As the global warming debate intensifies, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) on Nov. 30 issued a revised air quality permit that imposes new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from Southeast Idaho Energy’s (SIE) proposed coal-gasified fertilizer plant (GM Feb. 23, 2009). That could set a nationwide precedent for regulating “greenhouse gases” and thrust the state into the green technology forefront.
IDEQ’s February permit (GM Feb. 16, 2009) did not include limits on the $1.5 billion Power County Advanced Energy Center’s CO2, which is not an officially regulated air pollutant, but the Idaho Conservation League and The Sierra Club challenged that omission, succeeding in the inclusion of carbon dioxide standards in the permit after negotiating with SIE officials. Environmentalists argued that without regulation, the plant would spew 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air annually.
The $1.5 billion plant will be on 450 acres in a heavy industrial zone two miles southwest of American Falls. Using advanced clean-coal gasification technology, it will manufacture up to 3,200 st/d of nitrogen-based fertilizer for local and regional markets.
The project will produce up to 500 st/d of anhydrous ammonia, up to 1,800 st/d of granular urea, and up to 1,600 st/d of UAN. SIE has decided against producing diesel fuel or generating electricity at the site as originally planned. SIE will also support up to 1,350 workers during a three-year construction phase and hire as many as 150 employees to operate the plant.
IDEQ agreed to include the enforceable carbon dioxide limits in the permit, but officials said it does not intend to include such limits in future air quality permits until federal regulations have been finalized.
SIE President Ramesh Raman responded: “Carbon capture and sequestration have always been a fundamental part of our overall business plan. The revised permit clearly demonstrates our company’s commitment to being an environmentally responsible neighbor.”
SIE, a subsidiary of Refined Energy Holdings of New York, plans to sell carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil recovery from aging Wyoming wells, removing 90 percent of its CO2.
Justin Hayes, ICL program director, said Idaho will reap economic benefits from the new industry while enjoying environmental benefits from stringent air quality requirements. “This is proof that jobs and environmental protection can go hand in hand if we work together,” Hayes said, adding if the plant’s carbon emissions had gone unregulated, Idaho’s overall carbon emissions would have increased 5 percent.
Raman said that now that the permit is no longer contested, SIE can proceed with engineering for the next several months, with construction anticipated to begin in 2011. The coal-gasified plant will operate well below national ambient air quality standards, as originally planned. Back in February of this year the company had been hoping to break ground in late 2009 (GM Feb. 23, 2009).
Within five years of the plant’s startup, SIE must capture and sequester 58 percent of the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions associated with gasification, reducing them from about 2 million st in a year to less than 1 million st. Until a pipeline or rail transportation is in place, SIE will buy greenhouse gas offsets equal to about 1.1 million st annually of CO2.
Other changes in the air permit impose new limits on nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxides from a nitric acid plant and a limit on “fugitive” carbon monoxide emissions from the plant’s gasifier. Planned startups are limited to coal, petroleum coke, or a blend of the two fuels within 12 months.
SIE in the past estimated it would need to import about 2,000 st of coal daily, mostly from Colorado, for the plant. Opponents contended the plant would discharge 2.3 million st of carbon dioxide annually. The new agreement will permit
756,000 st of carbon dioxide to be emitted, or 60 percent less than what a typical fertilizer plant discharges.