Praxair seeks grail of clean coal emissions
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme- mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme- mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme- mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-} Praxair Inc. is seeking a portion of $340 million in federal funding to support an experiment to capture emissions from coal-fired power plants, potentially eliminating one of the primary drawbacks of such facilities.
The Danbury-based company has been planning an experimental station in Jamestown, N.Y., which it says would be the first of its kind in the United States. The plant would produce 50 megawatts of energy, sufficient power for the equivalent of at least 35,000 homes.
The benefits of the technology could be enormous for Praxair and rival producers of industrial gases like Air Liquide, which has run its own demonstration project in Alliance, Ohio.
Oxy-coal technology uses a circulating-fluidized bed design to burn coal in a mixture of oxygen and re-circulated flue gas. That cuts emissions to the air by a factor of 10 compared to the best air-based coal-burning technology currently available, according to Praxair.
Once captured, the carbon dioxide can be compressed and transported by pipeline to an underground storage site.
Since establishing plans for Jamestown, Praxair has also moved ahead on “clean” coal projects in Spain and Germany, the latter with 10 times the capacity of the New York project. The Praxair plant in Germany would require some 8,000 tons of oxygen daily, which would be produced on site by Praxair.
Praxair and its partners have already received nearly $1 million in funding for the project from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and in June New York Gov. David Paterson promised up to $6 million more in support.
In July, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Praxair $3 million to develop a near-zero emissions, flue-gas purification technology to retrofit existing pulverized-coal power plants with oxy-coal.
The DOE solicited bids last month for new technologies that can sequester the carbon dioxide produced by coal combustion, while possibly funneling it for beneficial use. DOE is giving companies through next January to submit applications.
Application criteria for DOE funding include:
”¢ Any system must operate at 90 percent “capture” efficiency;
Ӣ At least 300,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide must be captured;
Ӣ Projects cannot increase electricity costs more than 10 percent;
Ӣ Projects must use domestic-mined coal or coal waste for at least 75 percent of energy input;
Ӣ At least 50 percent of the energy output must be in the form of electricity.
In mid-August, municipal officials in Holland, Mich., approved a site there for potential use as an alternate site, meeting a condition for federal funding.
Other organizations working on the project include Dresser-Rand Group Inc.; Ecology and Environment Inc.; AES Corp.; Foster Wheeler; and Battelle.