Canadian Clean Power Coalition

Alberta Innovates - Energy & Environment Solutions, and its predecessor, the Alberta Energy Research Institute, have been major funders of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition (CCPC) since its inception. The CCPC is a key component of the Clean Coal/Carbon program, a major initiative of Alberta Innovates - Energy & Environment Solutions, and is focused on clean electricity generation using Alberta's coal reserves.

The CCPC was formed in 2000 as an association of coal producers and coal-fired power generators, representing a majority of Canada's coal-fired energy producers. The objective is to demonstrate that coal-based electricity generation can effectively address all the environmental issues projected for the future, including CO2 emissions. As well as Canadian companies, the Canadian federal and provincial governments, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto CA, and the International Energy Agency GHG R&D Program have participated in the CCPC.

The information from the studies carried out by the CCPC has allowed individual member companies to better select those technologies best suited to their needs. It also provides government with factual information to guide regulatory and policy development.

As a result of the CCPC's work to date, many of the member organizations have used the baseline information in internal evaluations of strategic options. Examples are:

Since its inception in 2000, this industry-led initiative has evolved through three phases from the initial evaluation of existing technologies to next-generation emerging technologies in its current Phase III work.

 

Timeline | Phase I | Phase II | Canadian Clean Power Coalition (CCPC) Phase II Summary Report | Phase III

 

CCPC Timeline

2000: Organization formation and planning
2001 - 2003: Phase I Evaluation of existing technologies
2004: Results assessment and Phase II formation
2004 - 2007: Phase II optimization studies
2007 - 2008: Status assessment and Phase III definition
2008 - 2011: Phase III next generation technology studies

 

Phase I Studies

An initial review of clean coal technologies pre-selected Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) as the likely best option. A review of emission control technologies for conventional power plants looked at the limits of "how low can we go" to set the goals for the plant design studies.

Three major plant design concepts were studied in Phase I to evaluate the potential to achieve the goals of the CCPC:

  • Conventional Rankine steam cycles with amine scrubbing for CO2 control
  • Conventional Rankine steam cycles using oxy-combustion for CO2 control
  • IGCC with CO shift and CO2 extraction

Both new plant and retrofit cases were included; options for use or storage of the extracted CO2 were also examined.

 

Phase II Studies

Phase II looked in more detail at Rankine cycle and IGCC options. For Rankine cycles, the focus was supercritical cycles with advanced heat integration to achieve higher efficiencies. For IGCC, available commercial gasification processes were examined in detail to select processes appropriate to the characteristics of the selected feedstocks, and co-production was studied as a means of improving the economics. Specifically:

  • Advanced supercritical Rankine cycles were developed with CO2 extraction using amine scrubbing and Oxy-combustion. Lignite, sub-bituminous and bituminous cases were included, as were greenfield and retrofit cases.
  • IGCC cases covered were lignite and sub-bituminous fueled IGCC plants producing power only, and petcoke/coal blend fueled gasification co-production cases producing hydrogen and power at a site close to an oil sands upgrading unit. In all cases, CO2 was extracted from the syngas prior to use.

Addendum

Comparing costs of the different technologies was complicated by differences in stages of development. Higher levels of uncertainty for newer technologies such as gasification and oxyfuel combustion precluded selection of one technology over the others for particular sites and feedstocks.  Consequently, at this stage, parallel development and demonstration of a number technology options should continue.


For more information, please refer to the:

 

Phase III Studies

Phase III evolved into a series of broad-based studies focused on evaluating opportunities for improving the economics of carbon capture.  Significant development of existing and new gasification processes had taken place in the previous 5 years, and the goal of this phase was to evaluate the benefits resulting from these developments.

The research program consists of:

IGCC Studies: Feasibility studies of optimized schemes to capture carbon dioxide from coal gasification-to-power and coal gasification to power and hydrogen plants are being carried out, using state-of-the-art gasification technologies for use with the sub-bituminous coal, while controlling emissions to below those currently permitted for natural gas power plants.

Gasification Research: The CCPC is participating in a research program on gasification carried out by CANMET Energy in the following areas:

  • Provide a suite of bench-scale and pilot-scale experimental data and modeling results in the area of entrained flow slagging gasification of Canadian coals
  • Develop high-temperature hot gas separation of CO2 with solid sorbents
  • Exploring with its partners whether there are any other barriers to using such materials with coal-based systems, and in particular concentrating on the fate of trace elements in such systems and determining the degree of flue and syngas clean-up with deployment of such technologies
  • Examine other materials such as hydrotalcites and zeolites, which can operate at moderate temperatures (<400°C) and high pressure (in order to be compatible with syngas streams from gasifiers)

Coal Cleaning Technology: Conduct a feasibility study on potential coal cleaning technologies leading to potential tests of coals using selected cleaning technologies. Coal samples upgraded using different coal cleaning technologies will be prepared and evaluated by CANMET Energy in the gasification test program.

EPRI Post-combustion CO2 Capture Retrofit Studies: The CCPC is participating in an EPRI study of retrofitting five power plants, including one in Nova Scotia, with advanced amine CO2 capture systems. This could provide a cost effective means of CO2 capture for retrofitting to existing plants.

Biomass Use Evaluation: The CCPC is participating in a Nova Scotia Power research project to evaluate the potential for co-firing biomass with coal in power plant boilers to achieve cost effective CO2 reductions. Both laboratory combustion tests and engineering studies of typical utility boiler systems will be carried out.