The proposal for building two Duke Energy coal-fueled power plants has recently been approved by Americans For Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). The two power plants under consideration are—the Cliffside Steam Station (North Carolina) and the Edwardsport Station (Indiana). Advanced technologies are going to be used in both these plants to reduce air emission levels. The plants would also help in generating electricity in North Carolina and Indiana.
Coal is the most abundant, affordable and safe source of power in USA, and the two new power plants would go a long way in proving that, advanced, clean coal technologies can indeed generate enough power for supporting aN economy and population. The power plants would also showcase the prowess and capacity of clean coal techniques to provide sustained superior environmental performance.
Joe Lucas, executive director of ABEC, has hailed the approval of the Cliffside and Edwardsport power plants as a significant step forward in the process of developing and deploying clean coal technologies.The number of permitted new coal-fueled projects in the US has swelled to 15 with the approval of these two power plants. 24 coal-fueled plants are already under construction.
Coal-based utility industries have always maintained that carbon can be obtained and stored in a timely fashion. Lucas said that the Edwardsport plant is all set to be one of the first projects to demonstrate the technique of carbon capture and storage in the US, thereby reinforcing the theory of the coal-based industries.
Supercritical pulverized coal technologies would be used in the Cliffside plant, which would result in more efficient burning of coal. On the other hand, Edwardsport project would see the use of integration gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology, making it one of the first coal plants in the world to use this technique.
Coal is converted into a synthetic gas at the IGCC plants, and the gas is then processed to reduce different forms of emissions in air, including sulphur, mercury and particulate matter.
Duke Energy plans to stop using the older, less-efficient coal-fueled units at both Cliffside and Edwardsport once these two new plants start to function. This will considerably bring down net air emissions and the intensity of carbon dioxide generated by Duke’s power plants—thereby making sure that the environment is not adversely affected too much.
The proposed new near-zero emission coal plants would certainly be a welcome addition to the line of new coal-fueled projects in the US—-using advanced clean coal techniques to generate power, while bringing down the levels of air-pollution considerably.
Source: NextEnergyNews
