Forest, Carbon, And Air Quality Impacts From Wood Energy Facilities

Transcript

Forest, carbon, and air quality impacts from wood energy facilities February 10, 2011 Mary S. Booth, PhD Massachusetts Environmental Energy Alliance BIOMASS EMITS MORE CO2 THAN FOSSIL FUELS 1. Wood inherently emits more carbon per Btu – – – Natural gas: 117 lb CO2/MMBtu* Bituminous coal: 205 lb CO2/MMBtu** Wood: 213 lb CO2/MMBtu bone dry 2. Wood is often wet, dirty (degrades heating value) – at 45% mc, 237 lb CO2/MMBtu 3. Biomass boilers operate less efficiently than fossil fuel boilers – – – Utility-scale biomass boiler: 24% Average efficiency US coal fleet: 33% Average gas plant: 43%*** In practice: per MWh, biomass emits about 150% the CO2 of coal, and 300 – 400% the CO2 of natural gas *http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/coefficients.html ** http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/co2_article/co2.html *** http://www.npc.org/Study_Topic_Papers/4-DTG-ElectricEfficiency.pdf 2 DOESN’T FOREST CARBON GROW BACK? CONSIDERATIONS: 1. Regrowth ties up the carbon that was released 2. But forests are already sequestering carbon... How to take that into account? 3 Do the carbon accounting wrong, and you end up with this: 4 MANOMET MODELING APPROACH FOR TREES USED AS FUEL FOREST REGROWTH UNDER BAU AND BIOMASS SCENARIOS 6 CARBON RECOVERY AFTER ONE YEAR’S CUTTING Change in Stored Carbon: Biomass Stand Carbon minus BAU Stand Carbon (Previous slide: the BAU stand carbon was 70 tons; the biomass stand carbon was reduced to 50 tons; 50 minus 70 = -20) 7 CARBON RECOVERY AFTER MULTIPLE YEARS CUTTING: FACILITY FOOTPRINT 8 MANOMET CONCLUSIONS “Increases in biomass energy generation can lead to higher GHG emissions, even when sustainable forestry is practiced” Sustainability does not equal carbon neutrality! 9 WHY NEW FACILITIES IN VERMONT WILL DRAMATICALLY INCREASE FOREST HARVESTING Woody biomass fuels in Vermont Logging residues: carbon payback periods are 10 – 25 years, since decomposition also emits CO2.
One half of residues generated annually (USFS data): ~261,000 tons New trees, including “low-grade” trees: carbon payback periods are long – not a “low-carbon” fuel:
Biomass Energy Resource Center says there are 894,900 green tons of “net available low-grade growth” available annually in VT, after firewood and other uses taken into account BERC Vermont Wood Fuel Supply Study, 2010 Update Study results for annual net available low-grade growth (NALG) wood in Vermont alone and Vermont plus the adjoining 10 counties in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York (rounded to the nearest 100 green ton). Wood demand at proposed facilities in Vermont exceeds supply Summed residues and “net available low-grade growth” wood (green tons) Proposed facility wood demand Existing facility wood demand Supply: Residues and “NALG” wood: 1,156,087 tons/yr (optimistic!) Wood demand at proposed facilities: 1,756,500 tons/yr Demand from existing and proposed: 2,822,500 tons/yr Potential regional demand is enormous LAIDLAW 70 MW PLANT IN BERLIN, NH: PETITIONS TO INTERVENE IN POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT FROM EXISTING BIOMASS POWER PLANTS Would require ~900,000 green tons annually. Petitions for intervention in the PPA: • • • • • • • • Concord Steam Corp. Clean Power Development LLC Bridgewater Power Co. Pinetree Power Inc. Pinetree Power-Tamworth Inc. Springfield Power LLC Whitefield Power & Light Indeck Energy “A petition from the latter six alleges fierce competition for the biomass