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Showing posts with label carbon dioxide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carbon dioxide. Show all posts

Friday, September 24, 2010

Southern Company Captures CO2 at Georgia Power Plant; Research Milestone is a First for Company

/PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company has captured carbon dioxide from one of its power plants for the first time, a milestone that significantly advances the development of technology considered crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power generation.

The research accomplishment was achieved this month at subsidiary Georgia Power's Plant Yates near Newnan, Ga.

The pilot-scale project at Plant Yates, which uses a capture system developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), will provide additional process improvements before the technology is demonstrated next year at a much larger 25-megawatt scale at Plant Barry, which is owned and operated by Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power near Mobile, Ala.

During the pilot at Plant Yates, a small amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) was captured, using a solvent that absorbs CO2, and then returned to the plant's flue gas. At Plant Barry, the carbon dioxide will be compressed and transported via pipeline to deep underground storage formations.

"Capturing CO2 from an operating power plant is an important step forward in our efforts to develop effective and cost-efficient technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while ensuring a continued reliable and affordable supply of electricity for our customers," said Chris Hobson, Southern Company chief environmental officer. "Along with our other carbon capture and storage research initiatives, our success here will help us move closer to the ultimate goal of commercial deployment."

Southern Company is a participant in several major research initiatives to advance the development of carbon capture and storage technology, a key component in the nation's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to the projects at Yates and Barry, Southern Company operates the National Carbon Capture Center for the U.S. Department of Energy near Birmingham, Ala., and its subsidiary Mississippi Power is building an advanced commercial-scale coal gasification power plant in Kemper County, Miss., that will include carbon capture and re-use for enhanced oil recovery. Other carbon capture and storage projects are under way or completed at other Southern Company facilities.

The test at Plant Yates will help confirm MHI's emission-control design and provide other findings important to the much larger-scale work next year at the Plant Barry test, which represents one of the industry's largest demonstrations of a start-to-finish power plant carbon capture and storage system.

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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Nationwide Low-Carbon Fuel Standard Would Increase Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Study Finds

/PRNewswire/ -- The implementation of a nationwide low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) in the United States would increase global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 19 million metric tons each year - contradicting the claim of LCFS advocates that the standard would reduce such emissions - according to a study issued today.

The study assumes that because an LCFS would prevent American refineries from importing petroleum obtained from oil sands in neighboring Western Canada, the United States would instead have to import more oil in tankers from the Middle East and elsewhere. At the same time, the Canadian oil would be shipped in tankers across the Pacific to China and other Asian locations.

The study calls this long-distance movement of oil thousands of miles around the world in tankers a "shuffle" that would result in higher carbon dioxide emissions than simply extracting the Canadian petroleum from the oil sands for U.S. consumption, due to emissions created by shipping the oil such great distances.

Barr Engineering Company of Minneapolis conducted the study for members of NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.

"In conducting this technical study, we looked at the most accurate data publicly available, and the conclusion was clear," said Joel Trinkle, senior air quality consultant at Barr and one of the authors of the study. "Crude shuffling under a nationwide LCFS would substantially raise overall greenhouse gas emissions."

The study found that:

-- "A LCFS implemented in the U.S. results in a notable increase in
greenhouse gas emissions due to the displacement of Canadian crude
imports to the U.S. and re-routing of crude imports and exports to
accommodate this displacement. ... Nearby Canadian crude sources
would be diverted to regions not affected by LCFS and replaced with
supplies from distant parts of the world." (Page 2)
-- "While it is likely that LCFS would change the mix of crude imports to
the United States, LCFS implemented in the United States is not
expected to change overall trends in energy use and demand for crude
resources throughout the rest of the world. A shift in U.S.
crude-supply preferences will simply cause redirection of crude
supplies elsewhere." (Page 4-5)
-- "This analysis of the change in crude-transport-related emissions
accompanying implementation of a LCFS indicates that the net effect
will be a doubling of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions associated with
changes in crude-transport patterns. It indicates an increase in
global GHG emissions by 7.1 to 19.0 million metric tons per year,
depending on the extent of resulting Canadian crude displacement."
(Page 3)


Canada is currently the largest supplier of petroleum imported into the United States, but other nations are looking to the Canadian oil sands as a potential energy source. China alone has already invested more than $6 billion in Canadian oil sands projects as it continues to rapidly increase its presence in overseas energy production.

"By denying the American people access to oil from our friendly neighbor Canada, a low-carbon fuel standard would raise fuel costs and wipe out millions of American jobs," said NPRA President Charles T. Drevna. "Now this latest study shows that a nationwide LCFS won't reduce overall global greenhouse gas emissions - it will actually raise them. These findings simply reinforce NPRA's long-held belief that a federal low-carbon fuel standard is a policy of all pain and no gain."

