The Air Force considered using airplane fuel made from coal, but McGinn says it didn't work because of cost and technical issues.
"The notion of coal to liquid, when you first take a look at it seems appealing, but when you look at some of the technical difficulties in actually doing it, it's pretty much a non-starter."
"Wow" says Jim Kotcon. See article below.
JBK
>>> "Public News Service" <wvns(a)publicnewsservice.org> 10/12/2009 9:40 AM >>>
Public News Service-…
[View More]WV
October 12, 2009
Climate Change As An Issue Of National Security
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Because of the importance of the coal industry in West Virginia, climate change is usually a domestic, economic issue in that state. However, according to a dozen three- and four-star retired military officers, climate change is a serious U.S. national security threat. Retired Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn says people in failed states such as Afghanistan and Somalia often turn to extremism. And he says natural disasters like floods, droughts or hurricanes, which some people have linked to climate change, can push weak nations over the edge.
"Imagine, around the world, fault lines along religious, ethnic, economic and political lines. Put a big magnifying glass on top of those fault lines, increase them in frequency and intensity, and that's what the climate change dynamic will do."
McGinn says the military is moving strongly towards energy conservation and alternative fuels. He says the Department of Defense wants to save money and protect the country from the possible security threats ensuing from its dependence on imported oil, and that one possible solution is domestic, renewable energy.
"The Navy is investigating use of algae-based oils for ship and airborne use. In fact they're planning on flying an F-18 Super Hornet next year, using algae-based oil."
The Air Force considered using airplane fuel made from coal, but McGinn says it didn't work because of cost and technical issues.
"The notion of coal to liquid, when you first take a look at it seems appealing, but when you look at some of the technical difficulties in actually doing it, it's pretty much a non-starter."
Some coal executives, including Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, have disputed whether industrial activity is having an impact on the climate. McGinn says it's already causing important water problems in parts of Central and South Asia.
The U.S. Senate is now debating a bill on climate change.
A report written by the CNA Military Advisory Board, which includes Admiral McGinn, is available online at
www.cna.org
Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/10887-1
---
To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to remove(a)publicnewsservice.org and put the word "remove" in the subject line.
[View Less]
Very nice analysis.
Two thoughts:
Offshore wind is politically more palatable than onshore.
There are plenty of existing examples, just not in the US.
Jim Sconyers
jim_scon(a)yahoo.com
304.698.9628
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
--- On Mon, 10/5/09, Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> wrote:
From: Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET>
Subject: Re: FW: 1st Cement Plant CO2 Sequestration Project
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Date: Monday, October 5, 2009, 12:…
[View More]28 AM
In order to be precise, each specific project must be evaluated, and
then it doesn't always turn out as expected. The industry seems to
have an average cost of about ten cents per KWH from new state of the
art plants in good locations. I believe but cannot parse the data from
where I sit, that this includes the production tax credit, which
effectively reduces the capital cost even though it is applied to
specific KWH's generated. Offshore wind is generally thought to cost
about four cents more, of which maybe two cents is recaptured due to
the better wind thought to be available. There are very few existing
offshore projects, and I don't know when the ones that are under
construction are going to be completed, or when the industry will
publicize useful information.
12 miles is a specific measure. You would have to look at the coastal
maps and see how much shallow coast in good wind areas there is. I
would think that in most places 12 miles offshore would be very deep,
and pointless to try to do.
The more important point here is that onshore wind is presently
slightly cheaper than new coal without CCS, and that when you add the
price of CCS new coal becomes about as expensive as nuclear power or
solar PV.
CCS is unlikely to become economic at any point in time. (Solar PV, by
contrast, has a large potential to reduce prices substantially - the
difference is that with solar we can see where research may help, and
with CCS, there isn't much about it that isn't already pretty well
defined, especially the energy requirements of compression and
pumping). These projects represent $3.4 billion being spent on behalf
of three major industries which collectively take in about a trillion
dollars a year (the petroleum and gas markets are so volatile that if
you want a more specific dollar amount you need to specify the year).
The research projects which inject post-combustion CO2 to enhance
fossil fuel recovery are NOT CCS projects, and it is good to see them
included here because it illustrates the lack of credibility that the
entire group of projects have.
