Duke Energy Carolinas had requested to recover approximately $238 million spent from 2018 to 2023 on closing coal ash basins in South Carolina and North Carolina. Additionally, the utility sought to recover $36 million of previously disallowed costs from a 2018 rate case.

Duke’s coal ash surface impoundments include 13 basins located at coal-fired plant sites: two basins at  W.S. Lee in South Carolina; and the Marshall Ash Basin, the Unit 5 inactive and active basins at Cliffside, the active basin at Belews Creek, retired and active basins at Allen, two basins at Dan River and three basins at Buck, all in North Carolina.

Duke argued that changes in federal regulations had justified its cost-recovery request. Specifically, the utility argued that a January 2022 clarification by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made federal regulations similar to North Carolina’s stricter Coal Ash Management Act (CAMA). The company contended that because costs mandated by federal regulations are recoverable, the CAMA-related costs should also be recoverable.

However, South Carolina regulators upheld their previous decision, denying recovery of the $36 million previously disallowed and the additional $238 million sought by DEC. PSCSC maintained that costs associated with CAMA, which are stricter than federal coal ash regulations, remain unrecoverable. Regulators said this position was supported by the South Carolina Supreme Court in the previous 2018 rate case.

PSCSC emphasized that future similar costs are only recoverable if they are consistent with and mandated by federal law, setting a clear standard for how utilities should approach cost recovery for environmental compliance in the future.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

In April the EPA finalized a rule requiring the safe management of coal ash placed in areas that were unregulated at the federal level until now. This includes inactive power plants with surface impoundments that are no longer being used and historical coal ash disposal areas at active power plants. The rule applies to historical contamination and inactive units that no longer support current power plant operations. It is not expected to affect current power plant operations.

Through the collaboration, millions of tons of coal ash would be harvested from Plant Barry and recycled to make construction materials, like concrete, across the Southeast. 

Since dry ash became available for reuse at Plant Barry in 2018, more than 680,000 tons of coal ash has been beneficially used from the site. Alabama Power said the collaboration with Eco Material Technologies expands the ability to do so.

In recent years, demand for using coal ash to produce concrete has outpaced production.

Eco Material Technologies and its predecessor companies have previously worked with Alabama Power to recycle coal ash from other coal-fired plants, including Plants Gaston, Gorgas and Miller. More than 12 million tons of coal ash has been sold and recycled from these three facilities.

At Barry, coal ash will be prepared for recycling using an on-site processing facility constructed, operated and maintained by Eco Material. The new facility is expected to be in service by January 2026. 

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

Last May the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule that would require the safe management of coal ash dumped in areas that are currently unregulated at the federal level.

These areas include inactive power plants with coal ash ponds no longer being used and historical coal ash disposal areas at plants with regulated coal ash units. The proposal, announced by the EPA on May 17, is not expected to affect current power plant operations.

Plant Branch began commercial operation in 1965 and was retired in 2015. Prior to retirement, the plant had four coal-fired units capable of producing 1,540 MW of electricity.

The first phase of the Plant Branch reuse project will include the construction of an ash processing facility, expected to begin by the end of 2023. The facility is expected to be online in 2026 and will process ash that is excavated from the onsite ash ponds.

Once fully operational, Georgia Power said the facility will produce approximately 600,000 dry tons of marketable ash each year. The utility anticipates that throughout the project’s 15-year duration, over 8 million tons of ash will be excavated and processed to be used in concrete production.

The project is in partnership with Eco Material Technologies. The utility has coal ash reuse projects already underway at Plant Bowen near Cartersville and Plant Mitchell near Albany.

Eco Material Technologies, a producer of sustainable cementitious materials and cement replacement products, will manage the project at Plant Branch, including the end use of the excavated coal ash.

In 2022, Georgia Power announced a similar re-use project at Plant Bowen, which is one of the largest projects of its kind in the U.S. The utility said significant construction has been completed for the ash beneficiation plant since it began last September. It added that processing equipment, such as a 1,000 ton silo and dryers, have been installed, as well as process piping around the site. Transportation of harvested ash from Plant Bowen for use in the ready-mix concrete market is expected to begin in 2024.

In 2020, Georgia Power announced the first re-use project at Plant Mitchell. The company continues to remove the stored coal ash at Plant Mitchell’s three ash ponds. Georgia Power said over the next few years, approximately two million tons of ash are expected to be removed from the site to help create Portland cement, which is used to make concrete.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic associated with cancer and various other serious health effects.

In April 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated requirements for the safe handling and disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants, which established technical requirements for CCR landfills and surface impoundments.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued proposed determinations to deny six coal plants’ requests to continue disposing coal ash into unlined surface impoundments.

