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- In one corner are coal plants that can generate low-cost power using abundant reserves of coal, but if emissions are uncontrolled, major health and environmental impacts can occur.
- In another corner are relatively low emissions natural gas power plants, but the cost to the consumer is unpredictable and often high.
- Yet another option lies with building nuclear plants that produce emissions-free power, but initial costs are very high and some public unease exists with respect to safety.
Similar in nature to the fundamentals behind the hybrid automobile, Hybrid-nuclear Energy is a unique 21st century technology that provides an environmentally sound and economical solution to our energy and greenhouse gas dilemmas.
Overview of Hybrid-nuclear Technology
This developing energy conversion process uses nuclear and fossil fuels to safely produce reasonably priced electrical power and transportation fuels using our own indigenous energy resources with the timely benefit of dramatically reduced emissions, particularly CO2.
Hybrid-nuclear Energy secures energy independence by using cleaner coal, effectively solves the nuclear and coal waste problems, and helps create more affordable nuclear power.
These surprising results are achieved by a distinctive marriage of helium gas reactor, combustion turbine and coal gasification technologies.
TECHNOLOGY This unique patent-pending technology takes advantage of the observation that about half the power produced by a combustion turbine is used to compress air. By using low-cost nuclear fuel and an efficient gas reactor nuclear system to drive a combustion turbine's air compressor (instead of a generator) operational costs and emissions are greatly reduced, and electrical output is dramatically increased.
Hybrid-nuclear Power Plant designed for Operation with Coal Gas
The ability to safely, cleanly and efficiently compress massive quantities of air is the key to understanding the remarkable potential of this totally unexpected solution to our emerging energy and climate calamities.
This distinctive design completely overcomes the historical limitations of the closed-cycle gas turbine first developed in the 1940's as well as the commercial shortcomings of the gas reactor. These achievements are the direct result of the substantial increase in power output and the concurrent reasonable capital cost of hybrid-nuclear facilities.
Applying the hybrid-nuclear design to coal gasification allows for emissions-free compression of the air used extensively by both the combustion turbine and gasification process while simultaneously increasing the overall efficiency of the baseline plant. Further, the gasification and power blocks are about half the size of equivalent conventional plants, thus construction costs are considerably reduced.
The hybrid technology is based on the high-temperature gas reactors first deployed in the 1960's and 70's. The US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the technology while China, Japan and South Africa are deploying prototype gas reactors.
ENVIRONMENT The unique characteristics of the hybrid yield environmentally friendly power plants that inherently produce significantly lower impacts than equivalent conventional natural gas, coal or gasification plants.
Hybrid-nuclear plants are exceptionally friendly to the environment with minimal emissions, solid wastes, water use and spent nuclear fuel.
Air Emissions1. The hybrid uses nuclear energy to reduce air discharges by a factor of nearly two. This approach is effective, particularly given the relative absence of proven underground formations to permanently store massive quantities of CO2.
Yearly Emissions - millions of tons (Primarily CO2)
Greenhouse gas emissions cut nearly in half; major climate change solution.
However, the CO2 sequestration methods envisioned for gasification and coal plants could also be employed by a hybrid-nuclear plant but at a much lower cost, because only about half as much equipment is required. The quantity of CO2 involved with sequestration is also significantly less.
Coal Wastes. Coal plant wastes are becoming an increasingly difficult environmental problem due to the presence of toxic contaminates, such as heavy metals, and pending regulations governing disposal of the waste. However, ash discharged from a hybrid-nuclear/coal gas plant is an environmentally benign, non-leaching glass-like slag that has many commercial uses (such as aggregate in cement). Also, gasification and the reactor greatly reduce coal combustion wastes and eliminate sludge and retention ponds.
Geosphere releases reduced by nearly 90%; ash sludge ponds eliminated.
Nuclear Waste. The hybrid-nuclear reactor is small by conventional standards and efficient, with the plant partly fueled by natural or coal gas. Thus, only a few tons of radioactive spent fuel are produced each year by a typical plant. Long-lived radioactive wastes are also minimal owing to high fuel utilization.
Spent reactor fuel reduced by over 80%; nuclear waste dilemma effectively solved.