The more responsible projects here are ones such as the C6 project
which is injecting into a deep saline formation. That doesn't mean it
will work, and it doesn't mean it has a greater likelihood of being
economically viable. It just means it isn't obvious in the course of a
summary paragraph that it is going to fail the test of keeping the
carbon out of the atmosphere for ten thousand years, destroy any water
tables or move toxic aromatics to the surface.
I think we have enough onshore wind to do most of what wind can do for
us. Efficiency is the heavy lifter in the next decade. We can triple
current levels by spending $9 billion per year, which is about half of
what we spent on wind last year. Doing that will triple the energy
savings of last year's wind, which was nearly identical to last year's
efficiency. That level of efficiency spending can be sustained for
several decades. We can triple it again, if we really think it
matters, in which case we might run out of efficiency potential in less
than twenty years (this level of spending will eliminate electric
sector CO2 in about 25 years). I advocate spending as much as we can
on efficiency, because each dollar saves three. Any rate increase to
fund efficiency pays for sustained efficiency for as long as we want to
keep on saving more money. Part of the saving should be used to fund
more wind, and if we're good investors in about five years or so we
should have solar that is cheap enough to pick up the major action that
wind presently has. Once that happens we get to eliminate just about
all CO2. There are some concerns about how to get power in the middle
of the night, and while solar thermal answers that best in my mind,
there are other solutions. But figuring that out is much less
important than recognizing that it doesn't matter how many coal plants
there are if we are cutting total use with efficiency, and building as
many renewables as we can afford to. We've already achieved our first
year of net reductions, partly due to the recession but partly due to
efficiency and renewables. We can keep it up, and we do that best by
concentrating on the right levels of investment in efficiency and
renewables. CCS will never compete in that sort of an environment.
- Ned
Dolph Honicker wrote:
Has
anyone done a study on how much it would cost to put windmills 12 miles
off our coast?. A recent you tube video by a Sierra Club
representative detailed how they could supply all the electricity the
U.S. needs, and quickly. Capturing CO2 from coal fired plants does not
address the problem of mountain top removal. I suggest that we
compare the costs of off shore windmills, the time it will take to
bring them on line in a big way, and calculate how much CO2 can be
eliminated as an alternative to this program.
Has there been an eis? There should be, as this is a major federal
action. Alternatives must be examined in all eis's. If we are
serious about global warming, we will immediately act to solve the
problem. We don't have 50 years to wait. This is another massive
subsidy for the petroleum and coal industries
Jeannine Honicker
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 09:58:57 -0700
From: doris(a)CELLARIUS.ORG
Subject: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] FW: 1st Cement Plant CO2 Sequestration Project
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
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..
Secretary Chu on Carbon Capture
.Public
support of CCS R&D is essential, and for this reason, $3.4 billion
of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money is being invested by
the US Department of Energy (DOE) in CCS R&D...There are many
hurdles to making CCS a reality, but none appear insurmountable. The
DOE goal is to support R&D, as well as pilot CCS projects so that
widespread deployment of CCS can begin in 8 to 10 years. This is an
aggressive goal, but the climate problem compels us to act with fierce
urgency.
“
DOE Makes First Awards from $1.4B for Industrial Carbon Capture
and Storage Projects
3 October 2009
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected
12 projects for the first round of funding from $1.4 billion from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the capture carbon dioxide
from industrial sources for storage or beneficial use. The first phase
of these projects will include $21.6 million in Recovery Act funding
and $22.5 million in private funding for a total initial investment of
$44.1 million. The remaining Recovery Act funding will be awarded to
the most promising projects during a competitive phase two selection
process.
Projects selected include large-scale
industrial carbon capture and storage projects that capture carbon
dioxide emissions from industrial sources—such as cement plants,
chemical plants, refineries, paper mills, and manufacturing
facilities—and store the carbon dioxide in deep saline formations=2
0and other geologic systems.
--
The initial duration of each project selected
is approximately seven months. Projects will be subject to further
competitive evaluation in 2010 after successful comp letion of their
Phase 1 activities. Projects that best demonstrate the ability to
address their mission needs will be in the final portfolio that will
receive additional funding for design, construction, and operation.
Secretary
Chu on Carbon Capture
Energy
Secretary Steven Chu wrote an editorial
for the 25 September 2009 special issue of the journal Science on
carbon capture, in which he addressed the magnitude of the challenge.
Noting
that coal accounts for roughly 25% of the world energy supply and 40%
of the carbon emissions. Chu said that it was highly unlikely that the
US, Russia, China and India, which account for two-thirds of the coal
reserves, “will
turn their back on coal anytime soon .”
