Real cost of green

Opinion

Widely-documented studies performed during the early 1990s for the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas R&D Division showed that the knock-on effect of the capital and operating cost for CO2 capture alone would double the price of the generated elec

In describing the attempts to make fossil fuel technology greener (

Interview

,12 March) mention of the falling off in the efficiency of pure combustion of pulverised fuel (PF) being reduced by a further 10 per cent using CO

2

scrubbing does not take into account the knock-on effect on capital and operating expenditure.



Widely-documented studies performed during the early 1990s for the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas R&D Division showed that the knock-on effect of the capital and operating cost for CO

2

capture alone would double the price of the generated electricity — an important point that has been kept under wraps by successive governments.



Furthermore, contrary to the statement with reference to amine scrubbing 'which are really designed for removing pollutants, rather than specifically to remove CO

2

', the amine or Girbitol process was specifically designed, developed and used in many thousands of process and gas treatment plants to remove CO

2

and H

2

S from gaseous streams.



Its application to capture CO

2

from low-pressure flue gas streams, with their associated NOx and SOx, was developed originally by Dow which subsequently sold the technology to Fluor.



Using a photograph of cooling towers with their plumes of steam to illustrate the article only serves to contribute to the popular public myth that CO

2

comes from such towers.



Colin Leci

Edgware, Middx