New State-Private Venture Seeks To Mine Global Warming |
Carbon » Company would pump greenhouse gases below ground |
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By Tom Harvey The Salt Lake Tribune
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Posted:02/24/2009
06:33:01 PM MST |
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Utah as host to a cluster of new coal-fired power plants is not
exactly the vision for a new economy based on clean energy. But the first
business venture spun out of the state's 3-year-old science and technology
initiative might mean exactly that, with a twist. The plants clustered in Carbon County would not emit carbon
dioxide, the gas from burning fossil fuels that causes global warming. That's
because the carbon dioxide would be captured and pumped underground where it
would be kept permanently in a kind of global warming jail. Officials from the state, the University of Utah and the
Utah-based company Headwaters Inc. announced Tuesday the creation of the
first joint venture to come out of the Utah Science Technology and Research
Initiative. USTAR was begun in 2006 to bolster research at the university
level that could then be spun out into business ventures, creating wealth and
jobs for the state. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. along with university officials and Kirk
Benson, CEO and chairman of Headwaters, announced formation of the joint
venture called Headwaters Clean Carbon Services to develop and operate carbon
dioxide sequestration projects and offer those services to coal-fired plants.
"What we've discussed … is the possibility of setting up a
regional storage center, one site that would serve many power plants,"
said Brian McPherson, associate professor of civil and environmental
engineering who was lured to the University of Utah from New Mexico by the
USTAR program to pursue his research on carbon dioxide storage. "It
could handle new power plants that are built but also the [existing] Carbon,
Hunter and Huntington power plants, as an example." But while the promise of burning coal, the most abundant current
energy source in the United States, without spewing green house gases is
comforting, it also is costly. The capture and storage of carbon dioxide could add a minimum of
$10 million a year to the cost of operating a typical coal-fired plant, said
Benson. Given that, carbon storage will have to be paid for through a system
for capping carbon emissions and then giving companies the ability to trade
credits for parts of the cap they don't use, or through a carbon tax as the
Obama administration has proposed. "Without an incentive such as cap and trade or a carbon
tax, [carbon dioxide storage] won't be funded," said Benson. McPherson and researchers in his lab are studying three areas --
in Utah, New Mexico and Texas -- to test the mechanical aspects of pumping
carbon dioxide underground and the geological effects of the gas itself. But
McPherson believes the system will work right now. "I'm very confident we can do it on a commercial basis but
it would be premature to do it before we finish testing," he said. Utah has the potential for storing 2 billion tons of carbon
dioxide, or 50 years worth of capacity from the power plants operating in the
state today, said McPherson. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group concerned with
resolving environmental problems through science, says carbon sequestration
is one potential option for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. "In no way, however, should geologic carbon sequestration
be seen as a 'silver bullet' to reducing emissions, nor should it be
researched and developed at the expense of other environmentally sound,
technologically feasible, and economically affordable solutions to climate
change," the group says. The Utah officials said the site under consideration in Carbon
County is on state school trust lands and could bring in additional funds for
Utah schools, as well as hundreds of jobs at new plants. Headwaters, with its offices in South Jordan, is a major
supplier of fly ash that comes from burning coal and that is used to
strengthen concrete. It also creates coal-based synthetic fuels. Benson said his company brings to the joint venture the
expertise in interacting with the coal power industry and the ability to
manage large projects. "We don't have to build the expertise," said Benson.
"We have it." Huntsman said the announcement on Tuesday was a celebration of
the USTAR program "having arrived." "I've always been a believer in the idea that a couple of
very important industries are going to be formed out of our state that will
revolutionize the world," Huntsman told a gathering of state, company
officials and journalists. "And I think we're scratching the surface on
one right here today." |
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