fuel, saying their own plants have a substantial interest in its availability and pricing, and Laidlaw’s PPA would directly affect them.” MAKES NO SENSE TO THINK WE CAN MEET FUEL NEEDS WITH “WASTE” WOOD; INDUSTRY AGREES William Perritt, editor of RISI wood industry newsletter, speaking of the recent expansion in facilities: “Hungry for large volumes of wood, and frequently armed with government subsidies, the nascent operations have triggered wood price spikes and crossgrade competition in the tightest markets. The oftrepeated assumption that forests and sawmills are littered with waste wood, just waiting for cheap home is proving largely erroneous.” 17 MA: “The Fitchburg Power Station is a 17 MW waste wood and landfill gas fired power facility. The facility burns whole tree chips” NH: “Tamworth Power Station is a 22.5 MW waste wood power facility … The facility uses wood from trees unsuitable for lumber or pulp” NH: “The Bethlehem Power Station burns low quality wood, which is continuously replenished through the natural forest cycles. The facility uses approximately 675 tons (per day) of whole tree chips” NH: Schiller Station: “Currently, PSNH’s Schiller Station in Portsmouth operates three 50 megawatt coal-fired steam boilers built in the 1950s. PSNH will replace one of these coal boilers with a new fluidized-bed boiler. This state-ofthe-art boiler will electricity.” burn whole-tree wood chips and other clean low-grade wood materials to generate VT: “The Ryegate Power Station burns 250,000 tons of whole tree chips per year” VT: McNeil Station (Burlington Electric): “Seventy percent of the wood chips that fuel the McNeil Station are called whole-tree chips and come from low quality trees and harvest residues. The trees, a majority of which are on privately owned woodlands, are cut and chipped in the forest. Clearcutting of woodlands is limited to areas that need to establish a new crop of trees. It may also be used in some instances to improve wildlife habitat. In these cases, the size of the area cleared is limited to a maximum of 25 acres. To run McNeil at full load, approximately 76 tons of whole-tree chips are consumed per hour. That amounts to about 30 cords per hour (there are about 2.5 tons of chips per cord of green wood)” EXISTING PLANTS ARE USING WHOLE TREE CHIPS 18 1. “… we found the need to go to a raw material source other than bark. What we went to was basically the whole tree, which we chipped and introduced through the infeed of our system.” • “When we get into a 100 percent whole tree run, we’re consuming upwards of 50 to 60 tons an hour” 2. "We're not taking any waste residuals. We're only taking whole logs, and not using any bark.“ 3. “The company will need 200,000 tons a year of whole logs to operate the pellet mill at full capacity.” PELLET PRODUCTION INCREASES FOREST CUTTING BIG PLANS FOR BIOMASS AND PELLET PLANTS, REGIONALLY AND NATIONALLY PROPOSED BIOMASS POWER AND PELLET FACILITIES, NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK Biomass Power Plainfield Renewable Energy NRG Energy Watertown Renewable Power Russell Biomass Pioneer Renewable Energy Berkshire Generations Palmer Renewable Energy CCI Energy Laidlaw Berlin Concord Steam Clean Power Development Clean Power Development Laidlaw Energy Indeck Energy Catalyst Renewables Alliance Energy Renewables Newton Falls Fine Paper U.S. Salt NRG Energy Griffiss Utility Services Beaver Wood Energy Beaver Wood Energy Winstanley Enterprises Access Ludlow Clean Energy City/Town Plainfield Uncasville Watertown Russell Greenfield Pittsfield