The term “clean” is still a stretch if it’s used to describe coal relative to CO2. I have to laugh when I read articles about “clean” coal. Very seldom is the process of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) ever mentioned. That is the latest technology that actually catches CO2 before it’s emitted into the atmosphere. It’s a huge and extremely costly process that captures all the garbage spewing forth, extracts the CO2 away from the other stuff, liquefies it, and at some later point the liquefied CO2 is forced into the ground under great pressure. OMG! I read this process and the enormous price tag. I don’t think it’s worth it.
http:// http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2009/09/14/1.
So CCS is not a process being used at many coalburners these days. Instead utilities like to tout the use of what are termed “scrubbers” that remove pollutants. They do remove sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury but notice there is no mention of CO2? Scrubbers don’t remove that. But considering they do remove the other pollutants, scrubbers are good and a step in the right direction. They should have been in place on every coalburner that went up from the 80’s on because that technology has been around for quite awhile. But the cost for scrubbers runs in the hundreds of millions. Ahhh. Scrubbers are just now being widely installed to comply with the Clean Air Act, and we’re supposed to pat the utilities on the back for being so green, give em big thumbs up. Better late than never—I guess. And so it goes for Consumers Power in Michigan.
Consumer’s Power has just been granted an air permit for one of these self-described “clean” coalburners. It’s planned for the Bay City area and is also billed as a “clean” coal plant by the “Building Tradesman” paper. Of course it will have the latest scrubbers that remove the sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury, but not CO2. Remember, scrubbers have been around since the 70’s. The new plant will not be a CCS plant either. The reason it’s “clean” is because of the offsets Consumer’s promised. Consumers will shut down 5 of its oldest coalburners and possibly 2 more if they are not needed and replace them with this new 830 MW plant that will spew only 830 MW worth of CO2 instead of up to 958 MW of combined CO2 from the others. The term “up to” leaves some wiggle room. This will more than likely be an Even-Steven trade off but not until 2017 when the plant is supposed to be finished.
So in 2017 when we should really be winding down on pollution and gearing up with other alternatives we’ve really advanced on since 2010, Michigan will have a brand new CO2 spewing plant going on line, and the 1800 direct jobs, and 2,500 indirect jobs it maintained will be over. One hundred people will work there. Let’s hope world competition and pressure, the climate, and an economy headed in a greener direction doesn’t put a big, big damper on this future, fossil fuel burner.
Read the article: http://www.detroitbuildingtrades.org/paper.html#article1.