TXU to invest $10 billion in new coal-burning power plants

[kalamu]

Why are we allowing this to happen?!?!!?!?!???????????!!!!!

http://www.energyonline.com/news/art...efor042106.asp

LCG, April 21, 2006--TXU Corp. announced yesterday its plans to invest $10 billion in new power generation facilities in Texas. The focus of TXU's generation expansion plan is to construct 8,600 MW of new, coal-fired generating facilities that will alleviate dependence on natural gas, which is the primary fuel consumed by power plants in Texas. The plants will largely rely on coal from the Powder River Basin (PRB) region in Wyoming.

Of the eleven new generating units planned, nine are targeted to be built at existing TXU power plants. With the incremental expansion of existing facilities and economies of scale associated with the multiple projects, TXU expects to develop the plants at significantly lower costs. The proposed new generating stations are summarized in the following table.

Unit Fuel Net Capacity County

Previously announced:

Oak Grove 1 & 2 Lignite 1,600 Robertson

Sandow 5 Lignite 600 Milam

Subtotal 2,200

Announced today:

Big Brown 3 PRB 800 Freestone

Lake Creek 3 PRB 800 McLennan

Martin Lake 4 PRB 800 Rusk

Monticello 4 PRB 800 Titus

Morgan Creek 7 PRB 800 Mitchell

Tradinghouse 3 & 4 PRB 1,600 McLennan

Valley 4 PRB 800 Fannin

Subtotal 6,400

Total 8,600

As part of this huge endeavor to expand its coal fleet, TXU also announced an exclusive partnerships with Bechtel Power and Fluor Corp. to manage the projects and reduce engineering, procurement and construction costs.

TXU's plans include up to $2 billion to incorporate the best available control technology (BACT) to minimize emissions at the eleven new units. TXU has filed air permit applications with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Given timely regulatory approvals, TXU expects the new units to commence operations by 2010.

The investment plans also call for up to $500 million at existing units to reduce mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. The reductions are to be achieved by fuel switching and the installation of new, state-of-the-art emission controls.

TXU's investment plans include investing up to $2 billion in the development of new, cleaner power plant technology, such as designs that incorporate integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology.

Another element of TXU's expansion plans is the creation of a new company, TXU Renew, whose mission is to double TXU's renewable energy portfolio by 2011. If successful, TXU's total renewable energy portfolio would total about 1,400 MW.

[Nyteshade]

Originally Posted by kalamu

TXU's plans include up to $2 billion to incorporate the best available control technology (BACT) to minimize emissions at the eleven new units. TXU has filed air permit applications with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Given timely regulatory approvals, TXU expects the new units to commence operations by 2010.

The investment plans also call for up to $500 million at existing units to reduce mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. The reductions are to be achieved by fuel switching and the installation of new, state-of-the-art emission controls.

TXU's investment plans include investing up to $2 billion in the development of new, cleaner power plant technology, such as designs that incorporate integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology.

Another element of TXU's expansion plans is the creation of a new company, TXU Renew, whose mission is to double TXU's renewable energy portfolio by 2011. If successful, TXU's total renewable energy portfolio would total about 1,400 MW.

So first you gripe that big companies aren't spending the money to develop cleaner methods and implement the ones currently available for coal, then you gripe when they do. Make up your mind.

[kalamu]

their methods are not clean... they will still be releasing CO2 into the atmosphere

[Nyteshade]

I would like to point you to this thread.

http://dallasdancemusic.com/forums/s...d.php?t=191503

In which you said:

Originally Posted by kalamu

sure it's expensive, but the way i see it is that money is worthless if we destroy the planet with our foolishness. they should just install the shit already.

and this:

Originally Posted by kalamu

there is no reason why they can't provide for themselves now while still building for the future. that's ridiculous. all this horseshit about building a better world for our kids and they can't install some filters that take care of greenhouse gases? bs

[Nyteshade]

Taken from the DOE article:

Originally Posted by DOE Research

Also, some of the early projects are showing ways to reduce greenhouse gases from coal plants by boosting the efficiency at which they convert coal to electricity or other energy forms.

But god forbid we take a step in the right direction.

[kalamu]

and...?

if you release CO2 into the atmosphere you are destroying the planet.

I'm going to respond more tomorrow. Spurs game just went into overtime and I gotta watch it and then get some sleep.

But god forbid we take a step in the right direction.

what good is a step in the right direction that doesn't go as far as a company is capable of going?

but like i said, i'll respond with some teeth tomorrow.

[Nyteshade]

Stop driving then....

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

While major stationary sources are often identified with air pollution, the greatest source of emissions are actually mobile sources, principally the automobile.

