Alternative Energy Cogeneration Plant Bustles North of Bakersfield, Calif.

By Erin Waldner, The Bakersfield Californian -- April 3

An industrial kitchen of sorts is busy at work just north of Bakersfield.

At the Mt. Poso Cogeneration Plant, coal, tire chips and petroleum coke are blended to produce electricity and steam.

Not many locals know it exists.

Donald Waln, vice president of Millennium Energy LLC, which provides asset management and technical support services for Mt. Poso, recalled the time someone visited the plant for the first time. When Waln later ran into him in town, the person commented, "That's quite a place you've got out there."

As a cogenerator, Mt. Poso uses one fuel source -- the petroleum coke, coal and tire chips are blended into one product -- to produce two forms of energy.

Built in 1989, the plant generates 53 megawatts of electricity per year for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. One megawatt will power 1,000 homes. The steam it makes is pumped into the nearby Mt. Poso oil field to help recover thick, heavy crude.

Plant manager Bill Dickson said he believes the plant provides a viable service for California and the environment. The Integrated Waste Management Board estimates the plant saves 1 million tires a year from being dumped into Southern California landfills.

Mt. Poso began burning tire chips last year, "with no increase in our emissions," Dickson said.

Tom Goff, permit service manager for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, said that is accurate.

Mt. Poso is one of three coal-fired cogens, or cogenerators, in the area. Mt. Poso was the first.

The coal Mt. Poso uses is brought in from Utah by train.

Dickson said many people picture heavy plumes of smoke exiting into the atmosphere when they think of coal-fired plants.

He and Waln stressed that's not the case at Mt. Poso.

They said the plant's original owners spent more money and time building a plant that uses clean coal technology. A modern combuster burns the coal and coke with fewer emissions than a conventional boiler would.

The white cloud visible at the top of the plant is not smoke.

"It's just vaporized steam," Waln said.

Ammonia, limestone and a fabric filter are also used at Mt. Poso to keep emissions down.

Goff said Mt. Poso generates more pollution than a natural gas power plant of comparable size, but that based on the magnitude of its emissions, Mt. Poso is not among the worst polluters in the valley.

"It's state-of-the-art for a coal-fired plant for the time it was built," Goff said, adding that older coal plants don't have the kind of emissions control technology that Mt. Poso has.

The petroleum coke Mt. Poso consumes comes from the Shell Bakersfield Refinery on Rosedale Highway. The refinery is scheduled to close its doors on Oct. 1.

Waln said Mt. Poso will have to look elsewhere for petroleum coke and that it may end up being too costly to continue using it.

The tire chips Mt. Poso uses come from a Los Angeles company that processes used tires.

Once at Mt. Poso, wires in the chips are removed and sold for scrap iron.

Residual ashe is sold for different uses, including as a soil amendment.

Twenty-four employees operate Mt. Poso.

Two of them had their feet up in the plant's control room one recent afternoon while they studied computer data.

"That's good," Waln said, adding that it meant everything was running as it should be.

 

SUMMARY OF COGENERATION

In California, cogeneration, the technology that produces two forms of energy from one fuel source, is about 25 years old.

"Maybe it's lost some of its sex appeal," said Bill George, general manager of Cogen Works, an industry association.

Even so, he said, a cogeneration's still needed in California.

"They still generate electricity for the state grid. As you just saw, we're barely meeting our (electricity) needs," George said, referring to Monday's Stage 1 alert that electricity reserves were running low.

Cogeneration satisfies 12 percent of the state's total electricity demand.

Specifically, cogeneration is an energy-producing process involving the simultaneous production of thermal and electrical energy from a single heat store.

Mt. Poso, for example, is a cogen just north of Bakersfield that produces electricity, which it sells to Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and steam for a nearby oil field. The plant was built in 1989.

Kern County is home to about 35 large-scale cogen plants, many of which are in the oil patch.

These days, most of the new cogens being built in California are small. You'll find them at places where there are large air conditioning or heating needs, said Rob Schlichting, a California Energy Commission spokesman. Hospitals, colleges, public buildings sometimes use cogens.

The Frito Lay plant on Highway 58 has one.

George said cogeneration is also good for the environment because it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

"I think you'll see a continued move toward cogeneration. It's just got enormous benefits," George said.

Cogen Works is a new coalition of California cogenerators. It has about 30 members. Their goal, George said, is to educate policy makers and regulators about the benefits of cogeneration.

 

--By Erin Waldner

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