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You Are Here: Home › Environmental Performance › Greenhouse Gases › Strategic Approach to Climate Change

Strategic approach to climate change

• Increasing Internal Efficiencies
• Diversifying Fuel Mix
• Promoting Sustainable Technologies for Coal
• Acquiring Offsets
• Contributing to Climate Change Policy
• Reporting and Tracking Emissions

Promoting Sustainable Technologies for Coal

We take the view that coal will continue as an important fuel source for many years, and, therefore, have invested considerable time and dollars in exploring new technologies that will use coal in an environmentally sustainable manner.

TransAlta is a founding member of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, an association of Canadian utilities and coal producers, the U.S. Electric Power Research Institute and the International Energy Agency Clean Coal Centre. The Coalition seeks to demonstrate clean coal-based electricity generation and believes this can be achieved through coal gasification, which turns coal into natural gas and captures by-products that otherwise would be released as pollutants.

Since 2001, engineering and feasibility studies have been under way for the construction of a clean coal demonstration plant in Western Canada by 2012. In 2004, the Coalition evaluated technology options for the plant, and will select a gasification technology in early 2005. As a next step, the group plans to complete a detailed business case in late 2005 to determine the appropriate site, fuel choices and end products for the plant.

We continue to evaluate opportunities to store and use CO2, a by-product of coal combustion. In the future, coal power plants could feasibly pipe CO2 for injection in oilfields for enhanced oil recovery. With the growing number of maturing oilfields in Alberta, pumping and storing CO2 underground offers potential opportunities to create added economic value while providing an innovative solution to GHG emissions.

TransAlta is a funding partner, along with industry and government, of the Weyburn CO2 Monitoring Project, an international research project studying the effectiveness of storing CO2 in underground geological structures. The four-year, $40-million research project is being carried out near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, using EnCana’s CO2 enhanced oil recovery project as a field laboratory. We are monitoring this project to better understand the science and business opportunities of CO2 capture and storage.
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Why Coal Gasification

Coal gasification

Coal gasification is the conversion of coal into a gaseous product which has useable levels of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. To do the conversion, coal is combined with oxygen and water under extreme conditions of pressure (1000 psig or more) and temperature (2600 degrees Fahrenheit). The resulting chemical reaction produces carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can then be used as a fuel for electricity generation or in various chemical processes. The benefit for electricity generators is that this process produces less CO2 emissions than if coal is used directly as a fuel. It also provides more efficient and economic capture of CO2.

This gasification process involves three conversion steps (coal to gas, gas to heat, heat to electricity), instead of two for conventional coal generation (coal to heat, heat to electricity). As a result, coal gasification has historically been regarded as a more expensive generation alternative.

But the business case for coal gasification is rapidly improving. Natural gas prices are up substantially from historical levels, as supplies dwindle and demand for natural gas continues to climb. This makes the economics of coal gasification more attractive. And as greater demands and costs are put on electrical generators to reduce CO2 emissions, coal gasification increasingly makes sense as part of a long-term strategic approach to reducing GHG emissions.