The Kemper Project, also called the Kemper County energy facility or Plant Ratcliffe, is a natural gas-fired electrical generating station currently under construction in
Kemper County, Mississippi
Kemper County is a county located on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,456. Its county seat is De Kalb. The county is named in honor of Reuben Kemper.
The county is pa ...
.
Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of
Southern Company
Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is the second largest ...
, began construction of the plant in 2010. The initial, coal-fired project was central to President Obama's Climate Plan, as it was to be based on "
clean coal"
[Ian Urbina]
Piles of dirty secrets behind model "clean coal" project
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', July 5, 2016. and was being considered for more support from the Congress and the incoming
Trump Administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...
in late 2016. If it had become operational with coal, the Kemper Project would have been a first-of-its-kind electricity plant to employ gasification and
carbon capture Carbon capture may refer to:
* Carbon capture and utilization, where the captured carbon dioxide is used
* Carbon sequestration, where the captured carbon dioxide is stored
** Carbon capture and storage, referring to carbon sequestration from point ...
technologies at this scale.
Project management problems had been noted at the Kemper Project.
[ The plant was supposed to be in service by May 2014, at a cost of $2.4 billion. As of June 2017, the project was still not in service, and the cost had increased to $7.5 billion. According to a Sierra Club analysis, Kemper is the most expensive power plant ever built, based on its generating capacity.] In June 2017, Southern Company and Mississippi Power announced that the Kemper project would switch to burning only natural gas in an effort to manage costs.
Background
Kemper County is a small county in eastern Mississippi, roughly 30 miles north of Meridian. Kemper County was chosen as the site for the plant to take advantage of local brown coal ( lignite), an untapped natural resource, while providing geographic diversity to help balance the electric demand and strengthen electric reliability in Mississippi. Mississippi Power is a large energy company based in Gulfport, providing energy for Gulfport, Biloxi
Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...
, Hattiesburg
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the populat ...
, Meridian, Pascagoula
The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an indigenous group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River.
The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Mobilian Jargon term meaning "bread people". Choctaw ...
, Columbia, Laurel
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (mus ...
, Waveland, Lucedale and Picayune.
Mississippi Power intended the Kemper Project to produce cleaner energy through the use of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and carbon capture Carbon capture may refer to:
* Carbon capture and utilization, where the captured carbon dioxide is used
* Carbon sequestration, where the captured carbon dioxide is stored
** Carbon capture and storage, referring to carbon sequestration from point ...
technologies, eliminating the majority of emissions normally emitted by a traditional coal plant
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
.["Environmental Benefits"]
mississippipower.com. A study conducted by Southern Company (parent of Mississippi Power) stated that the Kemper Project would have been "a large undertaking with high visibility and ... help set the stage for future coal-based power generation."["CO2 Capture at the Kemper County IGCC Project"](_blank)
''netl.doe.gov''/TRIG/Southern Co., September 16, 2010.
On June 3, 2010, the Mississippi Public Service Commission
The Mississippi Public Service Commission regulates telecommunications, electric, gas, water and sewer utilities in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Commission is an elected body of three commissioners, with one commissioner elected by voters in ...
certified the project and the ground-breaking ceremony took place. Governor Haley Barbour
Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as chairman of the Republican ...
was present.
Timeline
* 2008: Conceptual design initiated
* 2010: Mississippi Public Service Commission
The Mississippi Public Service Commission regulates telecommunications, electric, gas, water and sewer utilities in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Commission is an elected body of three commissioners, with one commissioner elected by voters in ...
approves project
* 2010: Construction begins
* 2011: Building foundation begins
* 2012: Above ground construction started
* 2013
:* August: Connection of the site's 230 kilovolt
The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827).
Defi ...
transmission lines
In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...
:* September: First firing of the plant's combustion turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
(CTs) achieved
:* October: Combined cycle unit originally synchronized to the grid
:* December: Final transmission line that will carry electricity was energized
* 2014
:* July: Pneumatic tests on gasifiers used to convert lignite to synthetic gas successfully tested
:* July: Combined cycle unit responsible for generating electricity successfully tested
:* August: Combined cycle unit in commercial operation and available to serve customers. Mississippi Power identified this milestone as the most significant to date.
