Energy summit to focus on gasification facility
Published Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — High-ranking federal and state officials will be in Fairbanks this week for an energy summit hosted by borough Mayor Jim Whitaker and U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens to fast-track a plant to turn coal and biomass into power, fuel and heat for Interior Alaska.
Officials attending include U.S. Department of Energy Undersecretary Bud Albright Jr., and Kevin Billings, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Energy and Environment. Alaska’s Washington, D.C., delegation and state Speaker of the House Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez, are expected to attend, as well. Gov. Sarah Palin was invited but hasn’t confirmed her plans.
Whitaker said the summit will hopefully solidify federal and state support for the Interior Energy Plan that the borough and the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation have been working on for more than three years. Heating and fueling costs have increased exponentially during that time, prompting Whitaker and others to push for quick action on a plant.
Attendees will hear from experts in resources, transportation, technology and more on Friday morning at Wedgewood Resort, followed by a question-and-answer period. The group is scheduled for dinner and a reception at Chena Hot Springs, where discussions will continue Saturday morning.
Each party will be asked to pledge support and to consider what they can bring to the table to build the facility.
“We recognize that it will take a bit of time, but not much, in order for the participants of this summit to be fully authorized (to act),” Whitaker said. “The intent is to fast-track this.”
Making sure planning is complete and funding is in place will fast-track the project, he explained. Local proponents are also hoping for a military commitment to site the facility at Eielson Air Force Base and to purchase fuel, a key component in bringing a plant online quickly, Whitaker said.
Meanwhile, FEDC and the borough anticipate a report this fall from Toronto-based consultant Hatch Ltd. that should identify the best options and costs for building a gasification facility.
As proposed, such a plant would turn coal and biomass into gas, then use the Fischer-Tropsch process to turn the gas into liquid fuel for space heating and transportation. Additional gas would be used to power turbines to generate electricity.
The same raw materials, coal and biomass, could also be gasified as synthetic fuels. The Air Force could be a critical market for those synthetic fuels.
The Fischer-Tropsch process was developed in Germany in the 1920s. The process has been used for several decades to fuel vehicles in South Africa.
Whitaker and Stevens are hosting the energy summit with support from FEDC.
Contact staff writer Rena Delbridge at 459-7518.
Community Discussion
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Maybe someone can explain where I will find Distant Thunder's exhibit at this energy fair? He has been invited, right?
And maybe Sarah and our silent Interior delegation can explain why they are not working to sell crude oil to be refined for home heating at a fair price? It is, after all, the State of Alaska that is bankrupting this community by not selling Alaska's crude at a fair price. All these elected officials did take an oath to uphold the Alaska Constitution... which includes Article VIII- the part that says the State is to make our natural resources available for the settlement of the land.
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I guess the Federal Government and Whitaker think Fairbanks is far enough away from everything the air pollution caused by syn gas plants won't harm very many people. Research the South Africa plants, some of the worst air pollution in the world is caused by these plants. Amazing how the Federal particulate program hasn't been heard of since he came up with this idea. The people of Fairbanks need the whole thruth about this form of energy production before they turn Fairbanks into an experiment cess pool. Where are the enviormentalists when they are really needed.
FAST TRACT!!! Better get going faster than that, this is not the time for foot dragging and lip flapping. Airplanes don't fly on wishes and houses in Alaska don't stay warm by thinking about it.
Dairy farms, meat packing plant, barley crops, "new hi-tec" power plants, pelets from paper, fish factorys, and now GASIFICATION PLANT. FEDCO's wonderfull track record should really get a boost from this one. When will we ever learn?? Hopefully the money will run out soon and most of the crooks will still be in jail. Shame on you "ALASKANS"
It is my understanding that these plants need to be built over a coal field. Isn't that more a Healy project. The borough paid a couple of hundred thousand for a study regarding such a plant. Where is it? Why the fast track, could it be both politicians realize their time in office is near it's end.
The pollution is a major issue. The mayor won't let you burn wood during part of the winter, but it seems he will ignore the pollution of these plants. Unless there is no intention of building this plant in Fairbanks, but somewhere else in the State.
Too many questions, and like the port authority we will probably never get the answers.
Coal Gasification can work, problem is, in the current 'Fast Track' environment this whole thing smacks of Healy Clean Coal II. All the time, energy, and dollars wasted on this takes away from building a damn LNG line. You know what, there are cars and trucks made that can run on CNG. We can build a power plant that even runs on it. E-Mail your representative and tell them to get with the program!
The current high energy costs are not being realistically addressed by the Interior Delegation or the Congressional Delegation.
