American Electric Power

212289 Resource 107530 205428 205428 1220640707573 1220640707573 Controlled Enviance Customer, American Electric Power (AEP), Making Headlines This Week

Installation of the world's first carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) system on a large, existing coal-fired power plant.

AEP, one of the nation's biggest electric power producers, is pushing the envelope once again. With the financial backing and vision to get big things done, they are installing the world's first carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) system on a large, existing coal-fired power plant.  They are confident operations will begin in 2009. <o:p />Michael Morris, CEO of AEP said, “This technology is going to save the existing [coal] fleet and save the American electrical consumer trillions of dollars." He believes the U.S. coal fleet can have carbon capture and storage operational by 2015, a full decade before some climatologists warn all coal plants must stop spewing greenhouse gases or be shut down to prevent environmental catastrophe.<o:p /> <o:p />The technology Morris is referring to is a new chilled ammonia process developed by Alstom, a Paris-based maker of integrated power plants. Hopefully, the process will be able to grab carbon dioxide from a belching power plant stack at low cost and without sapping massive amounts of electricity -- the main barrier for existing models.<o:p /> <o:p />A government document from the Department of Energy cast doubt on the technology , but that is not stopping Morris from trying it on AEP's 1,300-megawatt Mountaineer plant in West Virginia and shooting the captured gas 2 miles underground on-site. Initially, the process will grab about 1 percent of the plant's C02 output, equivalent to 20 megawatts.<o:p /> <o:p />One problem: if Congress imposes a tight carbon emissions reduction regime before CCS technology is ready, the result could be very negative. It would force AEP to shut coal plants and buy electricity from outrageously expensive alternatives, according to Morris. It could kill the U.S. economy, he says.<o:p /> <o:p />Many would disagree with his assessment. Supporters of an extra-tough cap-and-trade bill say that a similar scheme worked to control acid rain and that the United States and the world can't afford to watch polar ice caps melt because of global warming.<o:p /> <o:p />Other activists are saying that American Electric Power needs to invest more in alternative energy, but Morris estimates that coal plants fitted with carbon capture technology will be much cheaper for his customers than power generated from wind and solar farms.<o:p /> <o:p />If Mountaineer is a success, the company will take the technology to a coal-fired unit in Oologah, Okla., in 2012 and try to capture 50 percent of the carbon dioxide there for use in enhanced oil recovery. Then, Morris said, he will begin retrofitting the largest generators in his fleet. <o:p />My opinion? The technology definitely needs to be tested and AEP seems to be the best company to do it. I applaud their efforts and vision to do more to address the global warming issue. We’re pleased that the Enviance System can help them with this massive project, as it no doubt will.<o:p /> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 9 application/xml false AEP carbon sequestration coal fired energy Enviance GHG global warming American Electric Power website http://www.aep.com/ Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.16) Gecko/20080702 Firefox/2.0.0.16 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 jwuebben 74.202.198.130 false true false false true 205814 false false true false false false true 107530 blog blogsite/Enviance/web