...for
this reason, the capture and storage of CO2 emissions from
fossil fuel power plants must be aggressively pursued.
...The
scale of CCS needed to make a sign ificant dent in worldwide carbon
emissions is staggering. Roughly 6 billion metric tons of coal are used
each year, producing 18 billion tons of CO2. In contrast, we
now sequester a few million metric tons of CO2 per year. At
geological storage densities of CO2 (0.6 kg/m3),
underground sequestration will require a storage volume of 30,000 km3/year.
This may be sufficient storage capacity, but more testing is required
to demonstrate such capacity and integrity.
...We
should pursue a range of options for new coal-fired power plants (such
as coal gasification, burning coal in an oxygen atmosphere, or
post-combustion capture) to determine the most cost-effective approach
to burn fuel and reduce the total amount of CO2 emitted. No
matter which technology ultimately proves best for new plants, we will
still need to retrofit existing plants and new plants that will be
built before CCS is routinely deployed. Each new 1-gigawatt coal plant
is a billion-dollar investment and, once built, will be used for
decades.
...Public
support of CCS R&D is essential, and for this reason, $3.4 billion
of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money is being invested by
the US Department of Energy (DOE) in CCS R&D...There are many
hurdles to making CCS a reality, but none appear insurmountable. The
DOE goal is to support R&D, as well as pilot CCS projects so that
widespread deployment of CCS can begin in 8 to 10 years. This is an
aggressive goal, but the climate problem compels us to act with fierce
urgency.
—Dr.
Steven Chu, Science
Large-scale industrial carbon capture and
storage selections (by amount of DOE award) include:
ConocoPhillips.
ConocoPhillips will demonstrate new advancements that improve
conversion efficiency and economies of scale for carbon capture systems
at a petcoke-based 683-megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle
(IGCC) power plant adjacent to its existing refinery in Sweeny, Texas.
About 85% of the CO2 from the process stream will be
captured and over 5 million tons sequestered into a depleted oil or gas
field. (DOE Share: $3,014,666)
C6 Resources. Objective
is to capture and transport by pipeline approximately 1 million tons
per year of CO2 streams from facilities located in the Bay
Area, Calif., to be injected more than 2 miles underground into a
saline formation. C6 Resources, an affiliate of Shell Oil Company, will
conduct the project in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (DOE Share:
$3,000,000)
Shell Chemical Capital Company. The
objective of this project is to capture, condition, and transport by
pipeline approximately 1 million tons per year of by-product and
off-gas CO2 streams from facilities located along the
Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans for geologic
storage. (DOE Share: $3,000,000)
Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative
Inc. Investigators will demonstrate advanced amines and
additives supplied by Hitachi and Dow to capture 300,000 tons of CO2
per year. Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative will be building a
600-megawatt circulating fluidized bed power plant near Rogers City,
Mich. (DOE Share: $2,723,512)
University of Utah. More
than 1 million tons of CO2 per year will be captured from
various industrial sources, compressed, and transported via two new
intra-state pipelines for CO2 enhanced oil recovery and deep
saline sequestration research in Kansas. Beneath each enhanced oil
recovery target, a major saline aquifer spanning most of the State of
Kansas will be used for CO2 injection. (DOE Share:
$2,696,556)
Praxair Inc. Praxair will
partner with BP Products North America, Denbury Resources, and Gulf
Coast Carbon Center to demonstrate capture and sequestration of CO2
emissions from an existing hydrogen-production facility in an oil
refinery into underground formations for CO2 enhanced oil
recovery. This demonstration will be performed at the BP refinery, and
a lateral pipeline will be built to connect to Denbury’s Green Pipeline
to transport 1 million tons of CO2 per year. (DOE Share:
$1,719,464)
Archer Daniels Midland Corporation.
Archer Daniels Midland Company, a member of DOE’s Midwes t Geological
Sequestration Consortium, will partner with other research
organizations to demonstrate Dow ALSTOM’s advanced amine process to
capture CO2 from industrial flue gases and sequester the CO2
in the Mt. Simon Sandstone reservoir. (DOE Share: $1,480,656)
CEMEX Inc. CEMEX USA will partner with
RTI International to demonstrate a dry sorbent CO2 capture
technology at one of its cement plants in the United States. CEMEX will
design and construct a dry sorbent CO2 capture and
compression system, pipeline (if necessary), and injection station.