How about the natural gas deposits west on Nenana, in the Minto Flats,Yukon Flats? How about getting the Healy generating plant back up and running on coal? Biomass hogwash, develop what we have now and then develop biomass and synthetic fuel. Immediate relief NOW!
Alaska has the most resources of any state and now has the highest fuel and cost of living in the United States. Yesterday CNBC released a report on what states that were business friendly and conducive to doing a profitable business in that state! Alaska was dead last!! What company will relocate to Alaska in that environment? Shipping costs are fast rising. This will kill our quest for new industries and businesses.
I have looked at the current leadership that exists in this state. I factored in costs, quality of life and chances of things getting better here in the future. I made a decision. I am leaving. There are a lot of people leaving! Try to get household goods shipped outbound from Alaska!
I always thought that I would live the rest of my life here. Economics and political leadership dictated the departure. I am entitled to vote here in the primary and general elections and NOT ONE incumbant will get my vote!
Governor Palin should have been the Gov. in the past and maybe we would not be in this horrfic mess!
Take care and keep warm, if you can afford it!!
The pollution caused by wood burning is far worse than a plant such as this. Large plants have "scrubber" capabilities that these home wood heaters don't have. I am shocked at the number of filthy outdoor wood burning boilers I see being sold in Fairbanks. There are only three out there that get an EPA clean rating, Greenwood Technologies, Tarm, and another one I forgot. Go to the Tarm site and they list them all.
The idea of the state selling oil to the refinery at a discount is crazy. Its all of Alaskan's oil. Not just the citizens who live in the villages and Fairbanks who need a break at the pump.
Fast track the LNG line and forget about funding Usibelli and other big time contributors to Stevens, Whitaker and others of their persuasion. This is a distraction, a stall and more flim flam in order to hide the ineffectiveness of the national and state legislative bodies. The remark about the silence of the interior delegation is well deserved and we need some new faces there as well as Washington DC.
I love my Greenwood boiler and can now keep my family warm without having to worry what Wall Street speculators are doing to the price of oil. Burning wood is carbon neutral. You can only release as much carbon as the tree consumed in growing and if you have efficient combustion the particulate emissions are cut way down.
This is my favorite quote in regards to burning wood:
"I like a source of fuel where the price, supply and quality are controlled by one guy: me."
Now someone needs to start mass producing this wood burning electric generator and I will be set. http://www.gas-turbines.com/nt6/index.ht...
>I am shocked at the number of filthy outdoor wood burning boilers I see being sold in Fairbanks.
You ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait till the coal burners get fired up this winter.
>without having to worry what Wall Street speculators are doing to the price of oil.
There is SOME speculation, but the real problem is depletion and increased domestic use in Exporting Countries and China. (And of course our devaluing dollar isn't helping.) But the three former things are effectively reducing net EXPORTS by more than a million barrels a day / per year (and that deficit is INCREASING). There is no way the global oil system is going to add that much capacity for more than a year or two. We've floated by with some demand destruction in third World countries, Ethanol, and now some demand destruction here and Europe. But we haven't seen anything yet. China is just getting started and for them, who hold by most accounts nearly $1T US Dollars in CASH, oil is still cheap. Think about that for a minute and then tell me if you think that by Congress halting 'speculation' in the oil market we're going to bring down the cost of oil to 'the good old days'. Not going to happen....
Maybe I missed it this summer, but has Mayor Whitaker (or DNM) addressed how the borough will be covering additional expenses such cost of school heat, electric and transportation? If contracts are secured so current energy cost rises will have minimal impact on the school district, it would be good to hear those needs are addressed.
(I thought, as mayor, he was responsible for the the school district)
Will the borough require additional property tax to help fund the fast track project?
Will enough of the Juneau politicians sign on to a multi-billion dollar project for single Fairbanks business venture?
Designing, permits, lead time to procure equipment and steel, site work will all take time - even on a Fast Track - within two years maybe?
How many additional coal trains will run from Healy and along Trainor Gate and out to Eielson each day/week?
The article states it is a "summit" meeting, does not state that the meeting will be open for the public's information.
D E C E N T R A L I Z E
D E C E N T R A L I Z E
D E C E N T R A L I Z E
There's plenty of Biomass and Coal in the lower48..
if every municipality down there began using klystrons to process their garbage the transportation and heating/cooling costs would be cut in half.
http://www.globalresourcecorp.com/Engine...
...so, why spend billions building a big pipeline to ship hydrocarbons already sequestered when the market can get more BTU's cheaper by recycling it's own trash hydrocarbons that are already "in play" ??
