Biomass Co-firing With Coal as an Emissions Reduction Strategy

By Jason Hayes, American Coal Council

Editor’s note: This article is an expanded version of the information found in the Issues section – Biomass Co-firing page – of the the ACC website. We encourage all of our readers to make use of this section for essential information on important energy and policy issues. Please also take a moment to contact us at jhayes@americancoalcouncil.org with any suggestions for new issues that should be added to the website.

The current situation

Actions speak louder than words and current government policies are practically screaming that environmental protection is THE number one priority. Regardless of continuing fiscal woes, policies ostensibly aimed at slaying a host of environmental hobgoblins and directly impacting the production of abundant and affordable energy are being placed well ahead of the economy and jobs. Where there is no clear environmentally-themed motive for delaying or stopping baseload energy development, simple uncertainty is having the same effect as these green policies and slowing the construction of new generation.

While there is a solid stream of talk around the notion that jobs and the economy are top priorities, policy proposals, pending legislation, and regulation all demonstrate that jobs and energy take a back seat to environmental and climate policy.

This means that the energy industry – not just coal – is facing a host of rapidly changing EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and OSM (Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement) regulations, chronic Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting issues in the Central Appalachian region, pending changes to coal ash regulations, the incoming EPA Transport Rule, continued EPA pressure on greenhouse gasses (GHG), as well as rumors of rising pressure for strict climate/energy legislation in the post-election lame duck session.

You can toss in on top of that sticky morass of federal green tape the fact that states have their own string of increasingly stringent legislation and regulations. Key among those policies are renewable portfolio standards (RPS), now being implemented in thirty five states, which mandate that between 10 and 33 percent of all energy generated in these states must come from renewable sources at some time between 2015 and 2025.¹ (Recently proposed federal legislation also attempted to establish a national renewable energy/efficiency standard of 20 percent in 2020. That legislation would have forced the remaining states to hop on the RPS bandwagon as well.)

Coal-consuming utilities and industrial operations are exploring biomass as one option for keeping the lights on and the power flowing despite the untamed imposition of these rapidly morphing environmental regulations. EIA data shows biomass-based energy generation to 2009 made up more than 25 percent of all non-hydro renewable energy generated in the U.S.² It is also expected to make up a substantial chunk of efforts to meet RPS policies. JP Morgan reports that biomass is likely to make up 6.4 percent of the targeted 15 percent federal RES/RPS by 2020.3 Unfortunately, however, recently proposed EPA maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for major hazardous air pollutants (HAP) may now even endanger biomass generation.

The use of biomass at low to moderate biomass to coal ratios appears to produce the best performance enhancements and can result in overall life-cycle energy consumption reductions, as well as reduced solid waste generation.