:* October: Delays postpone in-service date to first half of 2016, and increase estimated cost to $6.1 billion.
:* December: 48 "steam blows" successfully completed. Steam blow is the process of blowing steam through pipes to ensure that they are clean, tight, and leak free.
* 2015
:* March: First fire of gasifiers successfully completed. The gasifiers, the centerpiece of the project, are designed to convert lignite coal to synthetic gas, or syngas, for use in power generation.
:* May: The South Mississippi Electric Power Association decided not to purchase a 15 percent interest in the Kemper Project.
:* September: Mississippi Power adjusted scheduled completion to a date after April 19, 2016. Because of this delay, the company will be required to pay back $234 million in investment tax credits to the Internal Revenue Service.
* 2016
:* March: Southern Co. reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
that the cost of the Kemper Project had increased due to "repairs and modifications". The updated cost of the project was $6.6 billion.
:* July: First of two gasifiers produces syngas.
:* September: Second of two gasifiers produces syngas.
:* October: Plant produces electricity using syngas in first of two gasifiers.
* 2017
:* March: Southern Co. discovered leaks that will cause it to miss scheduled mid-March completion of the project.
:* June: Kemper power plant suspends coal gasification.
* 2021, October: the gasification structure was demolished
Lignite
Lignite is a soft, brownish-black coal that has the lowest energy content of any type of coal. It is also very dirty when burned.
According to the Lignite Energy Council about 79 percent of lignite coal is used to generate electricity, 13.5 percent to generate synthetic natural gas
Substitute natural gas (SNG), or synthetic natural gas, is a fuel gas (predominantly methane, CH4) that can be produced from fossil fuels such as lignite coal, oil shale, or from biofuels (when it is named bio-SNG) or using electricity with power- ...
, and 7.5 percent to produce fertilizer products. Mississippi has an estimated five billion tons of coal reserves, consisting almost entirely of eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...
lignite. The typical lignite beds that can be economically mined range from two to nine feet thick. Mississippi's lignite resources equal about 13 percent of total U.S. lignite reserves.
The Kemper plant was expected to use about 375,000 tons of locally mined lignite per month or almost 185 million tons over the plant's expected 40-year life. TRIG technology can utilize lignite, which is also a driving factor of the technology.
Technology
Mississippi Power's Kemper plant was intended to be an integrated gasification combined cycle
integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is a technology using a high pressure gasifier to turn coal and other carbon based fuels into pressurized gas—synthesis gas (syngas). It can then remove impurities from the syngas prior to the electr ...
(IGCC) facility, utilizing a technology known as "transport integrated gasification" (TRIG) to convert lignite coal—mined on the Kemper site—into syngas. The natural gas would then have been used to power turbines to generate electricity.
Mississippi Power stated that, by adding coal to its sources of power, it wished to add balance to its fuel-source choices, and be less reliant on any one form of energy. There is an estimated four billion tons of lignite available to be used.
If successful, the Kemper Project would have been the second TRIG facility in the United States. Producing electricity from coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
in this way produces tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide, and Mississippi Power hoped that 65 percent of the carbon dioxide would be captured and utilized in Enhanced Oil Recovery at neighboring oil fields
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
.
Transport integrated gasification technology
TRIG was developed by the Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-re ...
, Southern Company and KBR at the Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville, Alabama.
Southern Company
Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is the second largest ...
stated that TRIG is a superior coal-gasification method with low impacts to the environment. TRIG technology can utilize lignite, which accounts for more than half of the world's coal reserves and drove global interest in the plant.[
]
''Power Magazine'' posted an article in April 2013, walking through the technology in technical detail. They say, "Commercial TRIG units can be designed to achieve high environmental standards for , NOx, dust emissions, mercury, and . Cost analysis based on extensive design has shown that the economic benefits offered by the air-blown transport gasifier relative to other systems are preserved even when capture and sequestration are incorporated into the design."
