DOE PRESSES CLEAN COAL PROGRAM

Jan. 1, 1990
The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen 13 more clean coal technology (CCT) projects in its third round of competition. If private sponsors and DOE can agree on final terms, the 13 projects will be financed with $540 million in federal funds and $777 million from sponsors and some state governments. They are to join 27 other active clean coal ventures selected in 1986 and 1988 competitions. The CCT program has projects under way or planned in 19 states.

The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen 13 more clean coal technology (CCT) projects in its third round of competition.

If private sponsors and DOE can agree on final terms, the 13 projects will be financed with $540 million in federal funds and $777 million from sponsors and some state governments.

They are to join 27 other active clean coal ventures selected in 1986 and 1988 competitions. The CCT program has projects under way or planned in 19 states.

The CCT program aims to provide more than $5 billion in public and private financing to build advanced coal-burning facilities to combat acid rain and improve air quality during the 1990s and beyond.

Under the program, the federal government plans by 1992 to help finance 50-75 showcase projects, each demonstrating an advanced method for burning coal cleanly and efficiently.

Energy Sec. James Watkins called the CCT projects "this country's best hope for using its most abundant energy resource, coal, while preserving and improving the quality of our environment."

Earlier, Watkins streamlined DOE's review procedure for CCT projects, halving the steps required to negotiate and approve project proposals. Watkins also sent notice of five CCT projects to Congress and will begin funding them soon unless Congress objects.

THIRD ROUND

The 13 third round proposals call for demonstration of a variety of new ways to improve the cleanliness of burning coal.

Some techniques will clean the exhaust gases of coal burning electrical power plants more efficiently or at lower costs than today's scrubbers. Others are designed to remove pollutants during combustion. And some will demonstrate methods for changing coal into new fuel forms that can be cleansed of impurities that cause pollution.

DOE said some of the projects are capable of removing from coal plant emissions more than 99% of the sulfur and 90% of the nitrogen, two pollutants linked to acid rain.

Some of the technologies may increase the generating efficiency of existing coal burning power plants while emitting less carbon dioxide.

A "programmatic environmental impact statement" DOE prepared as a prerequisite to the CCT third round indicated new coal technologies potentially could reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from existing power plants 29-48% by 201 0, nitrogen oxide emissions 14-33%, and carbon dioxide emissions 512%.

DOE chose the 13 third round projects from 48 proposals made last August. Negotiations with sponsors are to be complete by next December.

The department will open the fourth round of competition in June. The fifth and final round is slated for 1991.

ACID RAIN PROJECTS

Seven of the 13 third round projects have the goal of reducing emissions that cause acid rain.

AirPol Inc., Teterboro, N.J., plans to demonstrate gas suspension absorption for flue gas desulfurization at a Paducah, Ky., plant.

Babcock & Wilcox Co., Alliance, Ohio, proposes full scale demonstration of a low nitrogen oxide cell burner retrofit at Aberdeen, Ohio.

Bechtel Corp., San Francisco, plans a confined zone dispersion/flue gas desulfurization demonstration at a plant near Seward, Pa.

Energy & Environmental Research Corp., Irvine, Calif., proposes an evaluation of gas reburning and low nitrogen oxide burners on a wall fired boiler at a Denver plant.

Lifac North America, Oakland, plans to demonstrate its flue gas desulfurization technology at a Richmond, Ind., plant.

MK-Ferguson Co., Cleveland, plans commercial demonstration of a sulfur dioxide/ nitrogen oxide removal and flue gas cleanup system at a Niles, Ohio, plant. MK-Ferguson is to be prime contractor for the $66 million project in association with W.R. Grace & Co., Ohio Edison, and Noxso Corp.

And Public Service Co. of Colorado, Denver, plans to test an integrated dry sorbent injection and nitrogen oxide control system at a Denver site.

OTHER PROPOSALS

Three more third round projects would demonstrate environmentally superior methods for generating electricity. And the remaining three would produce environmentally clean fuels from coal.

Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority, Anchorage, plans to test a cogeneration project at Healy, Alas.

CRSS Capital Inc., Houston, and TECO Power Services Corp., Tampa, propose an integrated gasification and combined cycle demonstration at a Tallahassee, Fla., plant.

Dairyland Power Cooperative, La Crosse, Wis., plans a pressurized circulating fluidized bed demonstration project at Alma, Wis.

Air Products & Chemicals Co., Allentown, Pa., and Dakota Gasification Co., Beulah, N.D., plan a commercial scale demonstration of the liquid phase methanol process at a Beulah plant.

Bethlehem Steel Corp., Bethlehem, Pa., proposes a blast furnace granulated coal injection test at a Burns Harbor, Ind., plant.

And Encoal Corp., Houston, plans a mild gasification demonstration project at a plant near Gillette, Wyo.

FASTER REVIEW

Watkins declared the CCT program was unacceptably slow because only eight of 29 projects selected had received DOE approval.