This commercial-scale carbon capture and sequestration demonstration
project will remove up to 1 million tons of CO2. (DOE
Share: $1,137,885)
Air Products and Chemicals Inc.
A system to concentrate CO2 from two steam methane reformer
waste streams will be designed, constructed, and demonstrated at Port
Arthur, Texas. More than 1 million tons of CO2 will be
delivered per year via pipeline for sequestration into the Oyster Bayou
oilfield for enhanced oil recovery by Denbury Onshore LLC. (DOE Share:
$961,499)
Leucadia Energy LLC.
Leucadia Energy and Denbury Onshore will demonstrate advanced
technologies that capture and sequester CO2 emissions from
an industrial source. Mississippi Gasification LLC, a Leucadia
affiliate, is building a petcoke-to-substitute natural gas plant in
Moss Point, Miss., to demo nstrate large-scale recovery, purification
and compression of 4 million tons per year of CO2. (DOE
Share: $840,000)
Leucadia Energy LLC.
Partnered with Denbury Onshore, Leucadia Energy will demonstrate
advanced technologies that capture and sequester more than 4 million
tons of CO2 emissions at the Lake Charles co-generation
petroleum coke-to-chemicals (methanol) project to be located near Lake
Charles, La. The project will transport compressed CO2
through a 12-mile pipeline that connects to Denbury’s Green Line
pipeline system in Louisiana so that it can be used for enhanced oil
recovery in the Hastings and Oyster Bayou oilfields in Texas. (DOE
Share: $540,000)
Battelle Memorial Institute,
Pacific Northwest Division. Battelle researchers will partner
with Boise White Paper LLC and Fluor Corporation to demonstrate
geologic CO2 storage in deep flood basalt formations in the
State of Washington. Fluor Corporation will design a customized version
of its Econamine Plus carbon capture technology for operation with the
specialized chemical composition of exhaust gases produced from
combustion of black liquor fuels. (DOE Share: $500,00 0)
Additionally, the Department has also made
conditional selections of 16 projects that demonstrate innovative
concepts for beneficial carbon dioxide use. These conditional
selections are subject to additional merit reviews and technical
evaluation.
Resources
Science special
issue on carbon capture
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[View Less]
Jim Sconyers
jim_scon(a)yahoo.com
304.698.9628
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
--- On Mon, 10/5/09, ROBERT KELLER <rkeller49(a)VERIZON.NET> wrote:
From: ROBERT KELLER <rkeller49(a)VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: FW: 1st Cement Plant CO2 Sequestration Project
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Date: Monday, October 5, 2009, 2:16 PM
FYI - Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium
(VCERC) has studied the engineering feasibility, cost, …
[View More]and economic development
potential of Virginia’s offshore wind resource. These studies indicate that
multi-megawatt wind turbines placed beyond sight of Virginia’s beaches could
provide more than enough energy to meet 25% of the state’s electricity needs by
2025, creating thousands of new jobs throughout the state, with a cost of energy
less than that from a new coal-fired generating plant. George Hagerman
is the Senior Research Associate at the Virginia Tech Advanced Research
Institute in Arlington and VCERC Director of Research. Members of the
Virginia Chapter have met and talked with Hagerman who has been working on the
project for about five years. He has estimated, conservatively, that if
Virginia had the will there could be wind turbines off the coast of Norfolk in
six years (the Navy is looking at a wind turbine project in the area to help it
meet its mandatory RPS).
A link for reference information - http://www.eesi.org/071709_offshore
Rick Keller
Energy Chair, Mount Vernon Group, Virginia
Chapter
rkeller49(a)verison.net
----- Original Message -----
From:
F.J. Morris
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 11:52
AM
Subject: Re: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] FW: 1st
Cement Plant CO2 Sequestration Project
Also, 90% of the
US population lives within 50 miles
of the coast, and the near constant sea breezes are a very reliable source of
energy. Off shore turbines would probably would put electricity where
the population is. Of course, efficiency first. fm
From:
Chp & Grp Global Warming Energy
Chairs
[mailto:CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Jim Sconyers
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 11:13
AM
To:
CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Subject: Re: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] FW: 1st
Cement Plant CO2 Sequestration Project
Very nice analysis.
Two thoughts:
Offshore
wind is politically more palatable than onshore.
