A final thought from Pittsburgh

This is the third in a series of posts from ACCCE’s National Communications Director, Steve Gates, who attended the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference in Pittsburgh, Penn., from November 16-19, 2009.

Conferences like the one I attended this week in Pittsburgh can be a bit overwhelming because of all the information that is discussed in a relatively small amount of time. For my final assignment this week from the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Annual Review, I was asked to summarize what I learned about the status of carbon sequestration in the U.S. – a daunting task to say the least.

After hearing details from researchers and government officials about the latest stages of terrestrial and underground sequestration projects, one thing is sure: Carbon sequestration is a reality today.

For the critics of CCS, my only word of advice for you is to attend an event like this to learn just how far the technology has progressed over the past few years. It’s true, massive scientific endeavors like storing CO₂ in geologic formations (as well as other processes) in the United States is not something that will happen on a wide scale tomorrow.

Remember, scientific breakthroughs need to be tested on a small scale first (usually in a laboratory), then rolled out into larger pilot test projects (where they are currently), and then finally for wide-spread deployment. (The National Energy Technology Laboratory has set a goal of making commercial-scale CCS technologies ready to deploy in the U.S. by 2020.)

I leave Pittsburgh with a renewed sense of optimism that CCS on a wide scale is getting closer all the time, and that meetings such as this one make that goal one-step closer to reality. Ultimately, CCS needs a collaborative multinational approach to reach its full potential, and meetings like the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference not only help achieve that goal, it shows that the research needed for long-term success is moving ahead every day.

Mountaineer’s carbon capture process illustrated Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/20/2009 01:00:00 PM

Now that American Electric Power’s carbon capture and storage project has begun operating at its Mountaineer plant in New Haven, W.Va., it has received a flurry of media attention.

And rightfully so – with the help of technology developed by French energy company Alstom, SA, the Mountaineer plant has become the nation’s first coal-generated power plant to capture and store its own carbon dioxide emissions. The goal is to capture and store about 1.5 percent of the CO2 the plant produces.

In the days after the plant’s announcement, many news organizations and publications have tried to explain Mountaineer’s clean coal process to the public – but few appear to have done it better than Scientific American.

We absolutely love the interactive slideshow that award-winning environmental journalist David Biello put together for the magazine.

At first glance, his photos look like a jumble of tubes, pipes and smokestacks, but he explains how each part of the plant plays an important role in cooling, capturing, storing and regenerating the carbon dioxide.

By the end of it, we guarantee that you’ll be up-to-date with the Mountaineer project and the process of capturing carbon emissions.

If you like what you see, check out the clean coal photos that the America’s Power^SM team took during this year’s Factuality Tour on Flickr. We got to see carbon capture and sequestration in action at the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant and the Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration.

And don’t forget to read Scientific American’s related article and guide to carbon capture technology.

The facts: IGCC technology Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/20/2009 09:00:00 AM

We’ve gone into great depth on this blog about the investments the power industry has made to produce increasingly clean energy from coal. We’re proud of the results, but we’re not resting on our laurels.

That’s why it’s important to support clean coal technology efforts that will build on this success, such as the construction of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants, which gasify fuels like coal to generate electricity more efficiently than traditional power plants.

To put the importance of IGCC into perspective, consider this fact: the Energy Information Administration predicted that 55 percent of new coal capacity developed from 2004 to 2030 will be IGCC.

To learn a little more about how IGCC works, check out our video interview with Stephen Jenkins, vice president of gasification services for CH2M Hill. He does a great job turning a complex process into an understandable concept.

And remember, IGCC is just one part of an ever-increasing suite of clean coal technologies that have already helped make today’s coal-based generating fleet 77% cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced.

As we said, we’re proud of those results – but we’re confident the best is yet to come.

University of Wyoming investing in clean coal research Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/19/2009 01:00:00 PM

Engineers and scientists at University of Wyoming are serious about their clean coal technology research. That comes as no surprise, since coal is one of the Equality State’s most abundant resources.

Wyoming generates 94.5 percent of their electricity from the reliable, affordable fuel that coal provides and depends on its export for a significant portion of their revenue.

That’s where the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources comes in. The program is unique in that it administers the Clean Coal Technology Fund, a state grant that helps stimulate research to enhance clean coal technologies across the U.S. with the added benefit of improving Wyoming’s coal resources.

