CCS Demonstration Plants needs more Investments - CER Reports

Coal will be the world’s biggest single source of electricity for decades to come. Yet the EU is doing far too little to encourage the take-up of CCS, says a report by the Centre for European Reform (CER). This failure threatens not only Europe’s leadership of global climate change policy, but also its ability to profit from the emergence of a huge global market for equipment and expertise, says the report.

Stephen Tindale and Simon Tilford argue that more public money is needed for the construction of demonstration projects, and that regulation and strong market signals will be required to ensure mass deployment of the technology.

The authors argue that the EU needs to do a host of things if it is to meet its targets of operating 12 large CCS demonstration plants by 2015, and ensuring the mass deployment of the technology by 2020.

The demonstration plants must cover the full range of CCS technologies and include gasfired as well as coal-fired industrial plants.

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Carbon Capture and Sequestration via CCS Clusters

Carbon Capture and Sequestration via CCS Clusters

E.ON has submitted environmental scoping reports outlining the company's plans for a CO2 pipeline for its proposed Kingsnorth cleaner coal-fired power station.

The plans are part of a vision for Kingsnorth to be the gateway to CCS development in the UK, enabling the future development of a ‘CCS Cluster' in the South East.

The scoping reports outline the steps the company will take towards developing final plans for the pipeline, which will go across the Hoo Peninsula and then be placed in a trench on the seabed taking it to the depleted North Sea gas fields which will be used for storage.

The pipeline would have sufficient capacity in the long term to allow a ‘Thames Cluster' of carbon capture projects to be developed, transporting 24 million tonnes of CO2 each year to storage sites under the North Sea. This equates to the emissions from around two supercritical Kingsnorth-sized coal-fired power stations and three Grain-sized gas-fired CHP power stations.
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Labels: Kingsnorth power station-CCS Cluster

http://pressreleases.eon-uk.com/blogs//eonukpressreleases/archive/2010/03/12/1504.aspx

CCS in Coal power plants funded by UK Gov

UK Funds Research on CCS in Coal Power plants

Funding was awarded to E.ON and ScottishPower for design and development studies as part of the UK's CCS demonstration competition.

This is one of the first set of studies of end-to-end commercial scale CCS on coal power plant in the world and will be used by project developers to examine and refine initial plans and reduce technical risk, so that more detailed project plans can be drawn-up and costed, said the government.

The funding is drawn from a pot of £90 million announced in the 2009 Budget. The precise amounts awarded to E.ON and ScottishPower are commercially confidential.

The UK has the most ambitious commitments on coal generation and CCS in the world. A Bill currently being considered by Parliament introduces a first-of-a-kind levy to support four CCS demonstrations in the UK. The Government will launch a competitive process for the three other projects by the end of 2010, provided the levy is passed.


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http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_041/pn10_041.aspx

Post combustion Carbon Sequestration made Profitable

Post combustion Carbon Sequestration made Prrofitable

Carbon capture from a coal fired power plant could be made profitable and hydrogen could be produced for 16-cents per kilogram using a process developed at Florida International University.

Surendra Saxena, a professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Florida International University, has patented a new method of creating cheap hydrogen from coal, reacting the carbon dioxide (produced from coal combustion) with (inexpensively available) sodium hydroxide to make sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, hydrogen, which can all be sold.

The carbon dioxide in the flue gas of the coal power plant is reacted with sodium hydroxide to form sodium carbonate. Carbon monoxide in the flue gas can be reacted with water and natural gas to form sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate.

Mr Saxena calculates that sodium hydroxide can be acquired for $100 to $200 per ton, and sodium carbonate can be sold for $100 per ton. This would enable hydrogen to be produced at under $0.16 per kg (not including energy costs).
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Labels: http://cesmec.fiu.edu/index.php?akc=research&akc2=hydrogenprod

Cut CO2 Emission via -Renewable soil

Cut CO2 Emission via -Renewable soil

Improved farming methods could quickly rebuild degraded land and store enough carbon to offset the emissions caused by burning fossil fuels. Thomas Blakeslee, President, The Clearlight Foundation, outlines some approaches to capturing CO2 in soils.

Poor farming practices have degraded the world's soils causing them to release carbon that should have stayed in the soil. In the past 150 years soils have released twice as much carbon as fuel burning. Dr Rattan Lal of Ohio State University, a leading expert on soil carbon, estimates that the potential of economical carbon sequestration in world soils may be .65 billion to 1.1 billion tons per year for the next 50 years. This is enough to draw down atmospheric CO2 by 50 ppm by 2100.

Many of our deserts started as forests which were cut or burned down to clear the land and then ruined by overgrazing. If we could reclaim these ruined lands we could restore the carbon balance of our planet.