There are plenty of
existing examples, just not in the
US .
Jim Sconyers
jim_scon(a)yahoo.com
304.698.9628
Remember:
Mother Nature bats last.
--- On Mon, 10/5/09, Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET>
wrote:
From: Ned Ford
<Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET>
Subject: Re: FW: 1st Cement Plant CO2
Sequestration Project
To:
CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
Date: Monday,
October 5, 2009, 12:28 AM
In order to be precise, each specific project
must be evaluated, and then it doesn't always turn out as
expected. The industry seems to have an average cost of about ten
cents per KWH from new state of the art plants in good locations.
I believe but cannot parse the data from where I sit, that this includes
the production tax credit, which effectively reduces the capital cost
even though it is applied to specific KWH's generated. Offshore
wind is generally thought to cost about four cents more, of which maybe
two cents is recaptured due to the better wind thought to be
available. There are very few existing offshore projects, and I
don't know when the ones that are under construction are going to be
completed, or when the industry will publicize useful
information.
12 miles is a specific measure. You would have
to look at the coastal maps and see how much shallow coast in good wind
areas there is. I would think that in most places 12 miles
offshore would be very deep, and pointless to try to do.
The more important point here is that onshore wind is presently
slightly cheaper than new coal without CCS, and that when you add the
price of CCS new coal becomes about as expensive as nuclear power or
solar PV.
CCS is unlikely to become economic at any point
in time. (Solar PV, by contrast, has a large potential to reduce
prices substantially - the difference is that with solar we can see
where research may help, and with CCS, there isn't much about it that
isn't already pretty well defined, especially the energy requirements of
compression and pumping). These projects represent $3.4 billion
being spent on behalf of three major industries which collectively take
in about a trillion dollars a year (the petroleum and gas markets are so
volatile that if you want a more specific dollar amount you need to
specify the year). The research projects which inject
post-combustion CO2 to enhance fossil fuel recovery are NOT CCS
projects, and it is good to see them included here because it
illustrates the lack of credibility that the entire group of projects
have.
The more responsible projects here are ones such as
the C6 project which is injecting into a deep saline formation.
That doesn't mean it will work, and it doesn't mean it has a greater
likelihood of being economically viable. It just means it isn't
obvious in the course of a summary paragraph that it is going to fail
the test of keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere for ten thousand
years, destroy any water tables or move toxic aromatics to the
surface.
I think we have enough onshore wind to do most of what
wind can do for us. Efficiency is the heavy lifter in the next
decade. We can triple current levels by spending $9 billion per
year, which is about half of what we spent on wind last year.
Doing that will triple the energy savings of last year's wind, which was
nearly identical to last year's efficiency. That level of
efficiency spending can be sustained for several decades. We can
triple it again, if we really think it matters, in which case we might
run out of efficiency potential in less than twenty years (this level of
spending will eliminate electric sector CO2 in about 25 years).
I advocate spending as much as we can on efficiency,
because each dollar saves three. Any rate increase to fund
efficiency pays for sustained efficiency for as long as we want to keep
on saving more money. Part of the saving should be used to fund
more wind, and if we're good investors in about five years or so we
should have solar that is cheap enough to pick up the major action that
wind presently has. Once that happens we get to eliminate just
about all CO2. There are some concerns about how to get power in
the middle of the night, and while solar thermal answers that best in my
mind, there are other solutions. But figuring that out is much
less important than recognizing that it doesn't matter how many coal
plants there are if we are cutting total use with efficiency, and
building as many renewables as we can afford to. We've already
achieved our first year of net reductions, partly due to the recession
but partly due to efficiency and renewables. We can keep it up,
and we do that best by concentrating on the right levels of investment
in efficiency and renewables. CCS will never compete in that sort
of an environment.
- Ned
Dolph Honicker wrote:
Has anyone done a study on how much it would
cost to put windmills 12 miles off our coast?. A recent you
tube video by a Sierra Club representative detailed how they could
supply all the electricity the U.S. needs, and
quickly. Capturing CO2 from coal fired plants does not
address the problem of mountain top removal. I suggest that
we compare the costs of off shore windmills, the time it will take
to bring them on line in a big way, and calculate how much CO2 can be
eliminated as an alternative to this program.
Has
there been an eis? There should be, as this is a major federal
action. Alternatives must be examined in all eis's.
