Proposed Marshalltown power plant capable of burning biomass

The Daily News
April 10, 2007
By DAVID PITT

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DES MOINES, Iowa - A new $1 billion power plant planned to be built in Marshalltown will be able to burn biomass fuels such as switchgrass to reduce the use of coal.

Interstate Power and Light Co., a subsidiary of Madison, Wis.-based Alliant Energy Corp., said it is designing the plant so that it could burn switchgrass or other biomass fuels.

Company spokesman Scott Drzycimski said decisions haven't been made on how much biomass fuel would replace coal or exactly which biomass material would be used.

"We don't want to go too far with it and then be in a position where we put up all this infrastructure that's not going to be right because we don't know if it's going to be corn stover or switchgrass or what," he said. "We're just going to wait until we're there and see what the best option is."

The plant isn't expected to be operational until 2013 or 2014. Groundbreaking could be late next year or early 2009.

The plant's boilers will be designed with ports necessary to incorporate biomass material into the burning process, he said.

Alliant hosted a research project at its 650-megawatt coal-fired power plant in southern Iowa at Chillicothe in which locally grown switchgrass was burned with Wyoming coal.

For several months, as much as 5 percent of the coal _ about 12,000 tons _ was replaced with switchgrass to test the impact on the boilers and the plant's efficiency.

State and federal governments chipped in $4 million for the pilot project and another $4 million came from private partners, farmers and Alliant.

The project led to Alliant's decision to redesign boilers to handle some biomass material, company officials said.

"Customers can be assured that we're building a plant using the best available proven boiler technology," said Kim Zuhlke, vice president of new energy resources for Alliant Energy, in a statement. "It's highly efficient, meaning it takes less coal to produce power. That means lower emissions and fuel costs."

The company said new control technology may be included in the plant design that will help ensure that it can meet stringent air emission standards, and will reduce particulate, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions as regulated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and federal regulators.

The plant, to be built next to an existing power plant, is expected to produce about 600 megawatts of electricity.

Renewable energy supporters are increasingly more critical of coal-fired power plants because of their impact on the environment.

In Iowa, about 78 percent of electricity produced in the state is from coal and about 10 percent comes from the state's only nuclear power plant, the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report. About 6 percent of electricity is derived from natural gas, 4 percent is generated by wind turbines and other renewable sources, and 2 percent is hydroelectric.

Alliant Energy and its subsidiaries serve about a million electric and over 420,000 natural gas customers in the Midwest. Interstate Power and Light serves 538,000 electric and 239,000 natural gas customers in Iowa.

On the Net: Alliant Energy Corp.: http://www.alliantenergy.com

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.

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