With the assistance of the Clean Coal Task Force, the university evaluates clean coal technology projects from academic institutions and private companies. Just this year, the School of Energy Resources received 22 proposals – and has awarded nine programs with funding in just three years.

Furthermore, the School of Energy Research is home to 10 research centers, including the Clean Coal Technologies Center, the Carbon Management Research Center and the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute.

It’s great to see long-standing educational institutions working on solutions to our climate challenges, while making use of our abundant resources. Learn more about the University of Wyoming’s research and the Clean Coal Technology Fund on their Web site.

CCS success: Notes from day two of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/19/2009 09:00:00 AM

This is the second in a series of posts from ACCCE’s National Communications Director, Steve Gates, who is attending the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference underway in Pittsburgh, Penn.

For those who might question the substance behind CCS, I have one thing to say: You should have come to Pittsburgh.

On day two of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Annual Review Meeting, more than a dozen researchers and government officials presented scores of charts, maps, photos and numbers detailing the latest stages of underground sequestration projects. The overriding message? CCS is working.

Across the country, scientists are injecting hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the ground to test the long-term storage of the greenhouse gas.

Among the many factors researchers are weighing: How much pressure can the ground tolerate? How would earthquakes affect underground storage? How much ground would be needed to store CO₂ generated by a coal plant year after year?

Findings presented Tuesday on three projects show the promise of underground carbon sequestration:

1. Based on results of CO₂ injection into coal seams in the Williston Basin, researchers have determined that lignite coal seams are an attractive option for storage. In fact, a senior adviser at the Energy and Environment Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota noted that researchers have concluded that there exists 100 years worth of CO₂ storage for a 500 megawatt power plant in the region.

2. James Sorenson, a senior research manager at EERC reported continued success from the Plains CO₂ Reduction Partnership’s “Huff and Puff” project, which has been pumping CO₂ into an oil reservoir about 8,000 feet deep in Northwest North Dakota. Oil fields in the region, Sorenson believes, are “the lowest-hanging fruit in regard to CO₂ injection opportunities.”

3. University of Texas research scientist Susan Hovorka told the Factuality team that the Gulf Coast is home to the largest volume of underground sequestration of CO₂ in the U.S., noting that one million tons of CO₂ has been safely pumped into old oil wells in Mississippi in the last 15 months.

We’ve seen so much progress on CCS in the last day—and there's still plenty more to come from the conference. Stay tuned.

The facts: The power industry’s investment in clean coal technologies Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/18/2009 09:00:00 AM

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked about clean coal technologies is this: “How much does the coal industry spend on deploying the technologies it advocates?”

Answer: According to a report from Energy Ventures Analysis, Inc., the U.S. power industry has invested roughly $90 billion to deploy clean coal technologies to reduce emissions since 1990.

This huge expenditure has enabled today’s coal-based generating fleet to produce electricity that is 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced.

And our success with these technologies has set the stage for the next generation of clean coal projects.

In fact, the industry’s private investments, coupled with the government’s crucial contributions, have allowed for a myriad of CCS demonstration projects around the country—paving the way for commercial-scale CO₂ removal and permanent storage.

Want to learn more about our commitment to a clean energy future? Read the study for yourself, and check out our clean coal technology map to learn about projects happening near you.

Terrestrial sequestration: Notes from the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/17/2009 01:00:00 PM

This is the first in a series of posts from ACCCE’s National Communications Director, Steve Gates, who is attending the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference underway in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Whether you’ve heard it here or elsewhere, carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, has become a real part of the climate change conversation.

And while we support technology initiatives to safely capture and store carbon dioxide (CO₂) from coal-based power plants, such as American Electric Power’s Mountaineer plant in West Virginia, we realize that sequestering CO₂ into geological formations isn’t the only way to permanently store these emissions.

In fact, yesterday during the first day of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership’s Annual Review in Pittsburgh, we heard from researchers who offered updates on carbon sequestration projects of a different kind: using the power of Mother Nature —wetlands, forests and grasslands—to absorb huge volumes of CO₂.

Edward N. Steadman represented the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership.