Specifically, EPA cited inadequate groundwater monitoring networks; failure to prove groundwater is monitored to detect and characterize any elevated levels of contaminants coming from the coal ash surface impoundment; evidence of potential releases from the impoundments and insufficient information to support claims that the contamination is from sources other than the impoundments; inadequate documentation for the design and performance of the impoundment liners; and failure to meet all location restrictions.

If EPA finalizes these denials, the facilities will have to either stop sending waste to these unlined impoundments or submit applications to EPA for extensions to the deadline for the impoundments to stop receiving waste.

However, the agency also proposed a process for these coal plants to seek an extension, in the interest of addressing grid reliability issues. This process would rely in part on reliability assessments from the affiliated regional transmission organizations (RTOs).

The six facilities receiving proposed denials are:

• Belle River Power Plant, China Township, Michigan.
• Coal Creek Station, Underwood, North Dakota.
• Conemaugh Generating Station, New Florence, Pennsylvania.
• Coronado Generating Station, St. Johns, Arizona.
• Martin Lake Steam Electric Station, Tatum, Texas.
• Monroe Power Plant, Monroe, Michigan

For a seventh facility that withdrew its application, Apache Generating Station in Cochise, Arizona, EPA issued a letter identifying concerns with deficiencies in its liner components and groundwater monitoring program.

The CCR Part B Final Rule, published November 12, 2020, allowed facilities to demonstrate to the Agency that, based on groundwater data and the design of a particular surface impoundment, there would be no reasonable probability of adverse effects to human health and the environment. EPA approval would allow the unit to continue to operate.

EPA received applications for alternate liner demonstrations from eight facilities with 17 CCR surface impoundments. The Agency said these applications were from facilities in Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Texas. One Arizona facility and the Louisiana facility since withdrew their applications.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in coal-fired power plants that, without proper management, can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and the air.

To address the risks from disposal and discharge of coal ash, including leaking of contaminants into groundwater, blowing of contaminants into the air as dust, and the catastrophic failure of coal ash surface impoundments, EPA established national rules for coal ash management and disposal.

In April 2015, EPA promulgated requirements for the safe handling and disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants, which established technical requirements for CCR landfills and surface impoundments.

EPA said recently it is increasing its efforts to investigate compliance concerns at coal ash facilities around the nation to ensure compliance and protect the health of communities that it said are “overburdened” by pollution such as coal ash residuals.

Lafarge was awarded C$15 million ($11.17 million) from the Government of Alberta through Emissions Reduction Alberta to advance the project.

Landfilled fly ash must first go through a beneficiation process to be used in concrete. The project will use the Ash-TEK Ponded Ash Beneficiation System (PABS) technology. A statement said that tests produced high quality ash during trials and proved to have a low carbon footprint and an economical operating cost. Lafarge said it plans to use this approach to remove moisture from the ash, mill it, and remove excess carbon.

The Ash-TEK PABS technology is designed as a multi stage, modular ash beneficiation plant that converts ponded, carbon rich out of specification ash into a consistent ASTM class C or F Fly Ash. Each PABS line is designed to produce 100,000 tons of fly ash per year.

Geocycle, a waste management services provider, and a Lafarge subsidiary in Canada, will also take part in the initiative. 

In 2021, TransAlta said it would shut down the Highvale mine, suspend the Sundance Unit 5 repowering project, and retire Sundance Unit 4 and Keephills Unit 1. 

The equipment is designed to help the plant operator reduce the environmental impact of the plant and comply with emissions regulations.

B&W Environmental will design, manufacture and supply four Allen-Sherman-Hoff Submerged Grind Conveyor (SGC) systems. The equipment is designed to meet effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) and coal combustion residuals (CCR) requirements. The company also will supply two tube conveyors for the project. The SGC systems will be manufactured in B&W’s Lancaster, Ohio, facility.

The SGS system is designed to convey dewatered bottom ash from hopper through a series of SGCs for discharge into a storage bunker.

B&W said its system makes use of existing bottom ash hoppers or slag tanks for bottom ash collection, along with existing bottom ash gates, clinker grinders and transfer enclosures (dog houses) between gate and grinders.

The conveyors can be oriented at angles to avoid existing structures and equipment, reducing or eliminating the requirement for a straight pathway to a location outside the boiler building. 

The company said its system is smaller and lighter than conventional submerged chain conveyors because it receives bottom ash after crushing by clinker grinders and is not subject to heavy loads from slag falls or the weight of bottom ash stored during maintenance.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it considers the Lila Canyon Mine fire to be an “emergency that necessitates an emergency response.” It said that if the fire is not contained shortly, a “high risk exists” that the mine would have to shut down permanently. 

Lila Canyon produces 3.47 million tons of coal per year, about 28% of Utah’s total coal. Around 40% of its coal is delivered to the 1,472 MW Hunter and the 996 MW Huntington power plants, which generated a combined 15,513 GWh in 2021.

Spontaneous combustion is not unusual for coal in western states like Utah and Colorado. The fires can lead to a mine’s permanent closure, particularly if water is used to flood a mine.

