Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
3/27/2015
Southern Company will join a delegation of 25 American companies on a business development trade mission to China led by the U.S. departments of Energy and Commerce next month. The delegation will travel to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in an effort to “launch or increase their business operations in China for Smart Cities – Smart Growth products and services, such as smart buildings, green data centers, carbon capture utilization and storage, energy efficiency technologies, clean air and water technologies, waste treatment technologies, smart grid and green transportation,” according to a DOE press release. “The companies selected today are key reminders that through the world-class innovation of U.S. companies, we can decrease emissions while creating economic opportunities,” Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said in the release.
For its part of the mission, Southern Co will be highlighting its Transport Integrated Gasification technology that will be used at the Kemper County Energy Facility as one part of a complex power generation system which will allow for the plant to burn low-rank coal with carbon emissions roughly equal to that of natural gas. “The upcoming business development trip to China is a natural extension of Southern Company’s partnership with the Department of Energy in developing 21st century coal and carbon capture technologies, as well as the company’s joint efforts with KBR to market Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIGTM) – the proprietary coal gasification technology being deployed at the Kemper County energy facility in Mississippi – to help meet the world’s energy needs,” Southern Co Spokesman Jack Bonnikson told GHG Monitor in a written statement this week.
Bonnikson added, “Due to growing demand and high natural gas prices, China, India and other parts of Asia are expected to add more than 400,000 megawatts of new coal-based generation by 2035. Energy companies in those regions and others can benefit from the use of low-rank coal, which constitutes half of the world’s existing coal reserves and is particularly suited to the application of TRIGTM.”
