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Posted by NewGenCoal team on 14/04/2011

The CS Energy Callide Oxyfuel project has accomplished further milestones towards becoming a fully operational large-scale CCS project. Construction is on target towards integrated carbon capture and storage from electricity generation by the end of 2011.

The Callide Oxyfuel project is an effort to retrofit an existing power station near Biloela, Queensland with carbon capture and storage functionality. It is an especially important CCS project because it's one of the first projects to move beyond conception into construction.

Given its location, continuing construction efforts were hampered by the massive flooding that inundated many parts of Queensland recently. Hampered, yes. Halted, no, as a recent bulletin circulated by the project has emphasised.

Speaking of recent works, the bulletin notes ‘The largest and most complex lift was the placement of the Primary Air (Gas) Heater, weighing 65 tonnes, more than 35 metres up to the top of the power station. The Primary Air (Gas) Heater (pictured) is used in the oxyfuel combustion process to pre-heat flue gas that is recirculated to the coal pulverising mills, so that the coal is adequately dried in the milling process to achieve stable combustion in the boiler. ‘

This follows on from the installation of the Flue Gas Low Pressure Heater late last year. Retrofitting oxyfuel technology to the Callide A Power Station and construction of new aspects of the project commenced in March 2010 after the completion of earthworks onsite.

The commissioning of the new plant is expected to commence shortly with the first stage consisting of firing of an oil torch in the boiler under normal conditions. This will then be done under oxy-firing conditions, involving pure oxygen combustion which leads to higher temperatures than normal.

The carbon capture and storage plant construction will continue concurrently, expecting to be completed in September. Integrated operation is due before the end of the year 2011.

The Callide Oxyfuel Project is a joint venture between CS Energy, the Australian Coal Association, Xstrata Coal, Schlumberger and Japanese participants J-POWER; Mitsui; and IHI Corporation. The project has also received financial support from the Australian, Queensland and Japanese governments. It is one of the most important CCS projects in the world for a number of reasons.

As mentioned above, it is one of the most advanced projects moving beyond conception and planning, and well on the way to operation. It is significant because of the degree of carbon capture (estimated 90%) it will facilitate, as well as the scale (forecast 150,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year). Most importantly, however, is that the oxyfuel combustion technology being tested paves the way for retrofitting. Existing coal-fired plants would not need to be dismantled to provide massive greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Categories : active projects, CCS
Tag: Callide

Posted by NewGenCoal Team on 16/02/2011

We’re well and truly into 2011, but as we continue to ramp up into the year, we’d just like to take one last review of 2010. This time the good folks at the Carbon Capture Journal have put together a summary of milestones in CCS in 2010.

Comment: 1
Category : CCS
Tag: 2010

Posted by NewGenCoal Team on 31/01/2011

A feature of the annual World Energy Future Summit is the awarding of the Zayed Future Energy Prize – a kind of Nobel prize for renewable and sustainable energy. At the recently concluded 2011 event, the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas came away with the first prize, but then split the $1.5 million purse with other finalists.

The Zayed Future Energy Prize website states the award was created ‘to recognise and honour outstanding, innovative achievements and leadership in the global search for a sustainable energy future.’ It sets out to ‘celebrate achievements that reflect innovation, long-term vision and leadership in renewable energy and sustainability.”

The 2011 competition received a record number of submissions from 69 countries: 391 formal submissions and 959 third-party nominations identifying individuals and organisations of merit. These submissions were considered by a judging panel lead by Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC.

In early December, the submissions had been shortlisted to the top 40 entrants in the sectors of solar installations, solar-wind hybrid systems, wind turbine businesses, biofuel generation, energy storage, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicle charging technologies, low energy water treatments, storm resistant and eco homes.

The six finalists were named in late December representing a diverse entry field, covering individuals and organisations, the developed and developing worlds, solar, wind and energy efficiency.

At the recently concluded World Future Energy Summit 2011, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, announced the $1.5 million top award would go to Vestas which, according to the jury, displayed “outstanding leadership to pioneer wind energy, even during periods where demand for renewable energy waned," the jury said.”

