A contract of cleanliness.

The time has come for Interior's experimental Healy Clean Coal Project to show what it can do.

It has been a long, rocky road for the Healy Clean Coal Project.

The experimental, 50-megawatt electric plant was billed as a showcase for innovative technology that would reduce air pollution while burning the high-moisture, ultra-low sulfur coal mined at Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy to provide much-needed energy for the state's Interior.

The project is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Coal Technology Program, a joint government-industry partnership with more than $6.5 billion invested nationally in new technologies to increase electricity generating options while curbing the release of acid rain pollutants.

The program began in 1986 and uses cutting-edge technology designed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from existing boilers by 75 percent, and from new boilers by 90 percent. It is designed to remove 90 percent of sulfur dioxide and virtually all fly-ash particles before flue gases are released.

The 50-megawatt electric plant was built on Golden Valley Electric Association property in Healy, adjacent to GVEA's existing 25-megawatt facility.

The Blueprint

Ground-breaking for the $267 million facility, owned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, was in May 1995. According to the original blueprints, the plant was expected to finish its demonstration testing phase late in 1998 so GVEA could take over commercial operations in 1999. That hasn't happened.

Early tests were promising, says Dennis McCrohan, deputy director of project development and operation for AIDEA. The plant is living up to expectations regarding emissions reductions, but "we have had somewhat more problems on the combustors than we anticipated. In our view, certainly no unsolvable problems have turned up."

The plant uses a slagging combustor technology in which pulverized coal is injected into a combustion chamber developed by TRW Combustion Business Unit, where it is partially burned and the ash it contains is converted into molten slag, which is drained off the walls. This removes as much as 90 percent of the fly ash before the fuel reaches the main boiler. This process also minimizes the formation of nitrogen oxides, a major pollutant.

At the entrance to the boiler, limestone is injected into the combustion gases to react with and to help remove sulfur dioxide, another pollutant A spray dryer absorber, developed by Joy Technologies, removes more sulfur dioxide by injecting water and recycled limestone into the gases as they leave the boiler. The sulfur dioxide combines with the limestone spray to form calcium sulfate, which is caught by filters, along with the remaining fly ash.

The clean air technology is also designed to be added to older boilers, or in the conversion of oil-fired burners, to allow existing power plants to meet clean air standards without expensive retrofilling. The technology still has some bugs, McCrohan says, but nothing unforeseen.

"The problems with the combustors haven't kept us up at night," McCrohan adds. "It's the litigation that has kept us up at night."

One Unsatisfied Customer

Last spring, GVEA filed a complaint with the Alaska Public Utilities Commission, followed by a suit filed in Alaska Superior Court, claiming that the problems at the Healy plant could endanger Golden Valley workers and increase long-term operating costs.

GVEA's complaint also says the energy output from one ton of coal is less than 1990 studies indicated, therefore increasing operating costs; the coal handling system design is flawed; and needed maintenance has not been met and could result in voided warranties.

The complaints are still active, although proceedings are moving slowly, McCrohan says. "There's been filings, but there's been no court action," he says. "There is some dispute resolution currently ongoing, which is solving some, but not all the problems." He could not comment further on the litigation.

AIDEA has filed a motion to dismiss the APUC complaint, and GVEA has until April 30, 1999, to reply. "Until then, I suspect that nothing will happen," says Agnes Pitts, spokesperson for APUC.

The December Deadline

Under its lease agreement, AIDEA has until Dec. 31, 1999 to turn over a commercial power plant to GVEA, says Frank Abegg, vice president of Healy generation for Golden Valley. For that to happen, the Healy plant has to do three things:

1. Complete a 90-day commercial acceptance test

2. All of the major systems in the plant must meet design specifications; and

3. It must be determined that the plant is capable of a 30-year commercial life

"If they don't occur by the end of this year, then the contract expires between AIDEA and GVEA, and we no longer have a requirement to lease that plant," Abegg says. Abegg likens buying a power plant to buying a car. The most important thing, he says, is reliability. You want the car to start every day. Next, you want to make sure the car doesn't quit on you on the way to the grocery store. Third, you want the car to be able to go 55 miles per hour and be fuel efficient.

The same goes for a power plant. It should operate every day and operate at optimum efficiency. "And," he adds, "in our business, our customers expect the lights to go on and stay on."

At the end of the year, the lease for the land on which the clean coal plant is built expires and the coal contract with Usibelli Coal Mine also expires. What happens if the plant is not operational?

Future Unknown

Neither AIDEA's McCrohan nor Abegg could provide a definite answer, although retrofitting the combustors was one option mentioned, but both are hoping for the best possible outcome. "We want it to be a win-win situation," Abegg says.

McCrohan says AIDEA expects to begin the commercial tests in July. "If all went well and everything passed commercial tests, I suspect it would be turned over (to GVEA) in mid- to late-fall," McCrohan says. "We'd hoped that that would be the case."

The project is located about four miles from the borders of Denali National Park and Preserve, an ecologically sensitive location. However, experimental emissions technology was designed for HCCP and is currently being tested. An emissions controls retrofit was added to the original 32-year-old, 25-megawatt Unit #1 power plant in Healy and is meeting its reduced emissions limits.

And if all goes well, the clean coal plant would also be a major customer for Usibelli, Healy's biggest employer. The clean coal technology is designed to burn waste coal from Usibelli. This coal has a high ash content and wouldn't be suitable for other customers, says Becki Phipps, Usibelli spokesperson. Once it's operational, the plan is expected to use 350,000 tons of coal annually, accounting for four or five jobs to Usibelli rosters. Usibelli's current coal production sits at 1 million to 1.5 million tons annually, Phipps says.

If the technology pans out, it could open new markets for Alaska's abundant low-sulfur, low-energy coal. With its location near growing, energy starved Pacific Rim economies, Alaska is poised to fill the markets if clean coal technology spreads across the Pacific Ocean.

Closer to home, the project would have a more immediate effect. "A 54-megawatt plant is a substantial amount of energy, using a local resource: coal," Abegg says. "We would have a new source of energy. A clean source of energy for 80,000 people in Interior Alaska."

The project should provide an economic alternative to oil-fired and gas-fired long-term power supplies, if all goes well. "I see a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a long tunnel," Abegg says.