385
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
SW: SW: edit references (internal)
[[SCS Energy]] (SCS) has proposed constructing PurGen One, a 500-megawatt (MW) [[IGCC|integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)]] / coal-to-fertilizer plant at old industrial site near the shore in Linden, [[New Jersey and coal|New Jersey]]. The plant would gasify and burn coal to generate electricity when power prices are high, or fertilizer when power prices are low. SCS plans to pump 90% of the carbon dioxide emitted from the plant 70 miles off the coast, into sandstone one mile below the surface of the ocean.
PurGen One would produce a net of approximately 500 megawatts of power per year.<ref name="pgoaag">[http://www.purgenone.com/purgen-one-at-a-glance.php "At a glance",] PurGen One website, accessed September 7, 2010.</ref> The plant would originally produce 750 MW, but would require 250-300 MW to operate, or at least a third of the power produced. <ref name="adegopp">Andrew Davison, [http://sub.gmnews.com/news/2010-06-03/Front_Page/Environmental_groups_oppose_power_plant.html "Environmental groups oppose power plant",] "Suburban", June 3, 2010."</ref>
==Project Details==
Despite the agreement, opposition to the proposed plant remains strong. Late last year, the Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection passed a resolution opposing construction of the proposed PurGen plant, stating that the city and county are already facing problems from air pollution, which will be exacerbated by the proposed plant.<ref name="sc"/>
On May 24, 2010, citizen groups organized a forum where they could publicly express concerns regarding the plant.<ref name="adegopp">Andrew Davison, [http://sub.gmnews.com/news/2010-06-03/Front_Page/Environmental_groups_oppose_power_plant.html "Environmental groups oppose power plant",] "Suburban", June 3, 2010."</ref> The event was organized by Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter, Clean Ocean Action, New Jersey Friends of Clearwater, the Surfrider Foundation, NY/NJ Baykeeper, and the American Littoral Society.<ref name="adegopp"/> Some of the main concerns were about issues around carbon sequestration, additional air pollution in an area already faced with industrial pollution, and worries that the plant would set a precedent for building new plants that are still dependent on fossil fuels and still pollute.<ref name="adegopp"/>
Some people opposed to the plant hope that the New Jersey governor will step in to stop the plant, or that it will be stopped under the Coastal Zone Management Act and Coastal Area Facility Review Act.<ref name="adegopp"/>
===History of the location===
PurGen One is planned to be built on the 100-acre site of a former chemical manufacturing factory.<ref name="caroom">Eliot Caroom, [http://www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2010/09/plan_underway_to_clean_up_lind.html "Plan underway to clean up Linden's DuPont site",] "Star-Ledger", September 2, 2010.</ref> The factory began operating in the nineteenth century under the Grasselli Chemical Company and originally produced industrial acids that were used by other manufacturing companies.<ref name="caroom"/> In 1928, DuPont purchased the site where the company made pesticides until 1990.<ref name="caroom"/> SCS Energy will purchase the site from DuPont for $95 million.<ref name="apfuebas">Kate Galbraith, [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/business/energy-environment/18clean.html?_r=1 "A plan for U.S. emissions to be buried under sea",] "New York Times", April 17, 2009.</ref>
Prior to the transfer of ownership, DuPont will attempt to clean up pollution from its pesticide manufacturing. The $13 million clean-up project is managed by John Vidumsky.<ref name="caroom"/> The company plans to inject hydrogen peroxide into the ground where solvents and pesticides "have settled 10-12 feet down into the soil and groundwater and are held up by a layer of thicker silt called a meadow mat."<ref name="caroom"/> The Sierra Club has criticized the plan; the group is concerned that the injected peroxide could actually aggravate the problem, possibly by making the chemical pollutants mobile.<ref name="caroom"/> The plan needs approval by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Comments on the project can be submitted to the NJ DEP through September 30, 2010.<ref name="caroom"/>
==Coal Gasification==
The PurGen One plant would use IGCC technology which would heat up coal without burning it in order to create a gas.<ref name="blbocat">Bruce Upbin, [http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/03/carbon-sequestration-business-energy-copenhagen-15-burial.html "Bury our carbon at sea",] "Forbes", November 3, 2009.</ref> The coal would be partially combusted in oxygen, creating carbon monoxide and hydrogen.<ref name="blbocat"/> The hydrogen would be separated and used to power the utility plant when economically worthwhile to do so, and to make fertilizer at other times.<ref name="blbocat"/> Water would be added to the carbon monoxide to create carbon dioxide, which would then be sequestered.<ref name="blbocat"/>
SCS hopes to receive part of the $1.8 billion offered by the federal government for coal gasification projects.<ref name="blbocat"/>
The idea for PurGen One evolved out of a 2006 paper titled [http://schraglab.unix.fas.harvard.edu/publications/CV78.pdf "Permanent carbon dioxide storage in deep-sea sediments,"] written by Harvard University graduate student Kurt Zenz House and professor [[Daniel Schrag]].<ref name="apfuebas"/> The paper argued that layers of rock deep beneath the ocean floor would be the best place to sequester carbon dioxide.<ref name="apfuebas"/> Following the paper's publication, SCS Energy hired Daniel Schrag as a consultant.<ref name="apfuebas"/>
SCS developed a [[carbon capture and sequestration]] (CCS) plan based around a underwater sandstone formation that stretches along the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Georgia.<ref name="blbocat">Bruce Upbin, [http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/03/carbon-sequestration-business-energy-copenhagen-15-burial.html "Bury our carbon at sea",] "Forbes", November 3, 2009.</ref > Thirty years ago, this field was tested for gas wells. The company plans to build a injection well seventy miles of the coast from Atlantic City, NJ and pump pressurized, liquid CO2 one mile down into the Hudson Shelf Valley section of sandstone.<ref name="apfuebas"/><ref name="adegopp">Andrew Davison, [http://sub.gmnews.com/news/2010-06-03/Front_Page/Environmental_groups_oppose_power_plant.html "Environmental groups oppose power plant",] "Suburban", June 3, 2010."</ref>
SCS plans to bury a one-inch-thick steel pipeline, measuring two feet in diameter and encased in concrete, three feet deep under the sea floor for a hundred miles to the injection site.<ref name="adegopp"/> In some places (particularly shipping lanes), the pipeline may be buried seventy to eighty feet into the ocean floor.<ref name="adegopp"/>
==Coal Consumption and Sources==
The plant would burn 7,000 pounds of coal per day, or 2.55 million tons per year.<ref name="adegopp">Andrew Davison, [http://sub.gmnews.com/news/2010-06-03/Front_Page/Environmental_groups_oppose_power_plant.html "Environmental groups oppose power plant",] "Suburban", June 3, 2010."</ref> The plant plans to burn coal from [[Pennsylvania and coal|Pennsylvania]], the fourth largest coal-producing state in the United States.<ref name="pgofag">[http://www.purgenone.com/faq.php "Frequently asked questions",] PurGen One website, accessed September 7, 2010.</ref> The carbon capture and sequestration process could allow for the plant to burn dirtier and cheaper coal.<ref name="blbocat">Bruce Upbin, [http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/03/carbon-sequestration-business-energy-copenhagen-15-burial.html "Bury our carbon at sea",] "Forbes", November 3, 2009.</ref> According to the plant's website, SCS is against mountaintop removal (MTR) mining and has made a commitment to source coal from non-MTR sites.<ref name="pgofag"/>
==Financing==