Springfield Fitchburg Berlin Concord Winchester Berlin Henniker Alexandria Geddes Ogdensburg Newton Falls Watkins Glen Dunkirk Rome Fair Haven Pownal North Springfield Ludlow State CT CT CT MA MA MA MA MA NH NH NH NH NH NH NY NY NY NY NY NY VT VT VT VT tons 512,656 539,638 404,728 674,547 634,074 539,638 512,656 67,455 876,911 202,364 269,819 337,274 269,819 215,855 539,638 337,274 134,909 200,000 202,364 129,513 391,237 391,237 337,274 337,274 Pellets Corinth Wood Pellets International WoodFuels Maine Woods Pellet Geneva Wood Fuels Greenova LLC Lakes Region Pellets New England Wood Pellet Woodstone Pellets New England Wood Pellet Curran Renewable Energy New England Wood Pellet Essex Box & Pallet Vermont Pellet Works Renewable Energy Company Vermont Wood Pellet Co. Beaver Wood Energy Woodstone Pellets (Greenova) Vermont Biomass Energy City/Town Corinth Burnham Athens Strong Berlin Barnstead Jaffrey Moreau Deposit Massena Schuyler Chesterfield Lyndonville Island Pond Clarendon Fair Haven Berlin Island Pond State ME ME ME ME NH NH NH NY NY NY NY NY VT VT VT VT NH VT Total new wood demand: 12.4 million green tons annually Existing biomass fuel use: ~8 million green tons annually Total roundwood harvest, 2006: 22,077,140 green tons tons 280,000 200,000 200,000 160,000 360,000 176,000 50,000 280,000 200,000 200,000 200,000 140,000 150,000 100,000 20,000 220,000 200,000 200,000 NEW YORK STATE CLIMATE ACTION PLAN: EXISTING GENERATION AND 2030 GENERATION FROM BIOMASS UNDER 9,000 GWH SCENARIO MWh from Wood and Wood-derived fuels 10,000,000 9,000,000 8,000,000 7,000,000 6,000,000 5,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 0 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 (Data 1990 – 2009 from Energy Information Administration) 22 MAINE: A CASE STUDY IN WHAT NOT TO DO Power sector in 2007: • 24% from biomass • 23% from hydropower • 41% from natural gas ⇒ Low emissions (on paper): 5.57 million tons CO2 Real (but unreported) emissions from biomass: • 7.9 million tons CO2 BIOMASS HARVEST, MOOSEHEAD LAKE REGION, ME 24 May 12, 1998 25-ACRE CLEARCUT, MAINE ~ 950 dry tons biomass Enough fuel to power a 50-MW biomass plant for about 21 hours October 31, 2007 Regrowth negligible after almost ten years 25 BIOMASS BUILD-OUT UNDER A PROPOSED FEDERAL RES ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP, “CLEARCUT DISASTER” WOOD DEMAND IS GROWING RAPIDLY Wood demand (green tons tons) 100,000,000 90,000,000 Wood pellets 80,000,000 Biopower and biofuels 70,000,000 60,000,000 50,000,000 40,000,000 30,000,000 20,000,000 10,000,000 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 27 LIQUIDATION OF FOREST CARBON TO THE ATMOSPHERE: THE CONSEQUENCES? RGGI STATES: BIOMASS POWER GENERATION VERSUS CO2 EMISSIONS, 2008 (WOOD/BYPRODUCTS ONLY) 160,000,000 45,000,000 Power sector CO2 emissions Power generation 40,000,000 140,000,000 CO2 from wood /by-products (tons) Wood/by-products (MWh) 35,000,000 Total generation (MWh) 120,000,000 Reported power sector CO2 (tons) 30,000,000 100,000,000 25,000,000 80,000,000 20,000,000 60,000,000 15,000,000 40,000,000 10,000,000 20,000,000 5,000,000 0 CT DE MA MD ME NH NJ NY RI VT CT DE MA MD ME NH NJ NY RI 29 VT BIOGENIC EMISSIONS MAKE FEDERAL EMISSION REDUCTION GOALS IMPOSSIBLE TO MEET Million tons carbon dioxide 2,950 3% reduction from 2006 2,750 2,550 2,350 2,150 14% reduction from 2006 EIA projected emissions 1,950 EIA projected emissions plus biomass emissions 1,750 EIA projected emissions plus biomass emissions, without the benefit of CCS 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 