Virginia Joins Federal Clean Energy Program

This week Virginia joined 15 other states as part of EPA's Clean Energy-Environment State Partnership to help address climate change.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah are already working with EPA to develop and carry out comprehensive strategies for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy.

This partnership aims to improve air quality and the environment while reducing energy costs and helping states achieve their economic goals. The 16 partner states represent 55 percent of U.S. population and energy consumption, and nearly 50 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the Partnership Program, launched in February 2005, partner states agree to develop and implement a state-specific Clean Energy-Environment State Action Plan that contains one or more clean energy-environment goals. Virginia will harness the power of the partnership to advance the goals of their recently released energy plan.

EPA provides partner states with access to a comprehensive assistance package of planning, policy, technical, analytical and information resources, and works to establish connections to other federal programs that support clean energy-environment strategies. Partners also benefit by learning from the federal government and other states about successful programs and policies at work, like Energy Star. EPA recognizes these states as environmental and clean energy leaders, commending them for the environmental benefits that result from their efforts. This work helps states plan to meet their energy policy goals and implement energy efficiency programs.

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EPA - Clean Energy-Environment State Partnerships

State of Green Business Report Available

Free GreenBiz.com Report Assesses 20 Key Indicators of Green Business Performance

Despite an apparent flurry of activity by corporations to improve their environmental performance, U.S. companies aren’t yet making much of a difference in addressing major environmental problems, according to a new report.

“State of Green Business 2008,” a free report published by GreenBiz.com, reports that companies are making good progress on fewer than half of the 20 measures of performance it investigated. In some cases, environmental problems are losing ground, even as companies gradually improve their environmental performance, due to the expanding economy of recent years.

For example, generation of electricity from wind, solar, and other renewable sources has grown steadily — from 81 billion megawatt-hours in 2000 to 96 billion in 2006, the most recent data available. But overall electricity consumption has grown, too, with the result being that renewables represent slightly more than two percent of overall U.S. electricity generation, about the same percentage as in 1995.

“Amid the cacophony of headlines and hype, companies are getting greener, but it’s not always obvious or straightforward,” says Joel Makower, Executive Editor of GreenBiz.com and the report’s principal author. “And the progress itself can be illusory. Companies, in aggregate, aren’t changing quickly or significantly enough to move the needle on climate change and other challenges.”

The report, which can be downloaded at http://www.greenbiz.com/, marks the launch of the GreenBiz Index, a set of 20 indicators of U.S. business environmental progress. They include macroeconomic measures, such as carbon emissions, toxic releases, packaging materials, and paper use per unit of gross domestic product, as well as tracking corporate fleet purchases of alternative fuel vehicles, construction of green office space, investments in clean tech, and corporate reporting on environmental and climate impacts.

Among the findings:
- Alternative fueled vehicles, such as hybrid and electric vehicles, represent slightly more than one percent of all corporate fleet purchases.

- The energy efficiency of office buildings, measured as energy use per square foot, has leveled off in recent years, following a dramatic growth in efficiency during the 1990s.

- U.S. greenhouse gas intensity, measured as emissions as a percentage of gross domestic product, is dropping, though actual emissions remain about the same.

- The percentage of employees carpooling or taking public transit to work dropped almost ten percent between 2000 and 2006, though employee telecommuting from home or remote locations eight or more hours per week has risen by 16 percent.

- The amount of used computers and other e-waste has more than doubled since 2000, though e-waste recycling grew by only about 20 percent during that period.

- Paper use, measured against gross domestic product, has declined by more than 20 percent over the past decade, while the recycling rate has increased by 20 percent during that same period.

“State of Green Business 2008 offers clear insight into how, and how well, companies are integrating environmental thinking into their operations,” says Pete May, President of Greener World Media, Inc., which produces GreenBiz.com. “This is the first time anyone has created a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the progress being made.”

The report also includes the top ten green business trends of 2007. They include the greening of transport — planes, trains, trucks, and ships — that move people and goods around the world; the rapid growth of green computing, as makers of chips, PCs, and other devices vie to be the most energy efficient and major equipment companies partner to help capture e-waste; and how banks are launching an impressive array of initiatives to support clean energy, climate change mitigation, green building, and other things.