He began a new process designed to cut in half - to 30 from 57-the number of steps between selection of a candidate project and award of federal funds.

DOE Deputy Sec. Henson Moore said, "A process that would have taken 18 to 24 months will now take 10 to 12 months."

The new procedures replace independent reviews by several DOE off ices with a consolidated review by an executive board. The board, which will meet at each key approval stage in the negotiation process, will have the power to recommend funding for projects.

To expedite staff-level review of projects before they reach the executive board, a technical/legal review panel will substitute for long individual reviews previously required by each staff office.

As each clean coal project is negotiated, the review panel will present the negotiation results to the executive board for final review.

DOE also assigned an "environmental action team" to each project to determine compliance with the National Environmental Policy within 3-4 months after a project has been selected, rather than waiting until the end of the negotiation process.

Watkins ordered that 13 CCT projects pending from the first two rounds be wrapped up by summer.

ACTIVE LIST GROWS

The CCT projects DOE sent to Congress bring to 14 the number of projects under way with government and industry funding. Total value of the approved projects is more than $1.1 billion.

Babcock & Wilcox will demonstrate an advanced pollution control process that captures the three main air pollutants from coal burning in a single device. The process is designed to remove sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and fly ash particles in a high temperature baghouse.

The goal is to capture all major air pollutants in a single device that may be less expensive and require less space than a conventional scrubber. The $10.6 million project will take place at Ohio Edison Co.'s Burger plant in eastern Ohio, about 12 miles south of Wheeling, W.Va. DOE will provide $4.88 million of the total costs.

Combustion Engineering Inc., Windsor, Conn., will outfit an Ohio power plant with an advanced scrubber using catalysts to remove 90% of the nitrogen and sulfur pollutants in flue gas before it is released from the stack.

Conventional scrubbers are said to be ineffective in removing nitrogen oxide, a contributor to acid rain, and produce a pasty sludge because a slurry is used to remove sulfurous pollutants.

The CE concept produces no waste products and removes nitrogen oxides in a catalytic reaction with ammonia to produce nitrogen and water vapor. A separate reaction converts sulfur dioxide to a form that can be used to produce concentrated sulfuric acid.

The demonstration will take place at Ohio Edison's 100,000 kw power plant at Niles, Ohio. DOE will pay $15.7 million of the total $31.4 million cost.

Pure Air, a joint venture involving Air Products & Chemicals Inc., plans to eliminate waste sludge and reduce costs of conventional scrubbers 50%.

It is to use a "single loop" technique that eliminates the need for expensive, spare absorber modules in conventional wet scrubbers.

Limestone, the sulfur absorbing chemical, will be sprayed into the top of a single absorber vessel and flow in the same direction as the flue gas through a grid tower. The cocurrent flow allows the gas to be cleansed at almost twice the flow rate of a conventional scrubber, permitting a more compact, cheaper scrubber vessel.

Pure Air also will use an "air rotary sparger" to change sludge chemically to gypsum that can be sold as wallboard material. It also will test a waste water evaporation system that could eliminate liquid wastes.

Pure Air plans full scale installation at Northern Indiana Public Service Co.'s Gary, Ind., power plant. DOE will pay $63.43 million of the $150.5 million total cost, Pure Air and Northern Indiana Public Service the rest.

Southern Company Services Inc., the engineering arm of the Southern Co. utility system, will test two processes that halve nitrogen oxide emissions from existing power plants.

It will modify a 500,000 kw wall fired boiler, a design typical of about 40% of all U.S. coal fired utility boilers.

The first tests will divert part of the combustion air away from the hot burners to limit the supply of oxygen to form NOx. The diverted air is then injected through ports added above the primary combustion zone where combustion is completed in cooler temperatures. The process is expected to reduce NOx by as much as 30%.

A second set of tests will replace existing burners with low NOx burners, that will control the initial fuel/ air ratio to create a fuel rich flame that retards NOx formation. Additional air is mixed at a limited rate until the combustion temperature falls below the level at which NOx forms. These burners are expected to reduce NOx emissions by 50% or more.

A third round of tests will then operate both techniques at the same time. They will take place at Georgia Power Co.'s Hammond plant near Rome, Ga.

The $11.7 million project will be funded by Southern Co. with $5.5 million, DOE $5.2 million, and Electric Power Research Institute $1 million.

The Passamaquoddy Indian tribe of Maine will use potassium and sodium laden waste materials from its Thomaston, Me., cement manufacturing plant to clean flue gas from the kiln's coal fired heating system.

The project will slurry the waste dust and bubble the flue gas through it. A resulting chemical reaction will remove sulfur from the gas and produce potassium sulfate, which can be sold as a fertilizer.

Further process steps will recover solid calcium carbonate that can be sent back for reuse in the kiln. The final product is distilled water.

The $10.17 million project will receive $4.79 million from DOE. The tribe and its partners will fund the balance.

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