.
Theresa Pugh, Director of Environmental Services at American Public Power Association (APPA) will address the inadequacy of control equipment and technologies to reduce CO2 through CCS in the next 15-20 years (or inability to get many permitted for subsurface injection) and also fuel switching to the natural gas option (gas availability, storage and cost volatility) and energy efficiency as a smaller step toward reducing CO2.
Floyd Robb, Vice President of Communications & Marketing Support at Basin Electric Power Cooperative will explain the carbon capture demonstration project that Basin Electric is conducting at its Antelope Valley Station. Currently the project is conducting the front end engineering and design study that is scheduled to be completed in September. The project consists of capturing 90 percent of the CO2 from a 120 MW slipstream using HTC Purenegy/Doosan Babcock's carbon capture technology.
Jared P. Ciferno, Technology Manager for CO2 Capture and Water Programs for Existing Plants at the U.S. Department of Energy/NETL Office of Fossil Energy will provide an overview of NETL’s advanced CO2 capture R&D Program, as well as the status of technology development. The goal of the DOE/NETL effort is to develop advanced CO2 capture technologies for both existing and new coal-fired power plants that can achieve 90 percent CO2 capture at less than a 35 percent increase in cost of electricity. To achieve this, an aggressive R&D program has been established in order to develop multiple advanced CO2 capture technology options (sorbents, solvents, membranes, oxy-combustion and chemical looping) capable of providing efficient, low-cost CO2 mitigation solutions at demonstration scale by 2020.
James (Jim) P. Sutton, Director of the Burner and Fabricated Parts Division of Alstom Power, Inc. will describe improvements that Alstom Power would recommend to improve boiler efficiency to minimize the emission of green house gases and present the basis for these recommendations. He will also describe the approach Alstom has developed to analyze and deliver recommendations on the most cost effective methods of improving unit efficiency and reducing CO2. Improvements consist of both major renovations and simple service modifications (such as operation and maintenance recommendations).
Phil Boyle, President and COO of Powerspan Corp. will summarize the company's pilot testing experience with its post-combustion carbon capture technology, which can follow a conventional SO2 scrubbing technology, such as a limestone forced-oxidation SO2 scrubber, or following the company's multi-pollutant control technology. Phil will also summarize the results of a recent independent technology assessment, including an evaluation of the pilot test facility and a commercial scale-up analysis.


To register for the "Hot Topic Hour" on June 24, 2010 at 10 a.m. CDT (Chicago time), click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/FGDnetoppbroch/Default1.htm

Bob McIlvaine
President
847 784 0012 ext 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com