POWER July 2016 - 57

FUELS
2. The long inferno. Crews spent six months dousing open
flames at the Simpson Northeast coal refuse fire near Fell Township,
Lackawanna County, Pa., in 2014. Temperatures fell into the single digits
for almost a month while crews worked. Source: Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement/Department of Interior
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In its simplest sense, the process entails re-mining coal refuse piles
in accordance with surface mining regulations, and then processing
that material at the mine site by screening to remove rock and other
inert materials. The finer material-typically 75% or more of the coal
refuse-is used as fuel in a fluidized bed combustion boiler or circulating
fluidized bed (CFB) boiler. Combustion ash from the boiler-
which meets beneficial use criteria-is then returned to the mine site
and mixed with unusable coal refuse material as a way of neutralizing
any remaining acidic materials. The materials are then compacted in
place to contours as described in the surface mining permit. " As such
the concentration of the acidity as well as the metals such as iron,
aluminum, and manganese in surface and groundwater releases are
significantly reduced, " says ARIPPA.
The coal refuse-to-power solution was conceived in the aftermath
of the oil embargo of the 1970s. Just as Congress was preparing to
vote for the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) in 1978,
CFB technology was being developed and showing a capability to
convert low-heating value carbonaceous material (such as coal refuse)
into energy.
The first CFB plant designed to convert large quantities of coal
refuse into power-the 30-MW Westwood Generating Station in
Schuylkill County, Pa.-came online in 1987. Eighteen more projects
have since been grid-connected, 13 in Pennsylvania alone (Figure
3); two are in West Virginia, one in Montana, one in Utah, and
one in Illinois.
The plants are owned by a diverse mix of companies, including
NRG Energy, Exelon, Olympus Power, Babcock & Wilcox Co., Foster
Wheeler, Northern Star Generation, Pacific Gas and Electric, Kimberly
Clark, Cogentrix Energy, Olympus Power, Schuylkill Energy
Resources, Waste Management, Southern Illinois Power Cooperative,
and Colstrip Energy. Most power produced is sold in the PJM wholesale
and capacity markets. Today, these plants-with a total capacity
of 1,767 MW (see http://www.powermag.com/plants-that-turn-coalrefuse-to-power/
for a slideshow of the plants)-have removed a
purported 214 million tons of coal refuse from the environment at no
expense to taxpayers.
But the sector that has been the darling of most coal-producing
states-and lauded even by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)-for its potential to eradicate coal refuse piles and reclaim
thousands of disfigured acres is facing new, debilitating challenges.
Lucrative power purchase agreements signed under PURPA are
beginning to expire, forcing plants to compete in the open market.
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Then, as Vincent Brisini, director of environmental affairs at Olympus
Power, recently told congressional lawmakers, because coal refuse
piles close to existing coal refuse plants have been successfully removed,
generators must source coal refuse from piles at ever-greater
distances, which has added to transportation costs. And, as with conventional
coal plants, the economics of existing coal refuse plants
have suffered in the advent of " abnormally low natural gas prices, "
and a " sluggish economy [that is] stifling electricity demand, " the
trade group told POWER.
An Environmental Muddle
Lately, that economic burden has gotten even heavier owing to " federal
regulatory policies that dramatically and unnecessarily increase
environmental compliance costs, " ARIPPA said.
For the coal refuse generation sector, air pollution in particular poses
an environmental Catch-22 with no resolution in sight. The EPA emphasized,
when questioned by POWER in May, that coal refuse piles
are a marked environmental worry for their acid seepage and leachate
production, spontaneous combustion, and low soil fertility. It also
acknowledged that " [u]nits that burn coal refuse provide multimedia
environmental benefits by combining the production of energy with
the removal of coal refuse piles and by reclaiming land for productive
use. " However, the agency underscored, they are still coal-fired power
plants. They still emit hazardous air pollutants that the agency has determined
are " significant " public health disadvantages.
Critics of the niche industry, like the Pennsylvania arm of the Energy
Justice Network project, contend that coal refuse plants aren't
just inefficient, they also are far more polluting than new coal plants.
" The large new waste coal burning power plants planned for western
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57
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POWER July 2016

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