Additional concerns regarding American access to Canadian oil sands resources have surfaced following a recent U.S. State Department decision regarding a proposed pipeline to transport Canadian crude to refineries in the Gulf Coast region. The decision will allow federal agencies an additional 90 days to comment on TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL project, pending the State Department's release of a final environmental impact statement. The proposed pipeline expansion would more than double the amount of Canadian crude imported to the United States.

Several regional and state LCFS initiatives are currently underway, including a statewide LCFS program in California established as part of the state's AB 32 climate law, and proponents of a federal LCFS continue to seek its enactment.

A federal LCFS provision was included in the 2008 Lieberman-Warner climate change bill that was defeated in the Senate. The 2009 Waxman-Markey climate change bill also contained an LCFS provision, although it was removed before the bill was passed by the House.

Two other recent studies cast additional doubt on the efficacy of low-carbon fuel standards:

-- A June 2010 report by Charles River Associates found that a nationwide
LCFS implemented in 2015 would result by 2025 in: the loss of between
2.3 million and 4.5 million American jobs; an increase of up to 170
percent in the price of gasoline and diesel fuel; and a 2 to 3 percent
decrease in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (totaling between $410
billion and $750 billion).
-- A report by the Canadian Energy Research Institute issued in October
2009 examined the impacts of developing Canadian oil sands on the U.S.
economy. It found that such development - which would be threatened by
the implementation of a nationwide LCFS in the United States - would
result in an estimated 343,000 new U.S. jobs between 2011 and 2015,
and that U.S. output of goods and services would increase by an
average of $62 billion per year from 2009 through 2025.

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Southern Company to Demonstrate Technology to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Electric Generating Plant

/PRNewswire / -- Southern Company today announced plans to demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration on a coal-fired power generation plant to support the development of technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Along with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI), the Electric Power Research Institute and other partners, Southern Company will build a demonstration facility to capture carbon dioxide emissions from an existing unit of subsidiary Alabama Power's Plant Barry near Mobile, Ala.

Beginning in 2011, between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of CO2 per year - the equivalent of emissions from 25 megawatts of the plant's generating capacity - would be captured for permanent underground storage in a deep saline geologic formation.

The CO2 will be supplied to the DOE's Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB), which will transport it by pipeline from the plant and store it underground at a site within the area of the Citronelle Oil Field, about 10 miles from the plant, operated by Denbury Resources. The Southern States Energy Board is leading the SECARB effort.

"This project will help increase our knowledge of carbon capture and sequestration, technology we must demonstrate at a commercial level in the effort to reliably generate electricity using coal with reduced greenhouse gas emissions," said David Ratcliffe, Southern Company chairman, president and CEO.

"The main challenge facing deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technology is demonstrating its effectiveness at a large scale," Ratcliffe added. "Our involvement in this and other related projects is part of our commitment to be a leader in finding solutions that make technological, economic and environmental sense."

With carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), CO2 released during the combustion of coal would be separated from the flue gas, compressed, and then permanently sequestered - or stored - deep underground.

The CO2 capture technology to be used in this project, called KM-CDR(TM), was jointly developed by MHI and the Kansai Electric Power Company Inc. It deploys an advanced amine-based solvent that reacts readily with CO2 in flue gas before being separated and compressed so that it is ready for pipeline transport.

The MHI process offers improved performance and lower cost than other existing capture technologies. The process has been demonstrated at smaller scale at a coal-fired generating station in Japan, and is currently being deployed commercially on natural gas-fired systems around the world. This project represents the largest coal-fired demonstration of the technology.

"We are excited to be a partner in this important project that will help further the global goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions for the benefit of everyone," said Shunichi Miyanaga, executive vice president and representative director general manager of MHI's Machinery & Steel Structures Headquarters. "The confidence our partners have shown in the MHI CO2 capture technology is a testament to the research and development efforts we have undertaken during the past 20 years. Together with our partners, we are ready to deploy and demonstrate to the world the safety and viability of commercial-scale CCS."

An important part of any CO2 sequestration project is site selection through geologic characterization and a robust program to monitor the injected CO2. Therefore, a thorough monitoring process will be deployed to map the movement of the sequestered CO2.

Through this project and others, Southern Company and its partners seek to support the goal of better understanding the impacts of reducing CO2 emissions from electricity generation. The project in Alabama is designed to demonstrate start-to-finish CCS technology, an important step toward commercialization.

