Re: Request for Advise, Insight, Comment on Locating Wood Burning Power Plant in Urban Industrial Area

[peter strauss <pstrauss@igc.apc.org>]

Emery,

Its been a long time since I worked on the issue of wood-burning, but if
memory serves me correctly, its not clear that emissions are less than
you would get from a oil fired plant, and I suspect they are more than
you would get from a gas-fired plant.  Since the project is using wood
that may have been treated in some way, there is also the potential
problem of toxic emissions.  This should all be spelled out in the
environmental documentation for the project. The project proponent
should also be thinking about what it will do with the ash from the
plant.  The ash may tend to concentrate toxic materials that are not
combusted. As far as I can tell, these are the major issues.

Peter Strauss

Emery Graham wrote:
> 
> Request for Advise, Insight, Comment on Locating Wood Burning Power Plant
> in Urban Industrial Area
> 
> This listserv has been very useful. I'd like to get some feedback from
> its members regarding a proposed project that meets the following
> description. This is an open question and I'd like to get as
> broadranging a set of comments as possible. I'd like to know if there is
> technology available to mitigate any environmental negatives that might
> be associated with this type of plant.
> 
> The project would be located in a small river based municipality, in a
> brownfields, environmentally impacted, minority, and low/moderate income
> area. From a market perspective the location is ideal in that the local
> power company will buy the power, a compressed gas company will buy the
> carbon dioxide, a greenhouse project will use cogenerated steam. I'd
> like to know what the environmental impacts are likely to be. The
> nearest residents are within a half mile of the proposed project site.
> 
> The project is a small (22 megawatt) energy and carbon dioxide plant
> that uses clean wood salvaged from construction debris, used pallets, and
> residential landscaping material as fuel. This material is currently
> being disposed of in area landfills.
> 
> The project has number of advantages for the citizens of Wilmington:
> i) it creates approximately 65 jobs
> ii) it saves rapidly diminishing space in landfills through recycling
> waste wood materials, and
> iii) emissions from this environmentally friendly project is but a fraction
> of those emitted by conventional coal or oil fired power plants.
> 
> Thanks In Advance,
> Emery