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Better yet, drilling for geothermal is carbo-neut..
..yup, I agree with Prof.Bob Ballard-- The oceans are absorbing too much CO2 and becoming too acidic causing rapid declines in fish stocks.
Anybody wanna eat a Stichopus Californicus?
...that's what we'll be eating when the salmon are gone.
http://pesn.com/2007/01/22/9500449_MIT_G...
...how much energy is 1200 Femto-Joules ???
CO2 makes an excellent geothermal fluid, and the more you loose deep underground the better.
There's enough geothermal in Idaho and Wyoming to totally replace all other forms of power-gen combined...
...just think about that for a while.
Alaska would do well to do more research on Fischer-Tropsch..
http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/
...but it doesn't take throwing million$ at it.
Throwing money into the streets just slows down the meaningful research, but makes the pols look good on TV.
100alaskans with laptops can figure out the next $10,000 experiment and will amaze the greedy-gullible-government.
You can demo a unique innovative FT-GTL-BTL-CTL in a 30'x60' building.
Did you know that for under $10k you can retrofit your old truck to run on stoker-coal with less emissions than low-sulfur diesel???
Yeah, just use a mini-klystron gasifier instead of a wood-stove downdrafter...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgL0Ie4z...
....flash/rumble
Mass-produced mini-modular containerized plug&play Methane-GTL units sprinkled in clusters around the southern-ends of HDPE-CNG-gaslines strung through the Brooks would convert most of the lost-orphan-methane to a usable fuel product for the Alaska-Fleet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B36EoEuKj...
..pretty soon electric technology will make the combustion of carbon on top of pistons obsolete, impractical, too expensive.
Retrofit Electric
http://www.evparts.com/
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http://www.google.com/search?num=100&...
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&...
http://newenergynews.blogspot.com/
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If ConocoPhillips developed HDPE-gas distribution 30years ago with their Driscopipe product..
..why haven't they made much of an effort to use their flagship plastic-gasline to supply cheap local gas to Fairbanks and the rest of the interior??
tell your friends about my slideshow..
www.fairbanksgas.com
......mash-potatoes/grumble
Just give me a couple hours over a couple pitchers of beer with Kevin Billings at the Howling Dog...
..and I'll tell him how to make superior jetfuel from lignite,lightning,and sluicewater -- all for 25cents per gallon.
But he's gotta promise me the AirFarce will never drop bombs on little children again.
Next year we'll find Kevin and Company building a sailboat in Honduras, after getting fired for talking to me.....(;-P)
It's all about Mental Health..
..we have met the enemy, and it is us.
>..we have met the enemy, and it is us.
Never more truth spoken...
Deja-vu....1953
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sit...
New seabed fiber-optic cable boosts links to Oregon
Published: July 16, 2008 12:00AM
The $175 million fiber-optic cable being installed between Anchorage and Florence this summer is mostly for Alaska’s benefit, to support new industries expected to mushroom in the Last Frontier State once a new natural gas pipeline to the lower 48 is completed.
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Geez!!... that $175mil would have made a dandy SCADA system for a $2billion twin-48" HDPE subsea gasline running 2000'deep offshore from Valdez to Vancouver.
http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209...
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http://www.kwhpipe.com/Default.aspx?id=3...
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So, do ya think if we could figure out how to get all of the gas in the arctic to market for just 10% of the costs estimated by the PROFESSIONAL EXPERTS...
http://www.unoilgas.com/
...do ya think the cost of gas would be cheaper for the MARKET?
http://www.kartmarine.com/images/qeshm_p...
TAPS was a "works project" at the end of the VietnamWar..
TAGS seems to be a "works project" timed for the end of the war in Pipelineistan.
Let's call it the George W. Bush Peace and Prosperity Pipeline.
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Massive capital investments in Alaska keeps the state a playground for corporations, and perpetually out of reach for small-business to independently thrive without having to suck-up to BigBiz for like a dog waiting at the dinnertable for a bone.
Deja-vu....1953 Wainwright shot down James Dalton's gasline from Gubik by issuing the edict that coal was the future for Fairbanks, knowing there's massive sub-bituminous deposits under the Bonnifield Trail in the artillery range.
Fairbanks has an Economic Development Corporation..
other places have an Economic Development Council.
Does anybody have a complete list of small-business's the FEDC has worked with to help incubate their financial success?
When we finally succeed in combusting all of the carbon in Alaska the world will run out of oxygen.
>..we have met the enemy, and it is us. POGO by Walt Kelly
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41...
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http://www.blacklightpower.com/
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