Water Resources. Cooling needs by a hybrid-nuclear plant are a fraction of those of similarly sized coal or conventional nuclear power plants. The use of dry cooling tower technology (air cooled condenser) would reduce water consumption to nearly zero.
Water usage reduced by nearly 70%; pressure on dwindling resource dramatically eased.
Climate Change. In 2006, US CO2 emissions were about 5.8 trillion metric tons, as shown below.
Power sector emissions from coal plants accounted for 1.9 trillion tons, or about 33% of the US total. There are more than 500 utility coal power plants. The phase-out of older, inefficient coal plants (average age of US fleet is more than 30 years) with hybrid-nuclear coal units would significantly reduce CO2 emissions and pollutants such as mercury, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxide and fine particulates3.
Replacement of all coal plants with hybrid-nuclear/coal units could reduce total US greenhouse gas emissions by ~17% (to ~4.8 trillion tons or about 1990 levels). Concurrently upgrading older combined-cycle units to hybrid-nuclear plants could further decrease US CO2 emissions, achieving a nearly net 20% reduction. Realistically, however, large reductions in the transportation sector are vital if CO2 reduction targets are to be met.
SAFETY Hybrid-nuclear plants are several orders of magnitude safer than conventional nuclear facilities because of the inherent fail-safe heat removal features of the hybrid's small reactor (the reactor can not melt) and defense-in-depth plant design4. However, one should note that conventional nuclear plants are exceptionally safe, but high levels of vigilance and associated costs are required to achieve and maintain such a state.
Unprecedented level of nuclear safety achieved, public confidence dramatically increased.
The reactor's silicon carbide fuel is extremely rugged and is significantly different from conventional metal-clad ceramic uranium oxide. Extracting weapons-grade material is exceptionally difficult and no effective process exists to readily remove the fissile material (source for nuclear bombs) from the fuel.
Gas Reactor Fuel - Courtesy General Atomics
ECONOMICS In a market-driven economy, the cost to produce power is only half of the picture. The investment must also be profitable. Today's semi-regulated electrical market is volatile, with large seasonal power price swings - for that matter, large fluctuations exist between early morning and afternoon. Include unpredictable fuel prices, such as natural gas, and power plant economics become exceptionally challenging for consumers and investors alike.
Monthly Fuel Cost to US Utilities
The hybrid-nuclear financial approach minimizes the large risks of the uncertain power market by combining stable low-cost coal and nuclear fuels with reasonably priced power plants5.
Approximate Economics of New Power Plants - various industry sources
Building new power plants invariably increases the cost of electricity for the consumer. The impact is dependent on a number of factors (e.g. size of utility, fuel mix, etc.) and is difficult to predict. However, a rough forecast has been developed for the plants of this article using publically available rate case information.
Hybrid-nuclear plants are financially attractive.
Pending greenhouse gas legislation will inevitably significantly increase the cost of electricity. An approximation has been developed using analyses developed for the paper. The hybrid-nuclear technology is not so severely impacted and thus possesses a major competitive advantage.
New Power Plant: Approximate Impact on Average Consumer's Electric Bill -- Medium Sized Midwest Utility
Estimated Impact of Carbon Emissions Penalty on Price of Power
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Hybrid-nuclear plants are ideally suited for joint operations with alternative energy resources because of the hybrid's unique ability to operate at high efficiency in all load ranges. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power is easily accommodated.
The sustained high efficiency of the hybrid-nuclear technology derives from the helium gas turbine cycle driving the air compressor at whatever speed is required for electrical power production. This same feature causes the hybrid to be ideally suited for dealing with the electrical grid's large power swings. Normally, a combustion turbine's air flow must be inefficiently choked back to reduce power output because the air compressor is attached to a constant speed generator.
ENERGY STORAGE The hybrid-nuclear technology relies on the large-scale compression of air. This feature opens up the intriguing ability to cleanly and efficiently store compressed air at night when grid electrical demands are low and then pipe the air to a turbine to meet power peaking demands during the day. A few such facilities already exist.
READINESS While hybrid-nuclear energy is based on a unique combination of proven technologies, modest adaptations are necessary to existing helium reactor and turbine designs. Realistically, a five-plus-year development time horizon is likely. However, given the right circumstances, acceleration could occur because no "leading edge" technical issues are present.
