Here you can find the latest issue of Energy Matters, published by Scottish property consultants CKD Galbraith. Topics include plasma gasification in waste-to-energy facilities, decommissioning wind farms, biomass energy, and shale gas extraction.
Power Generation
Beijing to switch from coal to natural gas for power; hopes to improve air quality and quiet civil unrest
In recent years, China’s major cities have been regularly hit with smog, severely impacting air quality and the health of its citizens. With Beijing the hardest hit of all cities, the city is now set to replace its coal-fired power plants with new ones that use natural gas. From SCMP/Reuters (Beijing):
China will replace four coal-burning heating plants in the capital Beijing with natural gas fired ones by the end of next year as it steps up efforts to clean up pollution, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.
The report, citing the city’s Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, said the four plants and some 40 other related projects would cost around 48 billion yuan (HK$60.1 billion) and cut sulphur dioxide emissions by 10,000 tonnes. It did not detail the related projects.
The plan is the latest step by authorities to deal with a persistent smog crisis in China’s big cities that is fuelling public anger. The capital has been shrouded in thick hazardous smog for several days during the ongoing seven-day national holiday.
China has been under pressure to tackle air pollution to douse potential unrest as an increasingly affluent urban populace turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has besmirched much of China’s air, water and soil.
Last month the government announced plans to slash coal consumption and close polluting mills, factories and smelters, though experts said implementing the targets would be a major challenge.
The new plants will replace four coal-fired ones that provide heating for homes in the city’s central urban area as well as generating electricity, Xinhua said.
The four burned 9.2 million tonnes of coal in 2012, or 40 percent of the 23 million tonnes the city consumed in the year, it added.
5 Oct 2013
The project was initially met with objections, since natural gas would be much more expensive to source in coal-rich China. The city is expecting huge financial losses if heat and electricity generated from natural gas plants are charged at current rates. But with pictures of smog-filled Beijing splashing international front pages, as well as increasing unrest over pollution in general, it seems that high-ranking government officials stepped in to ensure the project will go through as proposed. (A more in-depth story on this is available on chinadialogue.net)
A coal-fired power plant in Zhejiang, China. Switching to natural gas may be a luxury only Beijing can afford. (China Guodian Corporation)
No mention is made, though, of other sources of pollution, such as vehicle emissions. Once a city of bicycles, Beijing is now home to more than 5.2million motor vehicles and a road network endemic with chronic jams, making a major contribution to the city’s air pollutants. More work would be needed if the city is serious about improving its air quality.
WMW: Gasification Technology Moves Lockheed Martin into Waste to Energy
From Ben Messenger of Waste Management World:
U.S. defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, is moving into the waste to fuel gasification technology business following a deal with LA based waste to fuels specialist, Concord Blue.
According to Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) it will provide its engineering, program management, procurement, manufacturing and integration experience to apply Concord Blue’s patented technology globally in the expanding waste to energy arena.
The defense giant said that advanced waste conversion is an emerging technology that uses gasification processes to convert waste products to electricity, heat and synthetic fuels.
Concord Blue has developed a closed-loop process that Lockheed Martin said is already commercially-proven to recycle waste into energy at virtually any scale.
For Lockheed’s part, it said that it brings high-level capabilities in complex systems integration, project management, information technology and advanced manufacturing techniques partnership.
“This agreement enables Lockheed Martin to combine our proven ability to meet complex project requirements and access to a broader, global market with Concord Blue’s demonstrated technology, experience and global facilities,” explained Paul Klammer, director of bio energy programs at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Training business.
According to Klammer, Concord Blue’s feedstock flexible technology combined with its ability to scale for smaller applications will enable the partners to waste disposal solutions for a range of situations, including those of industrial customers.
1 October 2013
Pertamina Signs Cooperation to Develop PLTS Bantar Gebang
Download PDF : GE_PLTSa Bantar Gebang_2013 03 11
Advanced Plasma Power nominated for ECO12 Award
http://blog.advancedplasmapower.com/latest-news/advanced-plasma-power-nomina
ted-for-eco12-award/
Advanced Plasma Power nominated for ECO12 Award
1
20th December 2011 in Latest news, What’s been happening
Advanced Plasma Power (APP) have been nominated for the Eco12 Award through
Ecosummit.
Ecosummit is the international Smart Green Business Network and Conference
for investors, startups, corporates and utilities fostering cleantech,
renewable energy, emobility, smart green city and sustainability. Their goal
is the fast transformation to the Smart Green Economy powered by 100%
renewable energy. Ecosummit acts as a smart green quality filter promoting
companies that are valuable for our ecology, economy and society, online on
Ecosummit.net and Ecosummit TV and offline at our events.
The idea for the Ecosummit Award 2012 (ECO12 Award) is to reward the best
smart green startups with fame and fortune (publicity and prize money). To
select the ECO12 Award winners, the Facebook community and our expert jury
judge product innovation (value proposition and technology), business
potential (revenues) and environmental benefit. They will present and
celebrate the winners at the ECO12 Award party on 22 March 2012 in Berlin.
To vote for APP please click here.
One Response to “Advanced Plasma Power nominated for ECO12 Award”
1.