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GreenBiz.com - Free Report

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How to "green" emergency and prime power generators using CleanAIR Systems' PERMIT Filter/Silencer, utilizing diesel particulate filters

green news

FutureGen Scrapped

On Wednesday the DOE announced a restructuring of the FutureGen project. The initial goal of the project is to demonstrate cutting-edge carbon capture and storage technology in order to advance clean coal power plants. Last year the Department of Energy agreed to spend $950 million to develop the project with FutureGen Alliance, a coalition of coal and oil companies. But this week's announcement cancelled this agreement and issued a new direction requesting a 2009 budget of $648 million for clean coal research.

According to Deputy Secretary Clay Sell, a projected increase of $1.8 billion in the original plan was the reason for the restructuring. The new plan "protects the government's exposure and ensures that it is financially and politically viable," stated Sell.

For the FutureGen Alliance this was a disappointing outcome, as they had lobbied hard for the project demonstration site to be located in Illinois.

According to the Associated Press, Wyoming Gov. Freudenthal, "It's kind of like they invited all of us to go to the prom, picked the date, and then canceled the dance. It seems to me - the absurdity of it - it could only be the federal government that would do this."

See the Source:
DOE - Fossil Energy Techline
The Wall Street Journal - Environmental Capital
C/Net - Green Tech Blog

Find out:
How selective catalytic reduction reduces NOx emissions from coal fired power plants, lean burn engines and gas turbines.

clean coal

“Green” – The New Revolution in Industry

Three members of the steering committee for the Energy Future Coalition recently sent a long commentary to online environmental news source, Grist. Their dissertation presents the view that the recent rise in environmentalism, clean technologies and concern for global warming should be seen as an economic boon rather than a corporate bust that would “invigorate our economy with new ideas, new industries, and new jobs.”

Within their essay they quote venture capitalist, John Doerr (whose company invested early in Google, Amazon and Sun Microsystems) as calling clean energy “the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”

To bring about a change, five rules are proposed that, according to the authors would “reduce emissions, give consumers new choices, launch new businesses, and accelerate the profitable transition to new energy technologies.” They are:
1. Put a price on carbon.
2. Set carbon efficiency standards for vehicles.
3. Make energy efficiency the business of utilities.
4. Modernize the electric power grid to be more efficient and better deliver clean energy.
5. Increase government support for clean energy.

In conclusion, “with one strategic leap, we can wipe out two of the biggest threats to our children’s well-being while creating the high-tech industries that will employ them in the future.”

To read the complete essay, go to Grist: Soapbox.

See the Source:
Energy Future Coalition

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About selective catalytic reduction for coal-fired power plants to reduce NOx emissions.

Canadian Scientific Study Reinforces ThermoEnergy’s Carbon Capture Technology

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—March 16, 2007--ThermoEnergy Corporation today announced the release of the scientific study by the CANMET Energy Research Centre (part of the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources) on ThermoEnergy’s advanced new pressurized oxy-fuel power plant design called the ThermoEnergy Integrated Power System, or TIPS process. The report, entitled “Technical and Economic Feasibility Study of a Pressurized Oxy-fuel Approach to Carbon Capture” identifies TIPS as potentially the most competitive new power plant design for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2). The Company is currently working with the Alaska Energy Authority, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and CANMET to design, build and operate an engineering prototype of a TIPS power system which will be housed at CANMET’s laboratory in Ottawa.

“The CANMET report represents an extremely important milestone for the Company since it not only substantiates, but actually exceeds many of our own performance predictions for TIPS,” said Dennis C. Cossey, ThermoEnergy’s CEO. “The data generated by the current project underway in Ottawa will provide the data we need to take the TIPS technology to the next step – a large-scale stand-alone pilot plant,” said Alex Fassbender, EVP and Chief Technology Officer at ThermoEnergy as well as Project Manager of the Ottawa development program. Mr. Fassbender is also the inventor of the TIPS process.

