Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
8/7/2015
Within the Environmental Protection Agency’s final New Source Performance Standards for new-build coal-fired power plants, the agency has introduced a process through which projects utilizing captured carbon for reuse in innovative ways may apply for recognition as a means for carbon storage. “The EPA recognizes that potential alternatives to sequestering CO2 in geologic formations are emerging. These CO2 utilization technologies not only show promise, but could potentially be demonstrated to show permanent storage of CO2,” an EPA spokesperson told GHG Monitor this week.
The rule, which mandates the use of partial carbon capture and storage on any new-build coal-fired power plant, “generally requires that captured CO2 be either injected onsite for geologic sequestration or transferred offsite to a facility reporting geologic sequestration under [EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program],” the document says. This includes CO2 used in enhanced oil recovery operations.
However, various innovative technologies now under development use CO2 in other ways, such as Skyonic’s SkyMine system, which converts captured pollutants, including CO2, into saleable goods, including baking soda, hydrochloric acid, and bleach. EPA noted the Skyonic technology within the rule as an innovate technology showing potential. “Skyonic is pleased that the EPA has recognized Skyonic’s SkyMine carbon capture and utilization technology as part of the solution to reducing CO2 emissions,” a representative from Skyonic told GHG Monitor this week.
The rule as proposed required that individual new-build coal units would have to cap emissions at between 1,000 and 1,100 pounds of CO2/MWh using partial carbon capture. The final rule eased this requirement to 1,400 pounds of CO2/MWh, but kept the partial CCS requirement.
“After consideration of a wide range of comments, technical input received on the availability, technical feasibility, and cost of CCS implementation, and publicly available information about projects that are implementing or planning to implement CCS, the EPA confirms its proposed determination that CCS technology is available and technically feasible to implement at fossil fuel-fired steam generating units,” according to the final rule.
A Step in the Right Direction
As the CCS industry continues to develop, using captured carbon will be key in developing a business case for the technology, Chuck McConnell, former assistant energy secretary for fossil energy, told GHG Monitor this week. “This moves us and the whole intellectual mindset from carbon dioxide being treated as a waste and it moves it into a category of a product that’s being utilized and then ultimately safely and permanently stored so that we can receive an environmental benefit from it. This is not a waste disposal model; it’s a business model that’s good for business and good for the environment,” McConnell said.
According to the rule, these innovative utilization practices are not mature enough for the EPA to “unqualifiedly structure [the] final rule to allow for their use.”
For this reason, “Applicants [for recognition] would need to demonstrate that the proposed technology would operate effectively, and that captured CO2 would be permanently stored. Applicants must also demonstrate that the proposed technology will not cause or contribute to an unreasonable risk to public health, welfare or safety,” the document says.
While this criteria is “intellectually responsible,” as many of these technologies have not yet developed best practices for monitoring and verification, the wording of the rule may be cause for concern, McConnell said. “The concerns that industry will likely have is that when you use unspecific terms you’re not exactly sure what that may end up meaning for you. So when using terms like ‘unreasonable’ and other non-specific terms it introduces that uncertainty,” he said.
Acknowledgment of Utilization and EOR Applauded
The inclusion of both innovative utilization and enhanced oil recovery in the rule has been applauded following the release of the final rule. “DOE is very pleased that carbon utilization can play a role in meeting EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for new coal-fired power plants. Our work in the Office of Fossil Energy demonstrates there is enormous potential for enhanced oil recovery to store carbon dioxide while increasing domestic oil production. It is definitely a win-win,” a DOE spokesman told GHG Monitor this week.
Ann Weeks, senior counsel at the Clean Air Task Force, noted the role that carbon utilization has played thus far in the development of CCS. “This is something we are very strong on and we spoke to [EPA] about. The projects that are under way now in our country, and also the project in Canada that’s capturing carbon, is sequestering it in what you’d call a utilization project,” Weeks said, referencing SaskPower’s Boundary Dam, the world’s only active commercial-scale CCS project, located in Saskatchewan, Canada.