ENERGY IMPORTS A review of US energy expenditures reveals a deeply troubling trend. Our increasing dependence on foreign oil (and foreign energy) is moving hundreds of billions of dollars of our wealth out of the country every year and seriously impacting the economy. Additionally, hundreds of billions of dollars are needed by the military to maintain access to this vital commodity. The country cannot economically sustain such massive expenditure levels. Once again, hybrid-nuclear energy offers a viable solution. The gasification of coal can also produce liquid fuels, as done currently in South Africa and extensively in Germany during World War II. The process produces higher air emissions than simply refining liquid fuel from petroleum. However, because hybrid-nuclear energy inherently reduces CO2 emissions by a factor of roughly two, the coal-to-liquid process becomes a highly feasible means to significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
The international security implications of the hybrid-nuclear technologies are immense; reliance on unreliable and politically unstable fuel sources is avoided.
LONGER RANGE Hybrid-nuclear energy readily supports a hydrogen economy, but in an unconventional fashion. In addition to compressed air, the reactor block can provide high-temperature steam to an electrolysis block that produces hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen and compressed air are used in the coal gasification block to produce synthetic gas used by the combined-cycle block that in turn produces steam and electrical power.
Such an integrated process could supply hydrogen for several hundred thousand fuel cell vehicles and enough power for a city. Further, the coal-to-liquids block could supply gasoline, diesel and jet fuel using existing refinery technologies, with emissions significantly less than current methods.
Yet another advantage of the integrated facility is the ability to supply process steam (heat) to chemical plants and oil production facilities using well proven combined-cycle technology.
Hybrid-nuclear energy allows the continued use our most abundant fuel, coal, and does so cleanly and at a reasonable cost. The hybrid-nuclear technology is currently being pursued with the Department of Defense (coal-to-liquids program) and Department of Energy by a team of leading major US firms; including an engineering, procurement and construction company, gas reactor designer and coal gasification designer and supplier.
Long-term Energy Solution: Power and Transportation Fuels
SUMMARY The integrated Hybrid-nuclear Energy technology is a major breakthrough that dramatically eases the energy crisis by allowing the continued use of coal, our most abundant fuel resource. Further, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to levels that no longer threaten the planet.
Hybrid-nuclear plants offer a safe, practical and cost effective means to provide energy not only for today but for future generations while simultaneously erasing dependency on erratically priced energy from politically unstable, hostile foreign counties.
The hybrid-nuclear vision for the future does not require the investment of hundreds of billions of dollars in new power transmission infrastructure, nor are vast tracts of land required. The current electrical grid is quite suitable, with hybrid-nuclear energy plants located near load centers.
Because of the unique integration of proven energy production methods, hybrid-nuclear plants can be developed and deployed in a relatively rapid fashion.
A SOUND ENERGY FUTURE: Extensive conservation of energy; prudent use of fossil fuels; cost-effective alternative energy; conventional nuclear power and Hybrid-nuclear providing electrical energy and transportation fuels.
This strategy would allow us to shape our own energy and economic destinies while providing future generations with the legacy of an environment significantly cleaner than today's. Further, targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions could be readily met without devastating the economy.
In the final analysis, we need to develop economically viable and realistic remedies to the growing energy and climate crises. Hybrid-nuclear Energy is an unexpected solution.
1. Power plant emissions, water use, thermal performance and waste discharges derived from "Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants", US Department of Energy, DOE/NETL-2007/1282, May, 2007.
2. US Energy Information Agency
3. International Turbomachinery, The Global Journal of Energy Equipment - Handbook 2009", Business Journals Inc.
4. Gas reactor safety and fuel proliferation characteristics, "Draft Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement", US Department of Energy, DOE/EIS-0396, October 2008.
5. Economic (capital costs, fixed and variable costs) data from various industry sources (including "Gas Turbine World", Pequot Publishing), with financial Pro Forma analysis prepared by author based on: capital construction cost plus owners indirect costs (25% for fossil, 30% for nuclear) less owner's invested equity (30%). Includes cost for short term borrowing during construction period. Long term interest expense on borrowed capital 8% for 15 years.