If we are serious about global warming, we will immediately act to solve
the problem. We don't have 50 years to wait. This is another
massive subsidy for the petroleum and coal industries
Jeannine Honicker
Date: Sun, 4 Oct
2009 09:58:57 -0700
From: doris(a)CELLARIUS.ORG
Subject:
[GW-ACT-LEADERS] FW: 1st Cement Plant CO2 Sequestration Project
To:
CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
..
Secretary Chu on Carbon Capture
.Public
support of CCS R&D is essential, and for this reason, $3.4 billion
of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money is being invested by the
US Department of Energy (DOE) in CCS R&D...There are many hurdles to
making CCS a reality, but none appear insurmountable. The DOE goal is to
support R&D, as well as pilot CCS projects so that widespread
deployment of CCS can begin in 8 to 10 years. This is an aggressive
goal, but the climate problem compels us to act with fierce
urgency.
“
DOE Makes First Awards from $1.4B for
Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage
Projects
3 October 2009
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 12 projects for the first round of funding
from $1.4 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for
the capture carbon dioxide from industrial sources for storage or
beneficial use. The first phase of these projects will include $21.6
million in Recovery Act funding and $22.5 million in private funding for
a total initial investment of $44.1 million. The remaining Recovery Act
funding will be awarded to the most promising projects during a
competitive phase two selection
process.
Projects selected include large-scale industrial
carbon capture and storage projects that capture carbon dioxide
emissions from industrial sources—such as cement plants, chemical
plants, refineries, paper mills, and manufacturing facilities—and store
the carbon dioxide in deep saline formations=2 0and other geologic
systems.
--
The initial duration of each project selected is
approximately seven months. Projects will be subject to further
competitive evaluation in 2010 after successful comp letion of their
Phase 1 activities. Projects that best demonstrate the ability to
address their mission needs will be in the final portfolio that will
receive additional funding for design, construction, and operation.
Secretary
Chu on Carbon
Capture
Energy
Secretary Steven Chu wrote an editorial for the 25 September 2009 special
issue of the journal Science on
carbon capture, in which he addressed the magnitude of the
challenge.
Noting
that coal accounts for roughly 25% of the world energy supply and
40% of the carbon emissions. Chu said that it was highly unlikely
that the US,
Russia ,
China and
India , which account
for two-thirds of the coal reserves, “will turn their back
on coal anytime soon
.”
...for
this reason, the capture and storage of CO2 emissions
from fossil fuel power plants must be aggressively
pursued.
...The
scale of CCS needed to make a sign ificant dent in worldwide
carbon emissions is staggering. Roughly 6 billion metric tons of
coal are used each year, producing 18 billion tons of
CO2. In contrast, we now sequester a few million metric
tons of CO2 per year. At geological storage densities
of CO2 (0.6 kg/m3), underground
sequestration will require a storage volume of 30,000
km3/year. This may be sufficient storage capacity, but
more testing is required to demonstrate such capacity and
integrity.
...We
should pursue a range of options for new coal-fired power plants
(such as coal gasification, burning coal in an oxygen atmosphere,
or post-combustion capture) to determine the most cost-effective
approach to burn fuel and reduce the total amount of
CO2 emitted. No matter which technology ultimately
proves best for new plants, we will still need to retrofit
existing plants and new plants that will be built before CCS is
routinely deployed. Each new 1-gigawatt coal plant is a
billion-dollar investment and, once built, will be used for
decades.
...Public
support of CCS R&D is essential, and for this reason, $3.4
billion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money is being
invested by the US Department of Energy (DOE) in CCS
R&D...There are many hurdles to making CCS a reality, but none
appear insurmountable. The DOE goal is to support R&D, as well
as pilot CCS projects so that widespread deployment of CCS can
begin in 8 to 10 years. This is an aggressive goal, but the
climate problem compels us to act with fierce
urgency.
—Dr.
Steven Chu, Science
Large-scale industrial carbon capture and
storage selections (by amount of DOE award)
include:
ConocoPhillips.
ConocoPhillips will demonstrate new advancements that improve
conversion efficiency and economies of scale for carbon capture
systems at a petcoke-based 683-megawatt integrated gasification
combined cycle (IGCC) power plant adjacent to its existing refinery in
Sweeny ,
Texas . About 85% of the
CO2 from the process stream will be captured and over 5
million tons sequestered into a depleted oil or gas field. (DOE Share:
$3,014,666)
C6 Resources.
