September 8th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

There may be a few billion reasons to worry about the environmental impact caused by rapid development in China and India, but one Chinese company has taken a green step serious enough to earn it a first-of-its-kind award from our own U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA’s Combined Heat And Power Partnership has been handing out awards to American companies since 1999, encouraging industries that use various technologies to produce both heat and electricity from a single fuel source. But it has never given one to a foreign company until now. U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Bohigian presented Shandong Jinneng Coal Gasification Company the first international award in recognition for the company’s new methods of handling coke gas.

Using devices made by Caterpillar subsidiary Solar Turbines (the company was named for its sunny San Diego birthplace, not for any connection to solar-generated electricity), the Shandong Jinneng is using waste gas to make electricity; according to the EPA, the system “reduces CO2 emissions by 40,000 tons per year, the equivalent of removing annual emissions from approximately 6,600 automobiles.”

Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan explains that “historically this waste gas was either emitted directly into the atmosphere, flared, or burned in a boiler,” with only the latter option providing any useful energy. While conventional oven gas burning uses a steam turbine and is only 20% efficient, he says, Solar has built turbines specifically for this application that boast nearly 70% efficiency.

According to Dugan, “it is estimated that about 30 billion cubic meters of COG [coke oven gas] was not recovered in all of China last year. While not all of the estimated 30 billion cubic meters of recoverable COG in China can be utilized in gas turbine CHP applications, there is potentially a sizeable opportunity.” He declined to comment on sales figures in the region, but according to a statement by Caterpillar V.P. Steve Gosselin, “a growing number of coke oven gas operators in China are turning to our turbines.”

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