Power plant wants to keep it clean using woody biomass as feedstock

$200 million project under way for FirstEnergy's R.E. Burger to kick dirty coal habit by switching to greener wood pellets

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By Bob Downing - Beacon Journal staff writer

Two engineers from Akron-based FirstEnergy Generation Corp. spent 10 days in Europe last summer.

No London. No Paris. No Rome. No Athens. No Riviera. No Alps.

Wood-burning power plants that produce electricity in Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden were the destinations for Harold ''Hal'' M. Kruger and Rick Mahon.

That's because the utility is switching its aging R.E. Burger Power Plant in eastern Ohio from dirty coal to cleaner-burning wood chips perhaps with some coal in a $200 million project.

Europe relies more heavily on such ''biomass fuels'' than the United States does, and that's why the FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary went to inspect five plants in the four countries, said Kruger, manager of engineering/air quality compliance for FirstEnergy Corp.

Biomass is the name given to renewable energy sources: wood, farm products, manure, landfills and food waste. It is a growing fuel source. Ohio ranks among the top five states for biomass sources and could be a biomass leader.

Engineers from Ontario Power Generation, which is developing two similar facilities, the Atikokan plant on Lake Superior and Nanticoke plant on Lake Erie, joined Kruger's team. Those two plants are scheduled to switch from coal to wood only in mid-2012.

The Europe trip assured the Americans and Canadians that the technology to produce electricity by burning biomass ''is in
deed viable . . . and successful,'' Kruger said. ''We came back with that assurance. . . . And that was big.

''The challenge for us is that we are going to be pioneers in terms of doing this in this country. It's a medium-sized plant but still a very good-sized project.''

The Burger conversion of two coal-burning units, to be completed by Dec. 31, 2012, will make the plant on the Ohio River in Shadyside in Belmont County the largest in the United States and one of the largest biomass-burning power plants in the world.

At present, the largest biomass plants in the United States are the 139-megawatt Okeelanta plant in Florida, which burns sugarcane as fuel, and a 99-megawatt Gaylord-Bogalusa plant in Louisiana, which burns wood wastes.

Plans in the works

Burger's two coal-fired boilers produce 312 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 190,000 houses, or 2 percent of the company's power generation. Those units annually burn 800,000 tons of coal.

FirstEnergy Generation is in the midst of what it calls the Burger's project development phase. A half-dozen company engineers are involved, and the number soon will grow to up to 15. A boiler contract will be let and an outside engineering firm will be hired soon.

Construction is set for 2011-2012.

With the switch, the plant will need up to 1.4 million tons of wood pellets, a renewable energy that looks like rabbit food or briquettes.

FirstEnergy can, under a federal court consent decree, continue to burn up to 20 percent low-sulfur coal at Burger after the switch.

Kruger said the company has not decided whether it will burn only wood and other biomass fuels or whether it will burn coal as well.

What FirstEnergy is doing at the Burger plant could be the solution for many of America's old, small, polluting coal-burning power plants, said company spokesman Mark Durbin.

Retrofitting such plants with scrubbers to comply with federal clean-air mandates is very costly. Switching the plants to biomass might be a better solution, especially as concerns grow over carbon dioxide, Durbin said.

Biomass benefits

Nationally, there are 102 biomass plants that generate electricity in 21 states, according to the Biomass Power Association, a national trade group. Biomass accounts for 2 percent of America's electricity.

''Biomass power is the smart alternative to fossil fuels that will benefit both the environment and the economy,'' said Bob Cleaves, president and chief executive of the association, based in Portland, Maine.

''Renewable biomass power will help Ohio meet aggressive mandates for renewable electricity, reduce greenhouse gases and create green jobs. Biomass power currently accounts for more than half of all the renewable electricity produced in the United States,'' Cleaves said, ''and with continued investment, that number could double as new plants come online.''