[kit'n]

Originally Posted by kalamu

if you release CO2 into the atmosphere you are destroying the planet.

better stop breathing then

[Dionysos]

Coal burning plants these days are remarkably cleaner than the ones at the turn of the century. Read this:

http://www.fossil.energy.gov/program...ion/index.html

Gasification, in fact, may be one of the best ways to produce clean-burning hydrogen for tomorrow's automobiles and power-generating fuel cells. Hydrogen and other coal gases can also be used to fuel power-generating turbines or as the chemical "building blocks" for a wide range of commercial products.

The Energy Department's Office of Fossil Energy is working on coal gasifier advances that enhance efficiency, environmental performance, and reliability as well as expand the gasifier's flexibility to process a variety of coals and other feedstocks (including biomass and municipal/industrial waste).
Environmental Benefits

The environmental benefits stem from the capability to achieve extremely low SOx, NOx and particulate emissions from burning coal-derived gases. Sulfur in coal, for example, emerges as hydrogen sulfide and can be captured by processes presently used in the chemical industry. In some methods, the sulfur can be extracted in either a liquid or solid form that can be sold commercially. In an integrated gasification combined-cycle plant, the syngas produced is virtually free of fuel-bound nitrogen. NOx from the gas turbine is limited to thermal NOx. Diluting the syngas allows for NOx emissions as low as 15 parts per million. Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) can be used to reach levels comparable to firing with natural gas if required to meet more stringent emission levels, and other advanced control processes are being developed.

The Office of Fossil Energy is also exploring advanced syngas cleaning and conditioning processes that are even more effective in eliminating emissions from coal gasifiers. Multi-contaminant control processes are being developed that reduce pollutants to parts-per-billion levels and will be effective in cleaning mercury and other trace metals in addition to other impurities.

Coal gasification may offer a further environmental advantage in addressing concerns over the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. If oxygen is used in a coal gasifier instead of air, carbon dioxide is emitted as a concentrated gas stream in syngas at high pressure. In this form, it can be captured more easily and at lower costs for sequestration. By contrast, when coal burns or is reacted in air, 80 percent of which is nitrogen, the resulting carbon dioxide is in much more dilute concentrations and more costly to separate from the much larger mass of gases flowing from the combustor.
Efficiency Benefits

Efficiency gains are another benefit of coal gasification. In a typical coal combustion plant, heat from burning coal is used to boil water, making steam that drives a steam turbine-generator. In some cases, only a third of the energy value of coal is actually converted into electricity by most combustion plants, the rest is lost as waste heat.

A coal gasification power plant, however, typically gets dual duty from the gases it produces. First, the coal gases, cleaned of impurities, are fired in a gas turbine - much like natural gas - to generate one source of electricity. The hot exhaust of the gas turbine is then used to generate steam for use in a more conventional steam turbine-generator. This dual source of electric power, called a "combined cycle," is much more efficient in converting coal's energy into usable electricity. The fuel efficiency of a coal gasification power plant in this type of combined cycle can be boosted to 50 percent or more.

Future concepts that incorporate a fuel cell or fuel cell-gas turbine hybrid could achieve efficiencies nearly twice today's typical coal combustion plants. If any of the remaining waste heat can be channeled into process steam or heat, perhaps for nearby factories or district heating plants, the overall fuel use efficiency of future gasification plants could reach 70 to 80 percent.

Higher efficiencies translate into more economical electric power and potential savings for ratepayers. A more efficient plant also uses less fuel to generate power, meaning that less carbon dioxide is produced. In fact, coal gasification power processes under development by the Energy Department could cut the formation of carbon dioxide by 40 percent or more compared to today's conventional coal-burning plant.

The capability to produce electricity, hydrogen, chemicals, or various combinations while eliminating nearly all air pollutants and potentially greenhouse gas emissions makes coal gasification one of the most promising technologies for the energy plants of tomorrow.

[Xmuzik]

coal is so 19th cenutry its pitiful

[kalamu]

Dionysis, they are cleaner in some aspects... but they all continue to release CO2 into the atmosphere which is the cause of global warming.

[Nyteshade]

As does everything when it is burned.

[Dionysos]

Originally Posted by kalamu

Dionysis, they are cleaner in some aspects... but they all continue to release CO2 into the atmosphere which is the cause of global warming.

Did you read the article? I don't think you fully grasp how much cleaner a process gasification is than a coal-burning plant. We're talking a fraction of the CO2 that a traditional plant would produce.

[Element4040]

Originally Posted by kalamu

Why are we allowing this to happen?!?!!?!?!???????????!!!!!

Because the Coal Industry contributed 100 million dollars to the Bush campaign. Duh.

[kalamu]

Originally Posted by Dionysos

Did you read the article? I don't think you fully grasp how much cleaner a process gasification is than a coal-burning plant. We're talking a fraction of the CO2 that a traditional plant would produce.

where did you read that those are the types of plants that TXU will be building? because it doesn't say that anywhere that I can see. I see they will be contributing to research for gasification, but not that they will be using that process.