During our recent visit to Advanced Plasma Power’s demonstration plant at
Swindon, we – a group of members and officers of South Devon Green Party –
were very impressed by the dedicated and very professional approach the
company were taking in not only finding solutions to the management of waste
and the extraction of valuable materials from the waste stream, but also the
possibility of localising electricity generation without resorting to finite
fossil fuels. The aims of Advanced Plasma Power Ltd are very much in line
with the philosophy and principles of the Green Party.
Could your pee power the next generation of fuel cells?
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2124250/pee-power-generation-fuel-cells
We each produce 2.5 litres of the stuff a day and a total of 6.4 trillion litres globally, but until now it has been widely regarded as a rather unpleasant waste product.
However, a team of UK scientists reckon they may have found an extremely useful application for urine by turning it into electricity.
Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos and his team of scientists at the University of the West of England, Bristol, published researchthis week investigating whether urine could be used in microbial fuel cells.
The paper concludes that urine is rich in chemicals that can effectively be used in the cathode half of a fuel cell to react with bacteria in the anode.
The initial tests confirmed that urine-powered fuel cells are technically feasible, and the team now hopes to scale up a prototype system capable of powering homes, businesses or even a small village.
The researchers are particularly interested in using the 38 billion litres of urine produced each day by farm animals, which can have an adverse effect on the environment if not properly managed.
The fuel cells would effectively clean the urine so that it could be safely discharged into the environment, removing the need for costly and energy-intensive treatment by wastewater companies.
Ieropoulos explained that, while the team managed to produce only a small amount of power during trials, it is now looking at stacking up the fuel cells so that the stream of urine runs through the system and produces more power.
“The impact of this could be huge, since it enables us to think of ‘waste’ in a new way, and offers great potential for the future,” he said.
Glastonbury festival founder Michael Eavis has said that he would consider using urine produced by festival-goers to generate electricity for the event.
Energy from waste: How the Gasplasma system works
Oct 1, 2011
As well as being able to convert refuse into power and empty out
existing landfill sites, releasing the land for reuse, the Gasplasma
process offers a significant benefit: its by-product is a building
material, not a waste.
As well as being able to convert refuse into power and empty outexisting landfill sites, releasing the land for reuse, the Gasplasmaprocess offers a significant benefit: its by-product is a buildingmaterial, not a waste.
Download PDF : APP-Waste-Planning-Journal-Article-Oct2011
Blackout woes for plants in Dongguan
Last updated: April 7, 2010
Source: South China Morning Post
Severe drought results in power rationing
The devastating drought in the southwest is forcing once-a-week blackouts at Dongguan factories due to power shortages from the nation’s hydroelectric dams.
Since April 1, Hong Kong manufacturers say power supplies have been suspended one day each week in Dongguan, and some expect the mandatory rationing will spread to industrial towns in Shenzhen.
Several factory owners said they were left with little choice but to generate their own electricity through diesel-powered generators, a dirtier and more expensive alternative.
Some warned that the supply crunch could balloon into a crisis next month, when the peak-production season begins. This would exacerbate recent challenges such as labour shortages, soaring raw material costs and wages, a possible appreciation in the yuan and weak demand in the United States and Europe.
“The export sector improved obviously in the first quarter, but new challenges come from all fronts now,” Toys Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong vice-president Yeung Chi-kong said yesterday. “Some costs such as electricity are rising so fast and are beyond our control that it will be lucky if a factory doesn’t lose money.”
To keep production lines moving, Yeung, who is also vice-chairman of toy exporter Blue Box Holdings, said the company’s factory in Dongguan was forced to produce its own electricity, which cost 30 per cent more than power from the state supplier.
He estimated that higher fuel costs, together with about a 21 per cent rise in the minimum monthly wage in Dongguan to 920 yuan (HK$1,046.70) and at least a 20 per cent jump in prices of plastics and paper-packaging materials, would in turn jack up overall operating costs by 5 per cent.
This would erode the factory’s wafer-thin profit margin, he said. “We are trying to pass the extra costs on to customers, but so far they are bargaining extremely hard,” Yeung said.
The once-in-a-century drought ravaging Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces has hobbled hydropower plants, which have reduced electricity supplies to Guangdong by about 23 per cent in the first three months of this year.
Electricity from the western provinces supplies about one-third of Guangdong’s power needs.
The Guangdong provincial government placed priority on supply to residential users, and discouraged consumption by energy-consuming industries such as electroplating and cement and steel production. The province signed agreements last month with Hong Kong supplier CLP Power (SEHK: 0002), which will export more power across the border, particularly in summer.
Wilson Shea Kai-chuen, a premium product manufacturer in Dalong in Shenzhen and vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association, said he expected compulsory power blackouts would begin in a few weeks, when the busy season begins.
He said that on April 1, state supplier China Southern Grid recommended factories in Dalong suspend operations a day every week or minimise power consumption.
Dennis Ng Wang-pun, the managing director of exporter Polaris Jewellery, said electricity supply in Panyu in Guangdong remained normal but warned that the electricity crunch would come on top of labour shortages.
His factory in Panyu, which has about 400 workers processing jewellery, was still short of about 100 workers, Ng said. He said new orders improved in the first quarter from the same period last year, at the height of the global financial crisis, but shoppers’ appetite remained weak.
“I don’t see a marked improvement in demand in the US until the second half,” he added.