Future mining history maybe, lets wait and see . .
Plans for a £375m power station burning hydrogen produced from Welsh coal
have been announced. Valleys Energy is seeking planning permission to build
the 460 (or 480?) Megawatt Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC)
coal powered scheme, 'clean energy' project at the site at the former Drym
opencast coal mine, Onllwyn in the Dulais Valley in South Wales. (Onllwyn
is not very far from Penwyllt - the home of South Wales Caving Club. Also
not very far from Dan-yr-ogof show cave). Several million tonnes of
anthracite would be needed during the power station's projected 20-year
lifespan. So the old opencast is a good site as it still has a rail link,
despite being way out in the country.
The Friends of the Earth say the power station will use anthracite from
Tower Colliery and imported petroleum coke or 'Petcoke'. One of the main
waste products is (almost inevitably!) CO2 and Valleys Energy have suggested
that sequestration of the CO2 would be facilitated by the process.
Apparently is this case, sequestration means that the CO2 is pumped by pipe
line into suitable geological storage strata (the Irish Sea in this
instance) thereby minimising the global warming effect of the power stations
emissions. The ideal high temperature and pressure conditions of IGCC
technology would help facilitate this possibility. (What will it do for the
fish in the sea though?)
It is being billed as one of the most environmentally friendly power
stations of its kind in the world. The project is also expected to secure up
to 1,000 jobs - as well as the future of Tower Colliery - and give Wales a
head-start in the production of 'green' energy.
So this means that Welsh coal mining may carry on for quite a while yet.
There is a lot of interesting detail on this project on:
http://www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_releases/2002/coal_power_station.ht
ml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2585525.stm
Also for a bit more info (although not ever such a lot more) see today's
Financial Times. It was an article in the FT that aroused my interest in
this project. On the www go to:
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=021220000715&query=valleys+energ
y&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form
(This will probably work only for a few days, as you need to subscribe to
the FT for most articles more than a few days old)
Petcoke is a heavy oil residue which can be imported from the US Gulf Coast
states; it contains high levels of sulphur, nickel and vanadium, it is used
in the US and France in cement production and over 60 million tons of
petcoke are produced annually world-wide. For more on petcoke:
http://www.platts.com/features/petcoke/use.shtml
http://www.platts.com/features/petcoke/prices.shtml
http://www.tercera.cl/diario/2002/07/09/09.999.3a.ECO.PETCO.html (this one
in Spanish)
http://www.flsmidth.com/brochures/petcoke%20technology.pdf
http://www.ebigchina.com/msg_details.phtml?mid=31003&lang=en (the Chinese
are keen to buy some petcoke)
http://www.environ.ie/press/sfvolagree.pdf (and the Irish are keen for its
use to pollute less)
A google search for petcoke gives a lot more interesting sites too.
Roger
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