One very encouraging project in China has restored a desert community and given them a source of revenue growing sand willow for making wood planks. This experiment was so successful that the restored area is growing rapidly as individuals plant sand willow as a source of income. Even more exciting, is the plan to build hybrid solar power plants in the area that will use the sand willow as biomass to feed boilers when the sun doesn't shine.

Carbon credits could drive this kind of renaissance even faster. It is very important that we develop inexpensive soil carbon monitoring systems so that such important changes in land use can be rewarded.

Restoration experiments in Australia found that conventional cropping practices had reduced soil carbon to half to one third of original levels.

Another promising approach to greening deserts is seawater farming. Coastal desert areas lacking fresh water can grow plants like Mangrove and Salicornia along with fish and shrimp that provide the fertilizer.

Carbon trading could be the driver for these projects if we can only develop sound verification protocols and measuring instruments.
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Labels: carbon credits- renewable soil

http://renewablesoil.com/increased-photosynthetic-capacity-reverses-global-warming.html

CO2 capture helped by nanomaterials

Nanomaterials Help CO2 Capture

Bureau De Recherches Geologiques Et Minieres (BRGM) inventors Alain Seron, Fabian Delorme and Christian Fouillac have detailed a low-cost method for CO2 capture using nanomaterials such as mesoporous silica and carbon nanotubes in a U.S. Patent Application.

The method enables CO2 trapping in a reversible manner without the need for methods that are energetically costly (large increase in temperature, evaporation of a liquid phase, solid/liquid separation, etc.) and without any handling of the suspension constituting the trap which remains in place in the capture/release reactor throughout the cycle.

In addition, the method is performed under conditions of ambient pressure and temperature or near ambient conditions, with a slightly higher temperature favoring CO2 release.



The technique includes first suspending in a liquid phase a solid absorbent capable of trapping the gaseous CO2; the gas mixture is then converted into the liquid phase at a temperature between 0 degree C. and 30 degrees C., a temperature ranging from the liquid phase solidification temperature to the evaporation temperature. The process is carried out at a pressure between atmospheric pressure and 3 bars.

The absorbent solid is selected equally among: a carbonaceous material such as activated carbon or carbon nanotubes; an oxide, for example silicates such as zeolites, clays, mesoporous silicas, manganese oxides, pumice, perlite or diatomite; a phosphate or a phosphonate; and a hydroxide such as the layered double hydroxides quintinite-3T or hydrotalcite. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) perform particularly well in absorbing CO2.

The method includes an additional step of recovering the captured gaseous CO2. The combination of the trapping steps and the recovery steps enable purification of the CO2.

The recovery step comprises a step of lowering the partial pressure of the gas to be trapped introduced into the liquid phase, this step being achieved either by lowering the partial pressure of CO2 (in particular by recirculating, in the reactor saturated with CO2, a stream of gas depleted of CO2 from a capture reactor in operation) or by use of a weak vacuum pressure at most equal to 0.2 bar with respect to the capture pressure, or by shutting off circulation of the gas containing CO2
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Labels: CO2 capture- nanotubes-nanomaterials-BRGM researchers

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=2&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=81&f=G&l=50&co1=OR&d=PG01&s1=nano&s2=nanotubes&OS=nano+OR+nanotubes&RS=nano+OR+nanotubes

CCS to Enhance US Oil Production

CCS to Enhance US Oil Production

The US has an opportunity to increase its energy independence, slash foreign oil imports by as much as half by 2030, and cut carbon emissions through EOR with CCS, according to new analysis by Advanced Resources International (ARI).

EOR with CCS would help drive domestic economic growth and increase US oil reserves, says the report "U.S. Oil Production Potential from Accelerated Deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage".

Clean energy and climate legislation that is being considered in the U.S. Congress is projected to lead to large volumes of captured CO2 from power plants and other industrial sites, sufficient to fully develop oil recovery potential in existing U.S. oil fields.

The report finds that carbon capture stimulated by federal clean energy and climate legislation could boost U.S. oil production between 3 to 3.6 million barrels per day, cutting imports of crude oil up to 40 percent compared to today’s levels and up to 52 percent by 2030 (based on 2009 figures), depending on how much of the captured CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery purposes.

This CO2-enhanced domestic oil production would help keep more than $700 billion in the U.S. economy, employing tens of thousands American workers, while increasing state and Federal revenues between $190 and $210 billion.
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Labels: EOR-CCS clean energy legislation

http://www.adv-res.com/pdf/ARI%20CCS-CO2-EOR%20whitepaper%20FINAL%203-10-10.pdf

Power Prices May Rise in Second Half, China Power’s Lu Says

Power Prices May Rise in Second Half, China Power’s Lu Says

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s second biggest energy user, may increase wholesale electricity prices for coal-fired power plants in the second half, China Power Investment Corp. President Lu Qizhou said.