Clean coal
If the carbon, capture and sequestration technology used at the Kemper Project had been successful, it would have been the United States’ first clean coal plant.[ The need for this type of technology has come from decades of debate among energy leaders on how to minimize carbon dioxide emissions into the earth's atmosphere. In 2013, the United States' coal use was 40%, dominating all other energy sources. Realizing the demand for coal was not decreasing, Mississippi Power, Southern Company, KBR, and the Department of Energy invested in technology to capture emissions from burning fossil fuels. The investing bodies argued the type of clean coal technology they claim are found at the Kemper Project will be adopted worldwide; bringing profits back to Mississippi customers.
Environmentalists state that clean coal is not a possibility, as some emissions will still be emitted into the atmosphere.
]
Carbon capture and sequestration
Carbon capture and sequestration, also referred to as carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
(CCS), is a technology that can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide () emissions. CCS uses a combination of technologies to capture the released in the combustion process, transport it to a suitable storage location and finally store it (typically deep underground) where it cannot enter the atmosphere and thus contribute to climate change. sequestration options include saline formations and oil wells, where captured can be utilized in enhanced oil recovery.
Due to rising global demand for energy, the consumption of fossil fuels is expected to rise until 2035, leading to greater emissions.
Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery
Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery or CO2-EOR increases the amount of oil recovered from an underground oil reservoir
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
. By pumping into an oil reservoir, previously unrecoverable oil is pushed up to where the oil can be reached. The US Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...
states that this can produce an additional 30 to 60 percent of the original amount of recoverable oil. Once all of the recoverable oil has been reached, the depleted reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
can act as a storage site for the .
The Kemper Plant was planned to have 60 miles of pipeline to carry its captured to neighboring oil reserves for enhanced oil recovery. Each year, the plant will capture 3 million tons of . In March 2014, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' published that the diverted will be pumped into two Mississippi companies for use in enhanced oil recovery.
Research and development
The Department of Energy, the Southern Company, and construction management firm KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root) joined together at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, Alabama
Wilsonville is a town in southeastern Shelby County, Alabama, United States, located northeast of Columbiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 1,857. Wilsonville is named after the earliest settler in the area, Elisha Wilson.
The town was ...
to develop a process known as Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG). This development started in 1996, and the gasifier design of Southern Company's Kemper Coal Plant is based on this specific research and development. The technology is most cost-effective when using low-heat content, high moisture, or high-ash content coals, including lignite.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, coal gasification offers one of the most versatile and clean ways to convert coal into electricity, hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...
, and other valuable energy products. Rather than burning coal directly, gasification (a thermo-chemical process) breaks down coal into its basic chemical constituents.
The technology of processing coal to gas on a commercial scale has been in development since the 1970s, and it has been in use since the mid-1980s.
The TRIG technology, derived from fluidized catalytic
Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...
cracking units used in the petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable so ...
industry, uses a pressurized, circulating fluidized bed unit. The transport gasification system features higher efficiencies and is capable of processing low-rank coals, such as lignite. Additionally, commercial TRIG units can be designed to achieve high environmental standards for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide
Nitrogen dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is one of several nitrogen oxides. is an intermediate in the industrial synthesis of nitric acid, millions of tons of which are produced each year for use primarily in the productio ...
, dust emissions, mercury, and carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
. Cost analysis based on the Kemper Coal Plant's design has shown that the economic benefits offered by the air-blown transport gasifier, relative to other systems, are preserved even when carbon dioxide capture and sequestration methodologies are incorporated into the design.
The largest transport gasifier built to date commenced operation in 1996 at Southern Company
Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is the second largest ...
's PSDF. The gasifier and auxiliary equipment at the site were sized to provide reliable data for confident scale-up to commercial scale. The demonstration unit proved easy to operate and control, achieving more than 15,600 hours of gasification. The demonstration-scale gasifier successfully gasified high-moisture lignite from the Red Hills Mine in Mississippi in four separate test campaigns for more than 2,300 hours of operations. On lignite, the transport gasifier operated smoothly over a range of conditions, confirming the gasifier design for Kemper County.
