POWER July 2011 - 6

SPEAKING OF POWER
Bad Gas Policy
T
he late Dr. Carl Sagan once observed,
" We live in a society exquisitely dependent
on science and technology,
in which hardly anyone knows anything
about science and technology (S&T). " I
would add that those who know the least
about S&T are often the ones responsible
for determining policy and funding priorities.
One good example of this problem is
the piecemeal approach taken to developing
carbon capture and sequestration
(CCS) technologies.
CCS: A Four-Step Process
Let's assume the end game is a fully developed
and reliable CCS infrastructure capable
of handling the gaseous CO2
emissions
from existing and future fossil plants. If so,
then the CCS system requires the simultaneous
development of four distinct links in
the technology supply chain: CO2
must be
stripped from the syngas (in the case of
an integrated gasification combined-cycle
plant) or exhaust gas (from conventional
coal plants); CO2
must then be compressed;
CO2 is then transported through pipelines
to storage fields; and CO2 is injected into
underground storage facilities. All four processes
must work in concert if we wish to
sweep CO2
under the rug, so to speak.
Both the development of commercial
processes to strip CO2 from gases and geologic
characterization work are in progress.
Compressing the CO2
without using
a third of the plant's output remains a
technical challenge requiring intense research
and development. Noticeably missing
is any substantive work on either the
cost or policy formulations for interstate
transportation of the gas from disparate
sources to injection points.
Enormous CO2 Volumes
A typical 500-MW coal-fired plant produces
about 3 million tons per year of CO2
saline aquifer. Overall, the U.S. coal fleet
produces about 1.5 billion tons of CO2
transport and store CO2 at approximately
in the
$5 per metric ton. That puts annual operating
costs for sequestrating CO2
billions of dollars each year.
A 2007 Duke Energy study estimated
that it would cost $5 billion to construct a
pipeline along existing rights of way from
North Carolina to sequestration sites in
the Gulf States and Appalachia. Extrapolated
across the nation, the first cost of a
network of pipelines would quickly climb
to the hundreds of billions of dollars. In
fact, the International Energy Agency in
its Blue Case scenario (50% reduction of
CO2
emissions by 2050) concluded that
U.S. investment in CO2 pipelines by 2030
would be approximately $300 billion.
Many Policy Hurdles
Those wishing to construct a CO2
pipeline
.
For comparison, the largest sequestration
project in operation today injects 1 million
tons of CO2
per year into a North Sea
each
year-approximately equal to one-third of
the total volume of natural gas transport6
also
face a regulatory quagmire. For example,
the Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC)-not the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC)-regulates interstate
pipelines that carry commodities other
than water, oil, or natural gas. Unlike
FERC, the ICC has an uncertain regulatory
structure with no pipeline-siting authority
and, therefore, no eminent domain
authority. That means developers are responsible
for obtaining the hundreds, or
www.powermag.com
have pipelines supplying CO2 to enhanced
oil recovery facilities have classified CO2
as
a commodity with economic value for tax
purposes. This creates an interesting policy
dilemma for states that wish to construct
an identical pipeline (or use the same pipeline)
to carry CO2
to a sequestration facility
if they classify the gas as a pollutant with
negative economic value.
Another observation is that the Department
of Transportation (DOT) has primary
authority to regulate CO2
pipeline safety
under the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Act of
1979. DOT lists CO2
as a hazardous material,
so the same pipeline safety and design
rules that apply to building a gasoline
pipeline apply to a CO2
pipeline.
And then there is the broader issue of
who shoulders the liability for damages
caused by leaks. I suspect that CO2
pipeline
operators will want the same blanket
liability protection for leaks as an operator
of a CO2
sequestration facility.
My suspicion is that policy makers are
either avoiding or have hugely misjudged
the difficulty of forging the gas transportation
link in the CCS supply chain. On the
other hand, perhaps a failed CCS policy is
our best economic option. ■
-Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWER's
editor-in-chief.
POWER | July 2011
ed through 500,000 miles of pipelines in
the U.S. each year. According to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT)
study, " The Future of Coal (2007), " if 60%
of that CO2
were captured and compressed
to a liquid for injection into a geologic
formation, that volume would be equivalent
to the 20 million barrels of oil the
U.S. consumes each day.
The enormous volumes of collected CO2
will require a system of pipelines that will
be extremely expensive to build and operate.
The MIT study estimated the cost to
perhaps thousands, of local, state, and
federal permits necessary, plus easements
from public and private landowners. There
are also significant legal barriers to using
existing gas pipeline right-of-ways. For an
interstate pipeline crossing heavily populated
or environmentally sensitive regions,
the challenges would far exceed those of
siting transmission lines.
Existing laws are also a barrier to building
new CO2 pipelines. For example, some state
laws classify CO2 as a commodity, while
others consider it a pollutant. States that
Existing laws are also a barrier to building
new CO2 pipelines.
http://www.powermag.com
POWER July 2011

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