Runner up prizes of US$350,000 were awarded to Amory B. Lovins at Rocky Mountain Institute and E+Co. Lovins was awarded for his work on an ‘integrative design’ methodology for energy efficient buildings, vehicles and factories. E+Co, a clean energy investment company, was honoured for its investments in the developing world supporting and investing in small and growing clean energy enterprises.

Vestas, who have recorded financial losses in recent times, then stunned attendants by giving away its winnings. $750,000 will be donated to a new non-governmental organization named WindMade, a label to designate products manufactured with wind power. Windmade presently has seven prominent partners: The UN Global Compact, The World Wildlife Fund, the Global Wind Energy Council, Bloomberg, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Lego and Vestas. However, Vestas hopes to have 1,000 partner companies signed up by the beginning of 2012.

The second $750,000 will be split among the three finalists that did not receive a cash award:

Barefoot College, the only fully solar-electrified college in India, for training women in rural areas to contribute to solar energy development.
First Solar, solar modules manufacturer based in Arizona, USA for its commitment to solar energy and the development of more efficient thin-film solar modules.
Terry Tamminen, for his work in developing renewable energy solutions in California.

Comment: 1
Category : renewables
Tags: WFES, prize

Posted by NewGenCoal Team on 28/01/2011

The fourth World Future Energy Summit recently finished in Abu Dhabi. Government officials and industry experts from around the world gathered to discuss a sustainable energy future while cleantech companies showcased the latest technology.

Abu Dhabi has initiated this event in recent years as part of its broader plan to diversify from oil and gas into a post-oil future. The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is one, holds the sixth biggest oil company in the world and the seventh largest reserves of natural gas. Their per-capita CO₂ emissions are also the world’s highest given their small population.

The country launched the energy forum in 2008 as part a bold effort to look into a future vastly different from the current situation. In a short period, the event has gained recognition as one of the world’s most influential gatherings of leaders in the clean technology and renewable energy sector, made all the more so through practical action. The current embodiment of this is their flagship project, the Masdar City initiative – a futuristic clean and green city presently being built, deploying advanced renewable energy technologies. Carbon capture and storage is also seen as an instrumental component in the country’s future.

“The World Future Energy Summit exemplifies Abu Dhabi’s commitment to providing a platform for the world’s energy industry to come together and help facilitate the search for viable, commercial solutions that address today’s energy challenges,” Masdar CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said. Masdar currently operates five integrated business units ― Masdar City, Masdar Power, Masdar Carbon, Masdar Institute and Masdar Capital.

Comments from the UAE Minister of Energy, Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al-Hamil, highlighted the portfolio approach of multiple technologies required to tackle climate change. “Alternative energy development is a necessity — the world economy is growing and fossil fuel will not be enough to meet that growth. In the foreseen future, fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable energy will complement each other significantly.”

The summit featured several keynote speakers including U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-Moon. He emphasised that energy advancements aren’t reaching citizens in developing countries, where 1.6 billion people currently don’t have electricity. “Our challenge is transformation,” Ban said. “We need a global clean energy revolution — a revolution that makes energy available and affordable for all.”

Alongside renewables and nuclear, clean coal will no doubt have to play a part in this effort, particularly in such countries as China, India, South Africa, Colombia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. This need for a portfolio approach was demonstrated by the summit’s range of displays and speakers. Sectors most represented include solar, wind, environment, green building and carbon capture, while pavilions were hosted by over 40 national governments and 600 companies. Exhibitors recognise the role the event plays in helping facilitate networking and investment opportunities, building the relationships required to tackle modern energy challenges.

Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the acclaimed 2006 Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change, suggested the scale of the opportunity for low-emissions technologies is high. He said, “In order that climate change targets can be achieved, we face the need for a new industrial revolution. That industrial revolution needs policy change as a driver to reach the scale of change required. With fundamentally strong policy, we can also increase the pace of that change.”

This revolution will be massive and costly but not without reward. Mark Vachon of General Electric, USA, explained, “The perception is that it costs to do the right thing. But, thanks to design and technology innovations, we don’t have to choose between economic performance and environmental performance any longer. In fact, through our own design innovations at GE, we have already saved $130 million. And we can translate this into an $840m annual fuel saving for our customers.

Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of International Energy Agency (IEA), gave his assessment of current and future investment in the renewable energy sector and touched on some of the challenges the sector faces. Birol predicted that investment in renewable energy is set to triple between 2008 and 2035, mainly driven by the demand for power generation, but that the current glut of cheap gas and government fuel subsidies for generating power poses a threat. “Government subsidies of energy fuels leads to inefficiencies and waste through artificially high use,” Birol said.

More news and outcomes from the World Future Energy Summit is available here.

Category : conference

Posted by NewGenCoal Team on 25/01/2011

In this post we offer a summary of the salient points of a widely read article from The Atlantic Monthly. The article, ‘Dirty Coal, Clean Future’ reconciles what may seem as an oxymoron to some, highlighting the fundamental global importance of coal, and therefore of carbon capture and storage in reducing its emissions.

Image credit: Bryan Christie via The Atlantic Monthly

The full article from The Atlantic Monthly is available here. Its lengthy but worthwhile. We pull out the important general points here for easier reading.

In summary, the article argues that any effective and cost-effective solution to tackling climate change whilst meeting the energy needs of the world must, by necessity, centrally include that energy source – coal. Coal is also one of the leading sources of climate-affecting greenhouse gas emissions, thus reinforcing the argument.

‘Clean coal’ may be considered an oxymoron by some, but as this excellent article highlights, 'two ideas that underlie the term are taken with complete seriousness by businesses, scientists, and government officials. One is that coal can be used in less damaging, more sustainable ways than it is now. The other is that it must be used in those ways, because there is no plausible other way to meet what will be, absent an economic or social cataclysm, the world’s unavoidable energy demands.'

‘This is not an argument against all-out effort on all other fronts, from conservation and efficiency to improved battery technology to wind- and solar-power systems to improved nuclear facilities. “Good ideas about climate change are not in competition with one another,” says Roger Aines, a climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “We need every possible solution, and then we need more.”’

'"To stabilize the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere, the whole world on average would need to get down to the Kenya level”—a 96 percent reduction for the United States [and Australia]. The figures also suggest the diplomatic challenges for American [and other first-world] negotiators in recommending that other countries, including those with hundreds of millions in poverty, forego the energy-intensive path toward wealth that the United States has traveled for so many years.'

The article points out that this increased energy usage isn't about an idealistic equity. As the author says, 'people in rural China don’t really care that people somewhere else—Los Angeles or Houston, even Shanghai or Tianjin—are using more electricity and gasoline than they are. They just want to use more themselves! “You go in the countryside in China, and people don’t have any power to pump their water,” Dave Mohler, chief technology officer of Duke Energy and a regular visitor to China said. “Of course they’re going to want those powered pumps. Anyone would.”'

'Isn’t “clean energy” the answer? Of course—because everything is the answer,' the author goes on to say, entering into discussion of the most well-known illustration of the not-one-but-all-solutions approach - the “carbon wedge” analysis from the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton.

Its premise is that to avoid catastrophic global warming, the world will have to reduce its emissions by about 26 billion tons per year. 'To reach that total, CMI proposes seven “stabilization wedges” of a little less than 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide each. A 4-billion-ton “wedge” through efficiency efforts of all kinds; another wedge of that size through renewable power; another through avoiding deforestation and changing agricultural practices. Eventually it adds up.'

“There are many good options,” Julio Friedmann, a geologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told the author in Beijing two years ago. “But there are no unlimited options. Each is limited by cost, limited by scale, limited by physics and chemistry, limited by thermodynamics. For example, there’s nothing wrong with switchgrass as a biofuel”—one of George W. Bush’s novel proposals—“but there’s not a lot of energy in it.”

“Emotionally, we would all like to think that wind, solar, and conservation will solve the problem for us,” David Mohler of Duke Energy said. “Nothing will change, our comfort and convenience will be the same, and we can avoid that nasty coal. Unfortunately, the math doesn’t work that way.”

