U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar arrived at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant on April 25, 2009, to find perfect spring weather, and Dakota Gasification Company and Basin Electric representatives eager to show him carbon capture technology.
Salazars duties in the Department of the Interior include management of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Office of Surface Mining. He said, The United States has coal like Saudi Arabia has oil, and coal must continue to be used for energy.
This (the Great Plains Synfuels Plant) is the only (coal-based) carbon capture and sequestration program in the Western Hemisphere. There is a lot to learn about the future of coal right here, and I was excited to actually see a demonstration project thats actually up and functioning and working, Salazar said. I learned that theres still a lot of technology that needs to be developed and that this is a very expensive kind of process.
Basin Electric CEO Ron Harper, Dakota Gas COO Gary Loop, and Synfuels Plant Manager Bob Fagerstrom led Salazars tour. The group started out in the newly updated model room, where Loop explained the inner workings of the plant. Harper described the planned carbon dioxide capture pilot project at Antelope Valley Station, where carbon dioxide would be captured from a full-scale operating power plant. A commercially viable technology for carbon dioxide capture from conventional coal-based plants isnt available yet, Harper said. But at Basin Electric, were working very hard on new carbon capture technology. By using the experience weve gained in capturing, compressing and transporting carbon dioxide at the Synfuels Plant, our proposed demonstration project has the potential to not only create a viable path for coal in our nations energy future, but it could position the United States as a model for other countries to emulate, he said.
Loop said he is very pleased with interest shown in carbon capture by the current administration. I was impressed with Secretary Salazars interest in carbon capture and the concept of clean coal, Loop said. He is a firm believer that coal needs to be part of our energy future and was excited to see and understand what we are doing at the Synfuels Plant. I think he left the plant with a far better understanding of how we capture carbon dioxide, how research and development money can perfect it for pulverized coal, and that is a path we need to follow.
After the model room, the group walked through the carbon dioxide compressor building on the plant site and then to the area where carbon dioxide is injected into an underground pipeline, which runs 205 miles to Canada, where the carbon dioxide is used for enhanced oil recovery.
Salazar, invited to North Dakota by the North Dakota congressional delegation, said Basin Electric and Dakota Gas are helping create a viable path for coal in the future.
He (Salazar) was told by President Obama that hes going to have a significant part in energy, U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan said. Even though hes not the Energy Secretary, hes going to be part of the troika in this White House that works on energy. I wanted him to see the place in this country where were doing something very different. Were turning coal into synthetic gas, were capturing carbon, and were using it for beneficial use by piping it to an oil field.
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pc2drth 2 years ago
I am from there and I will tell you this, those 'chemicals' provide food for you. They keep the bugs from eating what you want. If you have a problem with the grocery store start your own garden and keep your mouth shut.
JJTbo84 2 years ago
they need to stop spraying those chemtrails there ............who cares about there new projects...they need to talk about the elephant in the room .......just a bunch of actors
justamomforjesus 2 years ago