30 ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP, “CLEARCUT DISASTER” Replace coal with biomass? Current generation from coal: US Total Electric Power Industry, GWh from Coal 2,100,000 2,000,000 1,900,000 1,800,000 1,700,000 1,600,000 1,500,000 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Potential for co-firing biomass at coal plants (MWh) 120,000,000 100,000,000 80,000,000 60,000,000 40,000,000 MWh from residues (100%) 20,000,000 Existing wood (MWh) 5% coal (MWh) 0 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Considerations for air quality SMALL-SCALE BIOMASS Particulate matter emissions from thermal biomass: comparison to residential wood burning Woodstove Catalytic stove Pellet stove emission factor (g/kg) 18.5 6.2 2 emission factor (lb/mmbtu) tons fuel fuel moisture 10 0.2 10 0.2 9 0.1 emissions (tons) 0.15 0.05 0.016 tons fuel fuel moisture emissions (tons) 4 MMBtu/hr (school boiler) 0.22 1,500 0.45 1.6 15 MMBtu/hr (lumbermill) 0.25 14,000 0.45 16.6 Small thermal biomass: comparing emissions to oil Air permit application for Wyalusing School District, PA: New biomass burner with multiclone, and new oil burner PM rate PM tons NOx rate NOx tons CO rate CO tons VOC rate VOC tons SOx rate SOx tons Oil burner 0.03 0.29 0.12 1.18 0.04 0.39 0.025 0.25 0.21 2.06 Wood burner 0.22 8.68 0.182 7.18 0.163 6.48 0.004 0.16 0.002 0.08 Wood/oil 7.33 29.93 1.52 6.08 4.08 16.62 0.16 0.64 PM: emissions from biomass higher than from oil NOx: emissions from biomass higher CO: emissions from biomass higher VOCs, SOx: emissions from oil higher 0.01 0.04 UTILITY-SCALE BIOMASS Emission rates at existing and proposed biomass plants generally exceed those from coal (heat input basis, lb/mmbtu) Three best existing performers “BACT clearinghouse”(boilers >250 MMBtu). PM PM NOx NOx CO CO SOx SOx Coal 0.01 0.01 0.02 Biomass 0.02 0.02 0.03 Coal 0.07 0.07 0.07 Biomass 0.07 0.12 0.13 Coal 0.10 0.10 0.10 Biomass 0.10 0.19 0.19 Coal 0.10 0.14 0.25 Biomass 0.02 Emissions rates from proposed biomass plants not much better: PM Gainesville RE, 116 MW, FL Perryville RE, 32.5 MW, MO Sierra Pacific, 23 MW, CA ADAGE, 65 MW, WA 0.015 0.03 0.02 0.03 NOX 0.07 0.11 0.13 0.2 CO 0.08 0.11 0.35 0.074 SOx 0.029 0.08 0.005 0.32 Killen Coal Plant, OH: Significant increases in organic hazardous air pollutants when co-firing 5% biomass Small differences in control efficiency make a big difference to PM emissions Control Multiclone ESP Baghouse Baghouse uncontrolled emissions btu/lb tons PM (lb/mmbtu) wood tons wood (uncontrolled) 9.0 4575 26,000 1,071 9.0 4575 400,000 16,470 9.0 4575 400,000 16,470 9.0 4575 400,000 16,470 control efficiency PM rate (lb/mmbtu) 80.0% 99.0% 99.7% 99.9% 1.8 0.09 0.027 0.009 tons PM emitted 214 165 49 16 EPA’s proposed emission limits recognize that biomass emits more than coal PM limits: Existing coal and existing biomass plants have the same limit: 0.02 lb/mmbtu New biomass plants are allowed to emit 8x more PM than new coal plants (0.008 lb/mmbtu vs. 0.001 lb/mmbtu) EPA’s proposed emission limits for biomass vs. coal Hydrochloric acid: new biomass plants allowed to emit more than coal Mercury: coal emits more Carbon monoxide: biomass always worse, by order of magnitude Dioxins/furans: coal and biomass comparable THE CONTEXT FOR NEW EMISSIONS PM2.5 levels in Vermont Potential new 24-hr standard – coming in July 2011? Ozone levels in Bennington Probable new standard of 0.065 ppm Prevalence of adult asthma, 2008 8.1 – 8.7% 8.7 – 9.8% 9.8 – 10.7% 10.7 – 11.5% QUESTIONS? [email protected]