BLM approved a plan for Emery County Coal Resources, Inc., to take measures on 7.3 surface acres to fight the fire, which is near Price, Utah. 

Plans call for drill pads, boreholes, road improvements, and a temporary above-ground water pipeline to help fight the fire. 

In late September, Emery County Coal determined from air sampling and visual data that cutting off oxygen in the mine prevented the fire from spreading, but that it continues to smolder.

Emery asked BLM in an emergency request for approval to drill more boreholes to seal the burn area from the surface, dewater one section of the mine to flood the burn area, and conduct additional atmospheric monitoring.

Millions of tons of stored coal ash would be collected from Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen under a new project involving the utility and Eco Material Technologies.

The coal ash would be used in concrete to construct bridges, roads, and buildings in Georgia and the greater Southeast. Coal ash has been demonstrated to provide significant value to certain products, such as concrete, in which it adds strength and durability.

Georgia Power is calling it the single largest beneficial use project of its kind in the U.S., and the largest ever for the utility.

Eco Material Technologies, a producer of sustainable cementitious materials and cement replacement products, will manage the project at Plant Bowen.

This is the latest development since Georgia Power partnered with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to open a research facility at Plant Bowen – the Ash Beneficial Use Center – to identify, test and speed the development of beneficial uses of coal ash. The facility allows for pilot projects and testing of technologies to continue to increase the recycling and use of coal ash.

Infrastructure installation to accommodate the work at Plant Bowen will begin immediately, with ash removal expected to begin by 2024 and increasing to 600,000 tons of ash per year. The final amount of coal ash harvested and used under this project is expected to be 9 million tons in total.

Georgia Power already recycles 85% of all ash and gypsum, including more than 90% of fly ash, it produces from operations for various beneficial uses such as concrete production as well as other construction products.

Plant Bowen is a 3.5-GW coal-fired power plant situated near Euharlee, Georgia. It is one of the nation’s largest capacity coal-fired plants and its four units were brought online in the 1970s.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is offering $6.1 million for student training and research in remediating pollution from coal-fired power generation and for using carbon capture and storage (CCUS) technologies.

Of that funding, $3.1 million would support the department’s University Coal Research (UCR) program. A second other opportunity will provide $2.2 million in support of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU-OMI) program for environmental remediation and CCUS research. Additionally, up to $800,000 in additional funding related to emissions control would be available across both programs.

DOE said the funding opportunities would support roughly 20 student engineers and scientists working over 2-3 years on research projects related to advancing U.S. climate goals.

The funding would support "guided decarbonization" approaches. The department said one example would be exploring the generation of low-carbon energy by blending biomass feedstocks with waste coal, coupled with carbon capture and dedicated storage. Another approach would be using algae to uptake carbon dioxide, which would then be converted to fuels, plastics, or fine chemicals. The DOE funding would also help HBCUs assess resources and determine gaps in their programs.

The funding would also support remediating pollution left behind by combusting coal—such as coal ash, coal refuse, acid mine drainage, and tens of thousands of abandoned mines across the U.S.

That Infrastructure Law signed into effect in November 2021 includes $12 billion to invest in CCUS technologies. Additionally, $21 billion was allocated to clean up Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land, and cap abandoned oil and gas wells.

The UK’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has named the East Coast Cluster (ECC) as a ‘Track-1’ cluster, putting it on course for deployment by the mid-2020s.

The Cluster is a huge carbon capture and storage proposal located on the East coast of the UK in the North Sea and is a collaboration between Northern Endurance Partnership, Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber.

The announcement is a major step forward in establishing the first net zero-carbon industrial cluster in the UK by 2040.

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Grete Tveit, Senior Vice President for Low Carbon Solutions at Equinor, which is a partner of Zero Carbon Humber, Net Zero Teesside and Northern Endurance Partnership said: “We’re delighted that the East Coast Cluster has reached this milestone.

“As we mark and celebrate this major step, we look forward to continuing working closely with our partners, local communities, businesses, industry, and academia to deliver this ambitious and world-leading project that will play a major role in levelling up across the country”.

The East Coast Cluster will be vital for supporting low-carbon industry and power projects across the region. Once operational, the cluster has the potential to transport and securely store nearly 50% of all UK industrial cluster CO2 emissions – up to 27 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year by 2030.

The project aims to create and support an average of 25,000 jobs per year between 2023 and 2050, with approximately 41,000 jobs at the project’s peak in 2026.

Louise Kingham, Senior Vice President, Europe & Head of Country, UK at bp said: “The East Coast Cluster can play a critical role in the UK Government’s levelling up ambition, supporting thousands of jobs and investing in local communities. Teesside and the Humber were once the industrial heart of the UK.

“Today’s announcement paves the way for them to become the green heart of the country’s energy transition, shepherding in the next generation of industry and ways of working.”