Among the most interesting projects is the Plains CO₂ Reduction Partnership (PCOR), which has explored revised land management practices to preserve wetlands across the upper Midwest. PCOR has partnered with Ducks Unlimited, a conservation group that seeks to protect waterfowl. The science behind the project, according to PCOR Project Manager Edward Steadman is that revitalized wetlands naturally sequester CO₂ while providing a renewed habitat for animals.

Another group also exploring the potential for wetlands is the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP). In Maryland, federal agencies are spearheading an effort to restore up to 20,000 acres of tidal marsh in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Researchers associated with MRCSP are weighing how that restoration might help in sequestrating carbon, said David A. Ball, a program manager at Battelle.

In the West, forests are more abundant than wetlands. So the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, or WESTCARB, is researching how growing forests might reduce our carbon footprint. John Kadyszewski, speaking on behalf WESTCARB, opened eyes when he put up a chart indicating that an acre of a 100-year pine-fir forest had the potential to remove 400 tons of CO₂ per acre.

Creating the technology to measure the results of terrestrial carbon sequestration has been another challenge, according to numerous presenters. But it’s a challenge they are working to overcome.

These efforts are highly encouraging, and we look forward to passing on more developments on carbon sequestration this week. Much more from Pittsburgh to come.

The facts: Coal’s economic impact tomorrow Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/17/2009 09:00:00 AM

Not only does coal provide nearly 50 percent of our country’s electricity, it’s also a big job creator. As we push ahead with carbon capture and storage and other technologies, we hope that innovation will preserve the jobs we have and expand on that workforce in the decades to come.

The findings of a Pennsylvania State University study speak to the economic promise coal can offer:

United States coal production, transportation and consumption for electric power generation will contribute more than $1 trillion of gross output – including 6.8 million jobs – directly and indirectly to the economy of the contiguous U. S. in 2015.

That’s why we are so enthusiastic about American Electric Power’s recent announcement that its Mountaineer plant in New Haven, W.Va., has become the first in the U. S. to capture a portion of CO2 emissions and store it underground.

Innovative projects like the one at Mountaineer could also benefit America’s bottom line by creating jobs. A recent report from key labor and energy industry groups, including ACCCE, finds that clean coal technologies will create millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs for American workers.

So let’s continue to build a clean-energy infrastructure that will provide us with the affordable energy – and good jobs – we need to keep moving the country forward.

Researchers finding new ways to feed algae Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/16/2009 01:00:00 PM

As we’ve covered in recent months on Behind the Plug, algae are being tested for its ability to suck carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from coal-generated power plants. As it turns out, algae see CO₂ as nutrients.

These days, researchers are exploring specifically how to use algae as an alternative technology in carbon capture and storage, experimenting with the organisms to remove CO₂ from smokestacks — eliminating the need to trap and permanently bury the CO₂.

The most promising research might be coming out of China, where scientists are testing microalgae at their coal-powered plants. First, the coal is gasified in a simulated underground environment. The carbon dioxide is then extracted with the help of solar and wind power and "fed" to algae, which at that time can used to make biofuel, fertilizer or animal feed—a winning blend of natural and renewable energy sources.

While algae technology is still in the development phase, it certainly shows promise. (Check out previous blog posts on “super algae,” a proposed demonstration plant that would turn algae into ethanol, and coal and algae being considered the “perfect” clean energy pair.) And given that almost half of our electricity comes from coal, we’re confident that this next generation of technologies will make coal a reliable source of energy in the years ahead.

What coal means to the U.S. workforce Posted by Joe Lucas on 11/16/2009 10:43:39 AM

Did you know that the coal industry employs people in four primary groups – coal production, coal transportation, power generation and power plant suppliers? Furthermore, the coal industry provides jobs to construction workers building new plants or retrofitting existing plants, as well as to researchers and scientists who are developing new clean coal technologies like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).

To put that in perspective, consider the number of mining jobs alone in the United States: more than 81,000.

In addition to direct jobs associated with coal, other jobs are created because of access to low-cost energy. A recent study found that energy costs are second only to labor costs for a business, and coal-based electricity provides the affordable energy we need to create American jobs and get the economy back on track.

At one-third of the price of most other fuels, it’s easy to connect the dots from an affordable energy source to steady, reliable jobs.

How much coal does your state use to generate electricity? Find your state on the map and see how your state’s use of coal correlates to energy prices. You might be surprised at the impact coal-generated electricity has on your community...