Objective is to capture and transport by pipeline approximately 1
million tons per year of CO2 streams from facilities
located in the Bay Area,
Calif. , to be injected more than 2
miles underground into a saline formation. C6 Resources, an affiliate
of Shell Oil Company, will conduct the project in collaboration with
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. (DOE Share: $3,000,000)
Shell Chemical Capital Company. The objective
of this project is to capture, condition, and transport by pipeline
approximately 1 million tons per year of by-product and off-gas
CO2 streams from facilities located along the Mississippi
River between Baton Rouge and
New Orleans for
geologic storage. (DOE Share: $3,000,000)
Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative
Inc. Investigators will demonstrate
advanced amines and additives supplied by
Hitachi and Dow
to capture 300,000 tons of CO2 per year. Wolverine Power
Supply Cooperative will be building a 600-megawatt circulating
fluidized bed power plant near Rogers City, Mich. (DOE Share:
$2,723,512)
University of
Utah. More than 1 million tons
of CO2 per year will be captured from various industrial
sources, compressed, and transported via two new intra-state pipelines
for CO2 enhanced oil recovery and deep saline sequestration
research in
Kansas . Beneath each enhanced oil
recovery target, a major saline aquifer spanning most of the State of
Kansas will be used for
CO2 injection. (DOE Share: $2,696,556)
Praxair Inc.
Praxair will partner with BP Products North America, Denbury
Resources, and
Gulf
Coast
Carbon
Center to demonstrate capture
and sequestration of CO2 emissions from an existing
hydrogen-production facility in an oil refinery into underground
formations for CO2 enhanced oil recovery. This
demonstration will be performed at the BP refinery, and a lateral
pipeline will be built to connect to Denbury’s Green Pipeline to
transport 1 million tons of CO2 per year. (DOE Share:
$1,719,464)
Archer Daniels Midland
Corporation. Archer Daniels Midland
Company, a member of DOE’s Midwes t Geological Sequestration
Consortium, will partner with other research organizations to
demonstrate Dow ALSTOM’s advanced amine process to capture
CO2 from industrial flue gases and sequester the
CO2 in the Mt. Simon Sandstone reservoir. (DOE Share:
$1,480,656)
CEMEX Inc. CEMEX
USA will partner
with RTI International to demonstrate a dry sorbent CO2
capture technology at one of its cement plants in the
United
States . CEMEX will design and
construct a dry sorbent CO2 capture and compression system,
pipeline (if necessary), and injection station. This commercial-scale
carbon capture and sequestration demonstration project will remove up
to 1 million tons of CO2. (DOE Share:
$1,137,885)
Air Products and Chemicals
Inc. A system to concentrate CO2
from two steam methane reformer waste streams will be designed,
constructed, and demonstrated at
Port Arthur ,
Texas . More than 1 million tons of
CO2 will be delivered per year via pipeline for
sequestration into the Oyster Bayou oilfield for enhanced oil recovery
by Denbury Onshore LLC. (DOE Share: $961,499)
Leucadia Energy
LLC. Leucadia Energy and Denbury Onshore
will demonstrate advanced technologies that capture and sequester
CO2 emissions from an industrial source. Mississippi
Gasification LLC, a Leucadia affiliate, is building a
petcoke-to-substitute natural gas plant in
Moss Point ,
Miss. , to demo nstrate large-scale
recovery, purification and compression of 4 million tons per year of
CO2. (DOE Share: $840,000)
Leucadia Energy
LLC. Partnered with Denbury Onshore,
Leucadia Energy will demonstrate advanced technologies that capture
and sequester more than 4 million tons of CO2 emissions at
the Lake Charles co-generation
petroleum coke-to-chemicals (methanol) project to be located near
Lake Charles ,
La. The project will
transport compressed CO2 through a 12-mile pipeline that
connects to Denbury’s Green Line pipeline system in
Louisiana so that it can be used for enhanced
oil recovery in the Hastings and Oyster Bayou oilfields in
Texas . (DOE
Share: $540,000)
Battelle Memorial Institute,
Pacific Northwest
Division. Battelle researchers will partner
with Boise White Paper LLC and Fluor Corporation to demonstrate
geologic CO2 storage in deep flood basalt formations in the
State of
Washington . Fluor Corporation will
design a customized version of its Econamine Plus carbon capture
technology for operation with the specialized chemical composition of
exhaust gases produced from combustion of black liquor fuels. (DOE
Share: $500,00 0)
Additionally, the Department has also made
conditional selections of 16 projects that demonstrate innovative
concepts for beneficial carbon dioxide use. These conditional selections
are subject to additional merit reviews and technical evaluation.