Such biomass fuels have heat values that are comparable to coal from the western United States but are inferior to Eastern U.S. coals. They contain little sulfur and ash, resulting in lower emissions of sulfur dioxide and soot or particulate. They produce about half as much nitrogen as coal.

Such plants can be operated continuously, like coal plants but unlike wind and solar plants.

The switch will diversifyFirstEnergy's generation portfolio and will help the utility meet new Ohio rules that call for 12.5 percent of the electricity utilities sell to come from renewable sources by 2025 with half of that amount generated in Ohio.

The plan is that the biomass FirstEnergy Generation uses for fuel will remove as much carbon dioxide from the environment when it grows as it releases when it is burned. The result would be no net increase in carbon dioxide, a key global warming gas.

At present, there are no limitations on carbon dioxide emissions, but there are plans in Congress to curtail such emissions from utilities and other sources.

Using wood pellets

When the Burger conversion is complete, FirstEnergy will have 1,100 megawatts of renewable energy with biomass, wind and hydro. That will be 9 percent of the company's energy capacity of 14,346 megawatts. The utility will get 52 percent of its energy from coal after the switch is done.

With the switch, the plant itself will produce less electricity because wood produces about one-third less energy than coal, Kruger said.

The company could install equipment called mills that pulverize the wood chips before they are blown into the boilers to boost the plant's power production, he said. He could not say how much that might cost.

The plant's final power output will be determined in mid-2010, he said.

When FirstEnergy announced its decision on Burger in April, the utility said it was looking to burn briquettes of wood chips, cornstalks, switch grass and grains.

Additional research showed that the man-made wood pellets up to three-fourths of an inch in length work very well, Kruger said.

That's because natural wood has too much moisture to burn well, he said.

Testing has shown that the best result is derived when the wood is ground to the consistency of flour, fully dried and then reformed into pellets that are easier to ship, he said.

The utility has an agreement with one firm, Renewafuel LLC, to provide the biofuel to the Burger plant. It intends to provide FirstEnergy with briquettes roughly 11/4 inches by 11/4 inches by 2 inches at a cost comparable to Western coal, officials said.

The company, with operations in Michigan and Minnesota, will rely on fast-growing trees like poplars and cottonwoods.

FirstEnergy has no interest in growing the fuel but will rely on numerous suppliers and intends to diversify its fuel supplies, Durbin said.

The utility expects to get its fuel from up to seven plants, each capable of producing 150,000 to 300,000 tons a year, Gary Leidich, the company's executive vice president and president of FirstEnergy Generation, said in an Oct. 2 speech in Atlanta.

That would make the Burger plant the largest consumer of biomass in the United States, he said.

Leidich said the plant would require 1 million tons of fuel to produce 200 megawatts and 1.4 million tons to produce 275 megawatts, the plant's practical upper limits unless equipment is added to boost the plant's power output.

Kruger said FirstEnergy Generation is looking at other biomass fuels beyond wood chips but has not determined whether they would be cost effective.

Energy credits

The company intends to begin burning coal with the wood pellets at Burger in 2010, he said.

That will enable the company to look closely at handling and burning wood and testing how it can best be done, as well as to begin earning state renewable energy credits for the utility, he said.

Under Ohio's advanced energy portfolio standard approved in 2008, 25 percent of Ohio's energy must come from advanced and renewable energy by 2025. FirstEnergy Generation earns renewable energy credits for using biomass fuels.

Ohio environmentalists are not thrilled that FirstEnergy will rack up those credits by burning wood with coal, said Amanda Moore of Environment Ohio.

Her group is troubled about the sources of the wood for the Burger plant and whether they will be sustainable and not cause environmental problems elsewhere in the future, she said. ''We have to assume the worst until we see the details fromFirstEnergy,'' she said.

Said Kruger, ''We've embarked on what's going to be a very interesting challenge.''

Additional Information

Web Site: http://www.ohio.com/news/68164857.html

Category: Forestry>Biomass Energy

Region: Ohio

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