Officials hope to remove 90 percent of carbon dioxide from flue gas
BY DAVID STEINKRAUS
Journal Times | Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:00 am
PLEASANT PRAIRIE - There's nothing running through the 90-foot-tall towers - yet - except hope.
What We Energies, Alstom and the Electric Power Research Institute hope is that a technology about to be tested at the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant will prove the solution to removing carbon dioxide from the exhaust gases of coal-fired power plants and that this will be a major step in combating global warming.
Officials from the three organizations formally introduced their pilot project to reporters on Wednesday. It has a goal of removing 90 percent of the CO2 from flue gas, and more than 30 utilities from the United States, Germany, Australia and France chipped in about $7 million toward the full cost of the demonstration project, said Hank Courtright, senior vice president with EPRI.
A 90 percent CO2 reduction from year 2000 emissions is the target set for the year 2030, and they say it is needed to avoid the most severe consequences of global warming.
If the pilot project proves the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the technology during 2008, it will be succeeded by a larger test project in West Virginia. Alstom, a French company which is a major supplier of power generation equipment, hopes to have a commercially viable system ready by 2015, said Jean-Michel Aubertin, a senior vice president of the company.
For the pilot project, the CO2 will be reintroduced to the flue gas stream, but in commercial use the CO2 would be shipped off for long-term storage, most probably by injecting it into saltwater aquifers or old oil wells.
Wisconsin apparently doesn't have geologic formations suitable for storage, said Gale Klappa, chairman and chief executive of We Energies.
"So at some point, it would seem to me, that there will have to be a network of pipelines, new pipelines, that would transport the captured CO2 to sites where the geologic formations actually can safely support storage of carbon." For this area, that would probably be southern Illinois, Courtright said.
Construction of the carbon capture system started in August, and is being tested at the moment, said Ed Morris, senior engineer and plant environmental coordinator for the power plant. In mid-March or early April, the system should be fully operational, said Arlyn Petig, a senior engineer with Alstom.
Klappa said he sees virtually no chance that the drive to control greenhouse gas emissions will abate, or that strong carbon-control laws won't be passed. If there is no technology ready for quick investment and results, he said, any carbon-reduction rules may result in a giant cost to consumers. That's also why a state task force recommendation - to meet the global warming challenge first by emphasizing energy conservation - is a good way to begin, he said.
Europe has developed a cap and trade system for greenhouse gases, Aubertin said. "Other countries like China and India are not at the same level of legislation," but because of the importance of the issue, they will reach that point.
There is no complete replacement for coal-generated power in the near future, Courtright said, and we will need all options - carbon capture, nuclear energy, renewable energy sources and conservation - in order to meet the carbon emission target and still provide people with the power they want.