On February 10, 2009, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued the final air permit for the Power County Advanced Energy Center to Southeast Idaho Energy LLC (SEI). SEI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Refined Energy Holdings LLC. SEI first submitted an application for a permit in July 2007 and then submitted a revised air permit application in 2008. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued the permit after a complete and thorough evaluation.

The Power County Advanced Energy Center will produce nitrogen based fertilizer to be used by the local agricultural economy. The feedstock is coal and petroleum coke that will be converted to syngas using GE gasification technology. The syngas will be converted to nitrogen based fertilizer. According to an April 2008 letter to the Idaho DEQ, the project will produce up to 500 tpd of anhydrous ammonia, up to 1,800 tpd of granular urea, and up to 1,600 tpd of ammonia nitrate. All of these products are used in the agricultural industry.

The plant site is located on 450 acres near American Falls, Idaho. The site is zoned heavy industrial and is next to the Lamb Weston Potato Processing Plant. Construction is estimated to be complete by 2012.

This story has been updated in a February 16, 2009 article about the Southeast Idaho Energy LLC plant to be constructed near American Falls, Idaho. The original story is below:

The Sierra Club, the Earth Justice Defense Council, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Idaho Conservation League are joined with the Shoshonee-Bannock tribe in opposition to the coal gasification plant that is planned to be built near American Falls, Idaho. The environmental groups and the Shoshonee-Bannock tribe oppose the plant due to the high level of CO2 emissions they say it will produce.

The plant is being developed by Southeast Idaho Energy LLC. It will cost about $1 billion to build and will produce fertilizer. The Southeast Idaho Power has applied for a air permit with the state of Idaho. Public comments were accepted until November 24, 2008. More information about the Southeast Idaho Project can be found in this article.

Sunflower Electric Power Corporation is seeking an air permit for construction of a pulverized coal technology power plant in Kansas. The Kansas Division of Health and Enviroment (KDHE) would not approve the application for the air permit on the grounds that it did not evaluate the effect of CO2 emissions. The KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby made a decision that the CO2 emissions should be considered a hazardous pollutant contrary to EPA guidelines. Secretary Roderick Bremby speaking House Select Committee on Energy and Global Warming said “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA was a key consideration in making the Sunflower Electric decision.” He summarized “The most critical challenge facing the states is policy uncertainty at the federal level.”

The Sunflower skirmish has become a major battle ground. Sunflower Power issued a press release stating that the KDHE Secretary illegally used his authority to withhold the air permit. Peabody Coal entered the fray and provided $200,000 funding for an advertising campaign in favor of the pulverized coal fired power plants.

Sunflower filed a lawsuit in district court against KDHE and the court ruled in Sunflower’s favor. The district court dismissed the case. This means that the case can go directly to the Kansas Supreme CourtK without having to go through the appeals process. Sunflower executives are pleased that the case was dismissed by the District Court so it can be heard by the Supreme Court if the court chooses.

The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to stop the plant saying that a environmental impact study should be first conducted. The Federal government attempted to have the Sierra Club lawsuit dismissed. However, a State District judge ruled against the Federal government and denied the dismissal of the lawsuit.

Governor Sebelius supports the KDHE decision and is in talks with Sunflower regarding a negotiated settlement. Perhaps logic will prevail and Sunflower will build a coal gasification plant and include CO2 capture for enhanced oil recovery.

Hunton Energy filed an application for an air permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Hunton Energy has announced plans to construct a petcoke gasification plant in Freeport, Texas adjacent to Dow Oyster Creek Plant.

The EPA has approved the air permit for the 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock Energy power plant. The plant is located on Navajo Reservation land approximately 25 miles southwest of Farmington, NM. The plant and air permit is based on pulverized coal technology.

According to the EPA, the emission limits are the most stringent in the country and will set new standards for coal fired (meaning pulverized coal) power plants in the United States.

This is an amazing statement considering that there are no plans to capture CO2 capture and inject it into the deep geological formations for sequestration or send it through pipelines to West Texas oil fields for enhanced oil recovery.

Coal gasification technology makes it economically feasible to capture CO2 for sequestration or enhanced oil recovery and projects are still having a difficult time getting air permits approved. What is implication for coal gasification plants? For the answer and information on how to get an air permit for a coal gasification plant approved without CO2 capture and sequestration it might be a good idea to contact the persons at the EPA that approved this air permit.

The Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor, has stated that New Mexico will appeal the decision. The appeal is based partially on the the fact that there are already two pulverized coal power plants in the same area and they release 28 million tons of CO2 annually on a combined basis.

Duke Energy received the air permit for the Edwardsport Coal Gasification Power Plant. The plant is a 630 Megawatt power plant that will be constructed at the Edwardsport Station in southwest Indiana. The facility will be a coal gasification plant and will be one of the cleanest coal powered plants in the United States, because of it will use gasification technology.

The gasification technology will convert the coal to synthetic gas (syngas). The syngas will be further processed using proven technology to remove the sulfur, mercury and particulates. After ‘cleaning’, the syngas will be sent to a traditional power plant to power two combustion turbines.

The new plant is scheduled to be complete in 2012. It will replace four older, less efficient generating units at the site. This is a win-win for Indiana. The site will employ 800 – 900 construction workers for approximately 3 years. After start-up, the region will have more electricity, lower emissions and cleaner air. Duke must construct new electric generation facilities and this is a clean technology.

The Taylorville Energy Center has been approved to receive its final air permit after more than two years of permit and processing activities. The U.S. Appeals Court turned down the Sierra Club’s request the air permit be denied.

The basis for denying the Sierra Club appeal is that the Sierra Club waited too long to voice an objection about the project. The high court decision effectively eliminates the Sierra Clubs sabotage tactics of waiting to the eleventh hour to file a lawsuit and derail thousands of manhours of engineering and millions of dollars of investment.

The air permit now provides a clear path for Taylorville Project to move forward. The project is a commercial scale IGCC facility in Taylorville, Illinois that will gasify coal and produce 630 Megawatts of power for the surrounding communities. The coal gasification process is environmentally friendly. It makes it possible to remove the sulfur from the syngas and therefore the high sulfur coal in the area can be used as a feedstock. The sulfur removal is expected to have an efficiency greater than 99.8%. In addition, mercury, particulates and nitrous oxides will also be removed.