CCS TRIAL COMING ON

In a recent interview, straight-talker Ted Turner told Charlie Rose he preferred nuclear energy to coal because what coal does to the air WILL kill while the threat of nuclear energy is that it MIGHT kill.

In an effort to save its place in the energy mix, Big Coal is racing to master the art of carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS), also known as “clean” coal. American Electric Power (AEP), one of the biggest in the coal business, is 18 months away from a large-scale trial. Thanks to a government subsidy.

In 2003/04, the Department of Energy (DOE) spent $4.2 million to drill a 10,000-foot deep hole at the AEP Mountaineer Plant in Charleston, West Virginia. Geologic consultant Battelle Memorial Institute says the rock will hold CO2 pumped into it. That’s what AEP and French CCS engineering expert Alstom are about to do with 2% of the plant’s CO2 emissions. If all goes well over the succeeding 3 to 5 years, AEP and its partners (German utility RWE will also participate) will extend the scale of the CCS project.

Cost? Removing carbon dioxide is an energy loss. Alstom expects the plant to use 10% of its power for “cleaning” the coal it burns. Less optimistic assessments put that cost as high as 30% of the plant's power. That’s a lot of kilowatt-hours lost to cleaning a raw material that is a danger and an environmental devastation to mine and emissions-intensive to transport.

Caltech Professor Nate Lewis likes to jokingly point out that if the U.S. plans to sequester underground the emissions from the coal required for electricity in the coming half-century it may lift the sea level of the entire country a few centimeters.

The many dangers and drawbacks to nuclear energy remain. If this AEP/Alstom experiment makes coal "cleaner," U.S. leaders foolish enough to turn their backs on New Energy may be forced into a more difficult quandry between "lesser" evils.

But maybe the U.S. will find the “smart” leadership Turner told Charlie Rose the nation now needs. Maybe those courageous leaders will lead the country in the massive transition to a New Energy infrastructure Turner talked about. As Turner said, it’s really a beautiful country and worth saving.

Worth saving from a choice between evils like coal and nuclear energy, NewEnergyNews would add.

click to enlarge

Utility counting on carbon capture
George Hohman, March 31 (Charleston Daily Mail)

WHO
American Electric Power (AEP) and AEP New Generation (Dave Hall, AEP liason); Alstom; RWE; Battelle Memorial Institute

The shed covers a 12-inch-diameter pipe that goes down 10,000 feet. Liquefied CO2 will be injected into it. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
AEP, in partnership with Alstom and RWE, is readying a $70 carbon-capture-and-sequestratin (CCS) project.

WHEN
AEP expects to start CCS in 18 months (late 2009).

At the temporarily covered hole (left of duct) flue gas will be extracted and CO2 removed. Gas is put back in the smaller hole (right). (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- The project is at AEP’s Mountaineer Plant in Charleston, WV.
- AEP New Generation is based in Columbus, Ohio.
- Alstom is based in France.
- RWE is a German utility giant.
- Battelle Memorial Instituteis based in Charleston.
- A 1.7-megawatt CCS project is under way at Wisconsin Electric Power Co.'s Pleasant Prairie Power Plant in Wisconsin.

WHY
- The Mountaineer Plant was the site of a very successful $553 million SO2 scrubber retrofit that now captures 98% of that acid rain-causing coal plant emission.
- Cuts have been made in the plant’s smokestack. The fiberglass pipeline will soon be installed. Footers for the new plant that will separate the CO2 from the captured emissions and convert it into liquid will be poured in June.
- The CO2 liquid will be pumped into 100- to 140-foot thick rock formation 7,00 feet to 8,400 feet underground.
- The “cleaned” exhaust will be sent up the smokestack.
- This $70 million retrofit will clean 2% of the plant’s exhaust, accounting for 20 megawatts of the plant’s 1,300 megawatt output.
- Regulatory approval for a controversial 629-megawatt Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant with full CCS “retrofit” capacity on the Mountaineer plant premises is pending. Local activists want regulators to require CCS capacity, not “retrofit” capacity. Plant builders claim the technology is not ready. Activists say it is merely too expensive.

An Alstom schematic. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
According to Mike Hammond, project engineer, AEP New Generation: “[The plant will] help Alstom learn how to scale up its technology…Give AEP experience operating a carbon capture project…Show what the process costs…Prove carbon dioxide can be stored safely underground, once it is captured.”