Rising coal prices will likely result in losses for the nation’s coal-fired power plants in the first half and lead to an increase in power prices in the second half, Lu said in an interview after attending a meeting of the nation’s parliamentary advisory body. The price of coal for power stations gained 12.2 percent during the first two months of 2010 as compared with last year, Lu said.

The government, which controls electricity pricing, considers possible price increases by power producers such as Datang International Power Generation Co., Huaneng Power International Inc. and China Power Investment under a mechanism triggered when the price of coal rises more than 5 percent over a six-month period. China last adjusted its retail and wholesale power prices in November.

“Various heads of power groups have been actively lobbying for such an increase in the past two months,” said Dave Dai, an analyst at CLSA Ltd. “This is also in line with our forecast of a 5 percent tariff increase in the second half of this year.”

Power Generation Losses

Higher coal costs led to losses of about 300 million yuan ($43.9 million) at China Power Investment’s thermal power plants between January and February, Lu said. All of the company’s other businesses are profitable, he said. China Power Investment is one of the country’s five biggest power producers.

Higher power prices in the second half could help the company post a profit this year of about 5 billion yuan, Lu said. China Power Investment, which also operates hydroelectric dams, wind farms and nuclear power plants, had about 50 million yuan of profit in the first two months of this year, Lu said.

China sets wholesale and retail power prices to keep rates affordable. Electricity prices remain “unsatisfactory” because they don’t reflect fluctuations in coal costs, China Power Investment Vice President Li Xiaolin said in an interview today in Beijing. About 80 percent of China’s power stations are coal-fired.

“We’ve been fighting for a market-based system for electricity prices since 2002 and we haven’t given up,” Li said. “The power pricing reform isn’t complete.”

China Power Investment paid 10 percent to 15 percent more for coal supplies this year, Li said, without saying what it paid.

Benchmark spot prices at Qinhuangdao, China’s largest coal port, rose 8.5 percent to between 700 yuan and 710 yuan per ton on March 1, compared with mid-November when the government last adjusted electricity prices, according to data from the China Coal Transport & Distribution Association.

--Wang Ying, Baizhen Chua. Editors: John Liu, Greg Turk

To contact the reporter on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net Baizhen Chua in Beijing at Bchua14@bloomberg.net

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CCS Coalition founded in California

CCS Coalition founded in California

Prompted by a study highlighting the importance of CCS to meet California's long-term target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a group of energy companies with an interest in advancing CCS have launched the California CCS Coalition

The coalition was created to ensure CCS is an important part of any state carbon stabilization program with the goal being "to bring voices to the table throughout the state to demonstrate that CCS is practical, effective and safe," Montgomery adds.

The non-profit organization's mission is to represent the interests of CCS stakeholders in the legislative and regulatory arena and to educate key constituencies and organizations about facts regarding CCS. This includes increasing awareness of the history and safety of the technology, the realities surrounding geological storage and the critical importance of CCS to a comprehensive strategy of reducing emissions of carbon into the atmosphere.

The coalition will strive to increase awareness of CCS and to inform policy makers and the general public of CCS; encourage the deployment of CCS and incentives for low carbon power production; establish definitions for low-carbon power; encourage low-carbon power purchases by electric utilities, and more.

California CCS Coalition members to date include: Aera Energy, Chevron, Clean Energy Systems, Hydrogen Energy California, Sempra Energy Utilities, Southern California Edison, Shell and Western States Petroleum Association. The group hopes to attract other members, as well.

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http://www.ethree.com/California_2050.html

Obama & Senators on Climate bill

US President Obama this week met for the first time with Senators who are pushing the currently mothballed climate bill, meeting with a dozen crucial senators in a final surge to pass the legislation that is bound to be fraught with a number of compromised that will be less palatable to the environmental and international community, reports Charles Digges of Bellona.

The legislation also pushes for “clean coal” – a US term for CCS, one of Bellona’s signature climate abatement strategies. But, while clean coal is embraced by coal producing and dependent states, it is also the target of withering criticism from some of the world’s most powerful environmental groups like the National Resources Defence Council (NRDC).

Indiana Republican Lugar, for example, said he is drafting legislation that would fold together ideas on energy efficiency, a nationwide clean energy standard that promotes nuclear power and "clean coal" technologies and a stronger plan for automobile fuel efficiency standards. Lieberman also downplayed the use of the term "cap and trade" when it comes to limiting emissions, even though that is generally the plan with their bill.

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