By Fred Palmer, Senior Fellow CO2 Policy: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change and Head of Saving US Coal

Fred Palmer

January 6, 2021 - West Virginia Governor, Jim justice, appeared on CNBC in December expressing the view that a President Biden will not eliminate the use of coal in the United States because he can’t.  In the Governor’s words “to think that today this nation can do without coal and natural gas, would be blowing our legs off.”

Coal plants have closed, and more are scheduled to close between now and 2024. At the same time, potential large price increases and/or scarcity in US natural gas pricing due to reduced drilling, increased domestic and foreign demand and/or severe heat or coal, or both, says  the existing coal fleet needs to be preserved to meet electricity demand 24/7 for the well-being of us all. At today’s natural gas prices and with drilling using borrowed money a thing of the past, natural gas supply continues to decrease while exports increase. Are we not a frigid winter or hot summer away from double-digit natural gas prices and major reliability problems, like 15 years ago?

We use and rely on electric power every minute of every day and turning the country into California will lead to widespread impact in ways that are truly dangerous to human health and welfare. Keeping the coal plants running is the only way to ensure and protect the pro-people value of universal electrification; improving the efficiency and environmental footprint of the existing coal fleet is a path to ensure that coal plants remain running.

I have had the good fortune of being introduced to a new company with impressive, transformational technology. The company, Combustion & Emissions Technologies, LLC., (CET) has developed a catalyst, CETALYST, that when deployed provides a Heat Rate Improvement and CO2, NOX, SOX emissions-profile decrease, thus extending the useful life of our nation’s coal fleet.

The CET system will prolong the useful life of any coal plant:

• Negligible capital investment
  

• Pays dividends upon deployment making CO2 reduction profitable while using coal
  

• Increasing efficiency through Heat Rate Improvement 2-4% for bituminous coal
  

• Reducing the coal plant carbon footprint 2-4% in compliance with the new EPA ACE rule
  

• Also reducing coal plant emissions of NOX, SOX, and mercury
  

• Fly ash beneficiation, turns ash liability into an asset and allows rare earth metal recovery while eliminating ash disposal for an 8+ percent fuel cost savings
  

• Initial, Proof of Concept testing was conducted at the University of North Dakota Institute for Energy Studies  
  

• Validation testing was conducted at the UND Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC)
  

• CET is currently seeking several facilities to test their catalyst in the field and is offering a significant incentive to prospective partners.

This technology addresses the complex issues of emissions, viability, and reliability of our coal plants while enhancing electric reliability. On the imperative of electric reliability, it has to be the very first value for our electric system as recognized by the US Government.

It was the Obama Administration that put the electric reliability case this way in a study by DOE to Congress in January of 2017, one of the last acts of the Obama/Biden Administration.

“Electricity is essential for supporting and sustaining nearly every sector of the modern economy ranging from industrial output and services to national security… A secure reliable electric power sector is necessary for economic growth, public safety, societal well-being and proper functioning of critical infrastructure, national security defense, lifeline networks transportation communications, water, and sewer. Without access to reliable electricity much of the economy and all electricity-enabled critical infrastructure are at risk.  These include our national security and homeland defense network, which depend on electricity to carry out their missions to ensure the safety and prosperity of the American people.” (DOE Valuation of Energy Security for the United States - report to Congress, January 2017, p.97).

It is submitted here that President Biden will manage to these principles and coal will continue as an anchor source of electric supply in key parts of the country. To help him in maintaining available and reliable electric power, the efficiency and emissions profile of all coal plants needs to be improved where they can be. With CET technology ready to go, at a profit, deploying it widespread will help out the country, coal and President Biden have a successful next four years and into the future as well.

More specifics on the technology can be found at www.cetalyst.com. The tag line is Cleaner Coal-CETALYST(TM).

For inquiries, please submit to:

     Fredrick D Palmer, Esquire
     Director, Marketing
     800 S St Asaph #404
     Alexandria Va 22314