The News Review:
- Peabody eyes Kentucky for possible plant
- ENERGY TRADE-FF Clean Coal Gets a Boost in Britain
- Lift the moratorium on new nuclear plants
- Singapore strives to lead next round of biofuels race
- Planting seeds of biofuel where little else grows
Peabody eyes Kentucky for possible plant
ABCmoney.co.uk – Oct 29, 2007
‘Completing the feasibility study and preliminary engineering and design work will be necessary before selection of a final site and ultimately a final investment decision by our project managers. Louis-based Peabody had considered several locations in Kentucky Illinois and Indiana for the proposed plant. But the search was narrowed to Kentucky after the state Economic Development Finance Authority agreed last week to provide Peabody $250 million in tax incentives. Bowen said the proposed plant would employ 400 to 500 people in both the conversion plant and in an adjacent coal mine in either Henderson Union hio Webster or Muhlenberg counties… Louis-based Peabody had considered several locations in Kentucky Illinois and Indiana for the proposed plant. But the search was narrowed to Kentucky after the state Economic Development Finance Authority agreed last week to provide Peabody $250 million in tax incentives. Bowen said the proposed plant would employ 400 to 500 people in both the conversion plant and in an adjacent coal mine in either Henderson Union hio Webster or Muhlenberg counties. The plant would use about 2. 5 million tons of coal per year. An economic impact study performed by the Kentucky ffice of Research and Information Technology estimates the.
ENERGY TRADE-FF Clean Coal Gets a Boost in Britain
Spiegel nline – Oct 29, 2007
SaskPower a public utility in Canada’s Saskatchewan province recently spent about $17 million on an engineering feasibility study for a new coal power plant. Equipped with cutting-edge antipollution technology it would have been the first commercial-scale coal plant to trap more than 95% of the carbon dioxide it produced — a vital advance in the race against global warming. n paper the plant looked like a winner. SaskPower aimed to sell the carbon dioxide to nearby oil producers who planned to inject it into their fields to force out more oil. But by the time the utility had to make a final decision last month on the plant its estimated cost had more than doubled from $1… SaskPower a public utility in Canada’s Saskatchewan province recently spent about $17 million on an engineering feasibility study for a new coal power plant. Equipped with cutting-edge antipollution technology it would have been the first commercial-scale coal plant to trap more than 95% of the carbon dioxide it produced — a vital advance in the race against global warming. n paper the plant looked like a winner. SaskPower aimed to sell the carbon dioxide to nearby oil producers who planned to inject it into their fields to force out more oil. But by the time the utility had to make a final decision last month on the plant its estimated cost had more than doubled from $1. 8 billion and it was clear that the project couldn’t be done quickly enough to meet rising demand for power.
Lift the moratorium on new nuclear plants
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription… – Oct 29, 2007
nuclear plants averaged less than 1. 7 cents per kilowatt-hour lower than coal at about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour and far lower than natural gas plants. Tennessee Valley Authority rebuilt the Browns Ferry plant and is beginning to rebuild the Watts Bar plant. Both of these units were left unfinished in the 1980s due to a lack of electricity demand at the time. Finally South Texas Utilities requested approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction-operation license for two reactors and the NRC is preparing for at least two dozen more reactor orders. Clearly new plants once completed will cost more that operating plants but all economic estimates indicate that nuclear will be cost-competitive with baseload coal plants. Nuclear plants will have an economic advantage if carbon-emissions requirements are enacted… There will be substantial growth in nuclear power use in the world in the coming decades a non-polluting form of power spurring economic development. The only question is whether Wisconsin will take advantage of that resource. Michael Corradini is chair of Engineering Physics and Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was appointed to the National Council on Radiation Protection in 2004 and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards in 2006.
Singapore strives to lead next round of biofuels race
International Herald Tribune – Oct 29, 2007
“We feel that if we're going to focus on a sustainable type of activity we need to look beyond first-generation biofuels: Those made from food crops” Julian Ho executive director for energy chemical and engineering services at Singapore's Economic Development Board said. Singapore does not believe that diverting food crops to create fuels will be sustainable over the long term Ho said. “Right now everybody in the region seems to focus more on first-generation biofuels but what we really want is to be the leading place for second-generation biofuels in Asia. ” Although definitions vary first-generation biofuels are generally regarded as those made from food crops like sugar cane corn and palm oil and are used commercially as ethanol and bio-esters. Up to 10 percent of ethanol can be blended with standard fuel in the United States and up to 5 percent in Europe while bio-esters can be mixed with diesel… Among the leaders in the development effort Iogen a Canadian company in which Shell has a stake has developed a processing technology that uses enzymes to make cellulose-based ethanol from straw. But Iogen has yet to build a commercial cellulose ethanol plant. Choren Industries in Germany is scheduled to bring a first industrial-scale plant into production in mid-2008 that will convert biomass to liquid fuel. The plant in Freiberg will use gasification technology to convert a woody feedstock into high-quality synthetic fuel. In Finland Neste il a refining and marketing company that focuses on producing clean transport fuels inaugurated a first biodiesel production line at its Porvoo refinery on May 31. The €100 million or $140 million plant is now running at its normal capacity of 170000 tons a year following a start-up period of several months said Sami ja Neste's manager for marketing and sales.
Planting seeds of biofuel where little else grows
International Herald Tribune – Oct 29, 2007
The Indian government is targeting 13. 5 million hectares or 33. 5 million acres for jatropha cultivation by 2012; in the Philippines a British firm NRG Chemical Engineering has set up a joint venture with the state-owned Philippine National il to construct a biodiesel refinery and two ethanol distilleries. NRG Chemical says that it will invest $600 million in jatropha plantations that will cover over a million hectares mainly on the islands of Palawan and Mindanao. Even Myanmar is joining the fray with the director general of Myanmar's energy planning department being quoted over the summer saying that the country hopes to have 2. 8 million hectares of jatropha plantations by the end of next year. The country has already planted 650000 hectares according to news reports… “As such it's an additional revenue for farmers” said Peter Cheng chief executive of Van Der Horst Biodiesel a Singapore company that has invested in small pilot plantations of 1000 hectares or less in China and Cambodia. Van der Horst is now negotiating for an additional 20000 hectares in Cambodia 10000 hectares in Vietnam and 25000 hectares on the Indonesian island of Seram. The company's business plan calls for it to build a biodiesel plant in Singapore with a 200000-ton annual production capacity to process jatropha from its plantations in the region. For all the buzz around the seeds Prince warns that governments need to proceed cautiously. “You've got to make sure you're planting this in the right area” he said. “There is no point of having a jatropha bonanza if people start chopping down rainforest to plant or farmers plant it in areas that are too dry. ” The bush needs between 600 milliliters or 37 cubic inches and 1500 milliliters a year of rainfall – ideally 1000 milliliters he said.