The maths doesn't work that way exactly because of the degree coal is entrenched within the world's socio-economic infrastructure, meaning it will continue to do so for a long time to come. In the US, coal-burning power plants provide nearly half of the electricity consumed. In China, this figure is higher, at least 70 percent. Globally, coal-fired plants provide about 40% the total electric supply. [Note: And in Australia coal provides three-quarters of the electricity supply]

The respective rates of technology and fuel penetration illustrates the enormity of coal and gap faced by other technoloiges. 'Between 1995 and 2008, the amount of electricity coming from solar power rose by two-thirds in the United States, and wind-generated electricity went up more than 15-fold. Yet over those same years, the amount of electricity generated by coal went up much faster, in absolute terms, than electricity generated from any other source. The journalist Robert Bryce has drawn on U.S. government figures to show that between 1995 and 2008, “the absolute increase in total electricity produced by coal was about 5.8 times as great as the increase from wind and 823 times as great as the increase from solar”—and this during the dawn of the green-energy era in America. Power generated by the wind and sun increased significantly in America last year; but power generated by coal increased more than seven times as much.'

The same growth pattern is amplified in China. Renewables may be growing faster in relative terms, but beginning from such a small base means that the most visible and dramatic increases occur in coal. '“Coal simply is going to be with us for decades,” a technical adviser to China’s energy ministry told the author in Beijing. “We hope someday to have 15 percent of our power from renewable sources. Even so, the percentage of power generated by coal will not drop by more than a few points, and the absolute amount will quickly grow.” Another government energy expert in Beijing said in the article that the only serious limit on how fast Chinese power companies can increase their use of coal is the capacity of the country’s transportation system. “It’s kind of an existential question, whether they can handle the physical volumes they are planning to consume,” he said. “Right now railroads are at capacity, you have entire highways being blocked with coal trucks, and the problems cascade.” Part of the reason China has committed some $80 billion over the next decade to build light-rail networks across the country is to get human passengers off the main rail lines, opening up more capacity to move coal.'

Injecting some perspective into the debate, the article provides a reality check: “People without a technical background think, ‘Coal is dirty! It’s bad,’” says Ming Sung, a geologist and energy expert who was born in Shanghai. “But will you turn off your refrigerator for 30 years while we work on renewables? Turn off the computer? Or ask people in China to do that? Unless you will, you can’t get rid of coal for decades. As [U.S. Energy Secretary] Steven Chu has said, we have to face the nightmare of coal for a while.”

The author goes on to reinforce the inevitable realities of coal. 'Coal will be with us because it is abundant: any projected “peak coal” stage would come many decades after the world reaches “peak oil.” It will be with us because of where it’s located: the top four coal-reserve countries are the United States, Russia, China, and India, which together have about 40 percent of the world’s population and more than 60 percent of its coal. It will be with us because its direct costs are in most circumstances far lower than those of the alternatives—that’s why so much is used. Power companies that answer to shareholders or ratepayers have a hard time justifying a more expensive choice.'

Then there are the realities of any socio-technical transition. 'Coal will be with us because changing a power infrastructure—like building a new transportation system or extending cable or fiber-optic connections through an entire country—is the very opposite of a “virtual” process, and takes many years to complete.'

In short, there is no safe climate future without getting real about coal. '"I know this is a theological issue for some people,” Julio Friedmann of Lawrence Livermore said. “Solar and wind power are going to be important, but it is really hard to get them beyond 10 percent of total power supply.” He pointed out the huge engineering achievement it has taken to raise the efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells from about 25 percent to about 30 percent; whereas “to make them useful, you would need improvements of two- or threefold in cost,” say from about 18 cents per kilowatt-hour to 6 cents.'

“It is very hard to go around the world and think you can make any difference in carbon-loading the atmosphere without some plan for how people can continue to use coal,” Friedmann said. “It is by far the most prevalent and efficient way to generate electricity. People are going to use it. There is no story of climate progress without a story for coal. In particular, U.S.-China progress on coal.”

Image credit: Bryan Christie via The Atlantic Monthly

Comments: 4
Categories : CCS, coal
Tags: china, usa

NewGen Roundtable Blog

Callide Oxyfuel project construction nearing completion

CCS in 2010

Vestas generous with Zayed Future Energy Prize

World Future Energy Summit

Reconciling dirty coal with a clean future

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