TIPS is a patented pressurized oxy-fuel combustion system designed to achieve high thermal efficiency, near zero air emissions of pollutants, as well as CO2 capture. TIPS’ ability to utilize a wide range of fuel resources, including high moisture fuels such as Powder River Basin coal and lignite, and biomass with relatively few process steps provides significant economic advantages over competing new power plant designs such as Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants. TIPS also eliminates the need for expensive pre-processing of coal since coals with low thermal value can be fed directly into TIPS boilers with no loss of efficiency.

The use of elevated pressures in the TIPS process significantly increases heat transfer which results in a corresponding reduction of size in key power plant components, such as boilers and heat exchangers, when compared with air-fired or atmospheric pressure oxy-fuel systems. TIPS’ excellent thermal efficiencies over a wide range of sizes, from ten-megawatt industrial combined heat & power plants to large utility power plants, provides a wide range of market opportunities both in the US and abroad.

One of the key conclusions of the CANMET report is that no major technical barriers were found in the TIPS process. “The current collaboration with the Canadian government, along with previous work done with US Department of Energy (DOE), the EPA, Reaction Systems Engineering (a British firm), and the University of Nevada/Reno has greatly accelerated the development of the TIPS process,” said Cossey. “We are on a very aggressive schedule that projects a large-scale, carbon capture commercial power plant underway within the next two years.” The 200-page CANMET report will soon be available for download on the ThermoEnergy’s website.

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ThermoEnergy

The Babcock & Wilcox Company to Demonstrate Carbon Dioxide Capture Technology

Barberton, Ohio -- March 5, 2007 -- The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), in collaboration with American Air Liquide Inc., will begin testing a promising new technology to help coal-fired power plants capture emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas.

The evaluation will occur at B&W’s 30 MWth Clean Environment Development Facility (CEDF) in Alliance, Ohio. The CEDF, originally placed in service in 1994 by B&W, the U.S. Department of Energy and others, is a large-scale demonstration facility that has been used to develop emissions-control technology.

The CEDF will be used to validate a technology called “oxy-coal combustion” that utilizes pure oxygen for the combustion of coal in electricity generating plants. In this system, nitrogen that comes in with the air for the combustion process is eliminated. As a result, the exhaust gas is a relatively pure stream of CO2 that is ready for long-term storage operations.

“Finding ways to capture and store CO2 emissions from power plants is paramount if the United States is going to address greenhouse gas concerns and use our national energy resources,” Don Langley, B&W vice president and chief technology officer said. “We see this major technology demonstration project as another step in B&W’s plan to deliver CO2-capture technology to the electricity generating industry and make a significant impact on this global issue.”

B&W’s development efforts are being done well in advance of similar projects around the globe. “This is truly changing-the-world technology and we are pleased to be leading this research,” Langley added. Because the oxy-coal technology builds on pulverized coal combustion technology, it would be complementary to most of the world’s coal-fired power plants.

B&W will work with American Air Liquide to modify the existing CEDF facility for the oxy-coal process and will begin proving the technology in June 2007. American Air Liquide will provide engineering and chemistry know-how related to combustion, as well as proprietary equipment and sensors for the safe and efficient handling of liquefied oxygen.

In addition to American Air Liquide, several utilities will participate in an “advisory group” process that will help bring the potential users of the technology into the development process.

B&W will evaluate several types of coal, including coal imported from Saskatchewan, Canada, the site of a proposed near-zero emissions power plant that will use this technology at commercial scale.

Present in 72 countries, Air Liquide provides industrial and medical gases and related services and offers innovative solutions based on constantly enhanced technologies. These solutions, which are consistent with Air Liquide’s commitment to sustainable development, help to protect life and enable customers to manufacture many indispensable everyday products. Air Liquide is listed on the Paris stock exchange and is a component of the CAC 40 and Eurostoxx 50 indices (ISIN code FR 0000120073). American Air Liquide Inc. is Air Liquide’s U.S.-based research and development company. For more information, visit http://www.airliquide.com/.

The Babcock & Wilcox Company is a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc., a leading worldwide energy services company. McDermott subsidiaries manufacture steam-generating equipment, environmental equipment, and products for the U.S. government. They also provide engineering and construction services for the offshore oil and natural gas industry.

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Babcock and Wilcox

Find out:
How nitrogen oxides can be virtually eliminated from power plant emissions using selective catalytic reduction