Legal issues
In February 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and App ...
ruled Mississippi Power must refund 186,000 South Mississippi ratepayers for rate increases related to the Kemper Project. These fees are derived from Mississippi's Baseload Act, allowing Mississippi Power to charge ratepayers for powerplants under construction.
In May 2016, Southern Company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power announced they were being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to overruns at the Kemper Project. The project had been repeatedly delayed and costs increased from $2.88 billion to $6.7 billion.
In June 2016, Mississippi Power was sued by Treetop Midstream Services over the cancellation of a contract to receive carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
from the Kemper Project as part of the carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
design. Treetop had contracted to buy carbon dioxide from the Kemper plant and had built a pipeline in preparation to receive the gas. Treetop alleged Mississippi Power had fraudulently and "intentionally misrepresenting and concealing the start date" for the Kemper Project, though Mississippi Power stated the suit was without merit.
The company was also found to have unlawfully fired a whistle-blower who had criticized alleged false statements by company management.
Environmental controversies
Environmental groups argue that the project is an expensive undertaking that offers only limited benefits. In 2011, the Sierra Club and Bridge the Gulf organizations spearheaded the effort to lobby the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
to deny the required wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...
permits, which Mississippi Company would have to fill to build the plant's facilities.
The Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club is arguing that the location where the facilities are planned to be built needs to be left alone. They argue that the position of the facilities on a wetland will pollute the environment with tainted water runoff. Also, they believe that the extraction of the lignite will erode the environment and force the relocation of many Mississippians. Mitigation construction activities included the enhancement of 31 acres of wetlands, 105 acres of riparian buffer, and approximately 3,000 linear feet of stream channel. In an agreement with the city of Meridian, the plant is using city wastewater as its only water source. Additionally, the Kemper Project site is a "zero" liquid discharge facility. Therefore, no processed water from the plant is discharged into rivers, creeks or streams.
Political controversies
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as chairman of the Republican ...
has praised the planned project's potential of placing Mississippi in national prominence, mostly because it would be the first U.S. commercial-scale power plant to capture carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...
. Additionally, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich expressed his support for the Kemper Project, stating that in his opinion it had the potential to be the single most important experiment in developing electricity in the world today. Gingrich's closing words of encouragement for the Kemper Project and the state of Mississippi: "You have a chance to be a remarkable leader in the country in the next 10 to 20 years."
The Kemper Project received an estimated $270 million in Department of Energy funds after the Southern Company's plan for the proposed Orlando Gasification Project bunked when Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
decided the state was not interested in more coal plant
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
s. These transferred funds were moved from Florida to Mississippi in December 2008, after Haley Barbour's Washington D.C.
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
lobbying firm, the BGR Group, pushed for the reallocation. Southern Company has been a BGR client since 1999, having spent a total of $2.6 million with the firm, according to federal lobbying disclosure documents. Southern Company alleges that Governor Barbour did not help them receive any additional funding at all. The BGR Group website has deleted all connections with Southern Company from its website.
Mississippi state law was changed to permit charging ratepayers for construction of the facility. In 2017 the Mississippi Public Service Commission recommended the facility burn natural gas rather than syngas from coal to avoid the risk of further consumer rate increases.
The plant missed all its targets and plans for "clean coal" generation were abandoned in July 2017. The plant is expected to go ahead burning natural gas only.
See also
* Petra Nova, a CCS project for the WA Parish Generating Station
The W.A. Parish Generating Station is a 3.65-gigawatt (3,653 MW), dual-fired power plant located near Thompsons, Texas. The station occupies a 4,664-acre site near Smithers Lake southwest of Houston in Fort Bend County and consists of two four- ...
in Texas
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Carbon capture and storage
Buildings and structures in Kemper County, Mississippi
Natural gas-fired power stations in Mississippi
Coal-fired power stations in Mississippi
Former coal gas-fired power stations
Former coal-fired power stations in the United States
Energy infrastructure completed in 2014
Southern Company