Resources
Science special issue on carbon
capture
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Ross:
I am forwarding this message to the rest of our Chapter Energy
Committee for comment. We are also quite concerned about Marcellus
shale gas, as West Virginia has weaker regulation and enforcement than
many surrounding states. We are experiencing problems with brine
disposal, fracing fluids, and more, not to mention the unscrupulous land
agents that are now engaged in a land rush to buy up mineral rights from
surface property owners. We through the West Virginia Environmental
Council) …
[View More]are including a "Surface Owners Bill of Rights" on our
legislative agenda in the state capitol because the problems are so
widespread. We also have widespread problems with coal-bed methane,
although the issue of mountaintop removal mining for coal remains our
top coal-related priority.
Thanks for bringing your position to our attention, as I am sure the
Chapter will want to comment on this.
Jim Kotcon
304-293-8822 (office)
304-594-3322 (home)
>>> Ross Gould <rgouldesq(a)gmail.com> 10/4/2009 11:55 PM >>>
Fellow Sierran:
My name is Ross Gould.I am a representative from the Atlantic Chapter's
Natural Gas Task Force and I have been asked to contact chapter leaders
on this important issue.I am reaching out to you because the national
club is suggesting a major change in Sierra Club’s 2006 Energy Resources
Policyand to implement a new Sierra Club policy regarding unconventional
sources of natural gas, namely “deep shale gas” as a transitional fuel.
The conclusion, that “gas from shales and tight sandstones is an
acceptable transitional fuel if produced using best practices to limit
environmental damage” represents a major shift in policy from the Sierra
Club’s 2006Energy Resources Policywhere “new onshore natural gas” was
specifically categorized as “resources opposed by the Sierra Club.” The
previous policy only condoned the use of natural gas from existing
fieldsas an acceptable transitional fuel.
The Club's proposed policy can be found at:
http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/conservation/policy/unconventional-natural-…
The comment period on this proposed policy ends on October 10, 2009.
The Atlantic Chapter takes this change seriously, as the rush to
produce in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations threatens to
transform as much as a third of New York State into a grid work of
pipelines and well pads. We have yet to see evidence that this type of
extraction can be executed in a manner that is sufficiently protective
of our air, water, and remaining wild places. In the past year the
chapter has successfully campaigned against the expansion of natural gas
extraction resulting in the State mandated environmental review the
process, which has also served as a de facto moratorium for new well
permits since July of 2008. We are concerned that this change in
national Sierra Club policy will undermine our credibility with grass
roots activists through out the state who do not share the sentiment
that their water, air and landscape should be sacrificed for the
advancement of a transitional fuel.
Our Chapter is against this proposed policy change. We are reaching out
to other chapters around the country to get a feel for their position. I
have attached a copy of our Chapter's recent resolution relating to
Shale Gas drilling. I have also attached an article from Scientific
American which outlines water pollution and other threats related to
drilling for natural gas. We look forward to your response, your
comments and discovering your chapter's position on this significant
policy change.
Please note that the comment period on this proposed serious policy
change ends on October 10, 2009.We are reaching out to ask for your
support in our proposed policy and for your chapter to submit comments
opposing this significant change in policy.
Thank you,Ross
--
Ross H. Gould
10 Park Ave, 5L
New York, NY 10016
T: 917-658-7144
E: rgouldesq(a)gmail.com
~ Think green. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail ~
[View Less]
fyi, paul
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: West Virginia News Service WVNS <wvnsnews(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Subject: A new month and a new chance to get your story out
To:
Hi Friends,
October is suddenly on us and I'm looking for stories. Let me know if you
have anything that you want to get out...
drh
--
West Virginia News Service (WVNS)
Toll Free: 1-800-317-6705
Fax: 540-301-0801
E-mail: wvns(a)publicnewsservice.org
--
Paul Wilson
Sierra …
[View More]Club
504 Jefferson Ave
Charles Town, WV 25414-1130
Phone: 304-725-4360
Cell: 304-279-1361
"There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha
[View Less]