In addition to DOE, the MOU was signed by the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and Interior; the EPA; the White House Council on Environmental Quality; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
The MOU will cut the approval time for obtaining federal permits by designating a single point-of-contact for all federal authorizations, establishing clear timelines for agency review, facilitating coordination and unified environmental documentation among all agencies involved in siting and permitting, and establishing a single consolidated environmental review and administrative record.
As a result of the new process, applicants will go to a single lead agency that will coordinate all permits and approvals. However, the MOU does not alter the authority of any participating agencies, and all existing environmental reviews and safeguards are fully maintained. See the Interior press release and the MOU (PDF 147 KB).
AEP, Alstrom to Trap Carbon Emissions from Coal Plant
Efforts are underway to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions from coal plants using carbon capture and storage (CCS). The latest project to advance the technology was commissioned in late October at the Mountaineer Plant in West Virginia, owned by American Electric Power (AEP). Touted as the world's first facility to both capture and store carbon dioxide, the Mountaineer CCS demonstration project diverts a portion of the plant's exhaust through a device from Alstrom that chills the gas and combines it with an ammonium carbonate solution.
The carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ammonium carbonate solution, creating ammonium bicarbonate, which is then pressurized and heated separately to generate a pure stream of carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide is compressed and stored for later injection into geologic formations located 1.5 miles below ground.
Although the demonstration project will provide essential information on the feasibility of CCS technology, it's important to note that the treated gas represents only 20 megawatts of output from the 1,300-megawatt coal plant. AEP has applied for stimulus funding to expand the Alstrom device to handle 235 MW of exhaust from the plant, but even that would represent only 18% of the plant's output. The larger facility will require deep geologic injection of about 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. See the AEP press release.
CCS technology may also be applied to industrial facilities, like refineries and cement plants. To help move the technology ahead, DOE awarded $21.6 million in funds from the ARRA in early October to 12 CCS projects. The projects will demonstrate a variety of carbon capture technologies for power plants, refineries, paper plants, cement plants, and other industrial sources. Together, the projects represent a variety of geologic formations in diverse parts of the US. DOE plans to invest a total of $1.4 billion in Recovery Act funds to spur progress on CCS technology. See the DOE press release.
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EREE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