Plant Barry, located in Bucks, Ala., has a total capacity of 2,525 megawatts and includes seven generating units -- five coal-fired units and two natural gas-fired combined-cycle units.

Southern Company, an industry leader in technology research and development, is working with the federal government and other partners in several major CCS research projects. In one, Southern Company subsidiary Mississippi Power's Plant Daniel is the host site for a demonstration in which 3,000 tons of CO2 recently were injected into a deep saline rock formation 8,500 feet below ground. Monitoring of its movement deep in the ground and under multiple geological seals is now under way.

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Monday, April 6, 2009

Report: U.S. Power Plant Carbon Dioxide Emissions Eased Slightly in 2008, But Much More Progress Needed to Meet CO2 Reduction Goals

/PRNewswire / -- Due in part to the recent economic slowdown and milder-than-usual weather, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from U.S. power plants dropped 3.1 percent in 2008, tempering a steady increasing trend in the preceding years, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

EIP officials cautioned that the one-year dip is a departure from the recent trends in power plant carbon dioxide emissions, which have risen 0.9 percent since 2003, and 4.5 percent since 1998, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Despite the slight overall national improvement in CO2 emissions, six states had increases in power plant emissions of 1 million tons or more from 2007 to 2008: Oklahoma (3.1 million); Iowa (1.8 million); Texas (1.7 million); Nebraska (1.3 million); Illinois (1.1 million) and Washington (1.1 million).

Commenting on the new report, EIP Senior Attorney Ilan Levin said: "Unfortunately, one year of improved data does not mean that we are on the right path for carbon dioxide reduction from U.S. power plants. We clearly cannot afford a wave of conventional fossil-fired power plants that would only add tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year over the lifetimes of these new plants. If the United States is serious about curbing greenhouse gas pollution and meeting the goals that the scientific community says are needed, then many of the nation's dirtiest power plants will either need to be cleaned up or retired. We have no time to lose."

According to the EIP report: "The drop in CO2 emissions in 2008 is primarily attributable to a drop in electric generation -- gross electric output was down approximately 3.3 percent in 2008, as compared to 2007, according to the EPA data. The economy and the weather are two key factors that affect electric generation and CO2 emissions from year to year. Other factors, including the rising demand for electricity and the growth of generation by both existing and new fossil-fired power plants over the past decade, may make it increasingly difficult to make needed long-term reductions and reverse the rising emissions trend. The Department of Energy predicts that carbon dioxide emissions from power generation will increase 15 percent between 2009 and 2030, due to new or expanded coal plants. According to the National Energy Technology Laboratory, an additional 1,392 megawatts of new coal-fired generating capacity was added in 2008, and another 26,131 megawatts have been permitted."

EIP released the report today against a backdrop in which leading scientists agree on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 80 percent over the next fifty years. The Obama Administration has proposed a plan to reduce emissions by 83 percent (from 2005 levels) by 2050, through cap-and-trade legislation. The Administration has proposed an interim short-term goal of a 14 percent reduction in emissions by 2020.

The 10 states that emitted the most CO2 in 2008, measured in total tons, are: Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, and West Virginia.

The 10 states with the largest CO2 increases over the past 10 years (from 1998 to 2008) are: Texas (26.9 million tons); Arizona (22.6 million); California (18.8 million); Georgia (17.7 million); Illinois (17.7 million); Oklahoma (16.6 million); Alabama (8.9 million); South Carolina (7.5 million); Colorado (6.7 million); and Iowa (6 million).

According to the EIP report, Oklahoma's massive 2007-2008 increase in CO2 emissions is primarily attributable to ramped up generation at three power plants: Muskogee units 4 & 5 (coal), Sooner units 1 & 2 (coal) and Northeastern units 3314 (coal) & 3302 (natural gas) accounted for the vast majority of the CO2 increase. Combined, the units increased their CO2 emissions 4,286,131 tons from 2007 levels.

Reported C02 emissions were obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "Clean Air Markets" webpage. The database is a publicly accessible repository for emissions and other operational data self-reported by the utility industry, and includes more than 1,000 power plants regulated under the federal Acid Rain Program. Additional information on these programs and the database can be found on EPA's Clean Air Markets web page at http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/.

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Electric cooperatives to announce carbon offset option

A group of electric cooperatives will be soon be offering their customers the option to offset their “carbon footprint” by protecting Georgia forests, using a surcharge on their monthly power bills.
The program, which will use scientific methods to measure the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by specific Georgia pine forests, will be managed by a Macon-based company......http://www.macon.com/198/story/656226.html

By S. Heather Duncan
March 20, 2009

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