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.-' "0 I.f) (.\] .-.t (u'" Co') ". eJ 10- The DaHy Pre..- Wedne.day, hbruary t, 1883 Unique aquatrain concept ~xplained By PERRIIt Melin-LEN Staff writer It would SDake throup 1,300 mUes of western territory carrylBl an annual 30 million tons of cnnbed coal In liquid carbon dioxide, and If everything goes well it could save area eoal companies more than SO percent In transportation costs, as well as disposing of unwanted saline water from the Colorado River drainage system. It's the Aquatrain. Still only a concept, the aqua train idea is growing dynamically as representatives of Aquatrain Inc. receive public input at many levels and feed the information into the overall plan for the system. An example of this information- gathering process is Aquatrain Inc. President Ira E. McKeever's visit to the Craig City Council Tuesday night to in- form area residents of changes in the aqua train concept and to seek public in- , put. The aqua train will not go the way of the Alaska Pipeline because Aquatrain Inc., a wholly-owned subsidary of W.R. Grace Company, seeks public input and representatives travel through affected areas informing people even before the environmental impact statement is sought. McKeever said. McKeever, who began working on the project when it started 18 months ago, said he enjoys educating the public on the project because, "the public is kick- ing the idea around and we are getting mput from them." Usually the govern- ment and industry inform the public after a major project is complete, but Aquatrain Inc. is doin~ it backwards. Using liquid carbon dioxide as the transporting medium, the proposed aquatrain will carry coal ground to the size of salt crystalS through a 1,300 mile pipeline, which will connect the crucial coal producing areas in Colorado, Utah and Wyomingto the power plants In J...1tah, Nevada and California. Formerly the plan was to use brackish or saline water to transport bags of coal, but the company dropped this idea in favor 01 the liquid carbon dioxide because of speed, less pipeline corrosion and contamination of the pro- duct. The carbon dioxide is more slippery than water and can carry the coal slurry IS miles per hour compared to the 3-4 mph speed the water offered, said Mike Clinton. project manager for the Saline Water Project and Use Project Office of the Bureau of Land Reclamation. a federal group working to alleviate salinity problems in the Colorado River drainage system. Also with carbon dioxide. bags are unecessarybecause coal does not react with carbon dioxide and will arrive at Its destination in the same condition it started, said McKeever. That way the coal mine can grind the coal to the exact specifications reqUired by the plant pur. chasing the coal more than 1,000 miles awav. Since the liquid carbon dioxide and coal do not react, the coal will not be damaged during transportation. Another advantage the less viscous carbon dioxide has over water is it can carry more coal at one time than water and retain the same viscosity, he ex- ')Iained. When mixing by weight, the pipeline can carry up to 82 percent coal and 18 percent water and still travel as quickly through the line as water. An identified prolem with using liquid carbon dioxide is that to remain in li- quid form it must be kept 88 degrees fahrenheit or under and maintain 60{). 700 pounds per square inch of pressure, so the line must be buried in its entirety and probably insulated, said McKeever. The pipeline will still dispense of un- wanted saline water abundant in the Colorado River Basin area, The carbon dioxide will transport coal through the line for 3-4 weeks, then for one week saline water will move through the line toward power plants along the way, saId Clinton. The plants use the water for cooling pur- poses. In effect, the coal transporting project is subsidizing the dispersion of saline water from the area, said McKeever. For this reason, .tbe Bureau of Land Reclamation Is In on the project and the project received several approving nods from environmental groups, he added. fne oureau is responsible for reduc- ing the salloity of the water to meet na- tional water quality standards before 01((;0 '- ,-----_ i "-_J I I ! ( .. I I ~ U ~ \ \ 'Al"O."'A \IIARRY ALLEN \ By PERRIE McMILLEN SlaHwrlter r-'--.-- -.-___---J -\ --, " '--, \ \ from the problem areas in the Big Sandy River area in Wyoming, Glenwood-Dotsero Springs in Colorado and Price-San Rafael Rivers area in Utah to designated power plants, which would use it as a cooling agent. The maior user of the saline water would be the Inter- mountain Power Plant where Aquatrain Inc. President Ira E. McKeever said the project Is paying to install two cool- Ing towers speCially designed to utilize saline water. The coal.fired power plants listed on the map are iden- tified as potential customers for use of the coal transported through the aquatrain pipeline. The only coal.fired plant along the line that is already constructed is the Reid-Gardner Plant, while the rest are In differing stages of development, said McKeever. All have been contacted as potential customers. When the slurry reaches its destination, it is separated from the liquid carbon dioxide in a special instrument called a cyclone, which basically separates the substances by -using gravity at less cost \han conven- tional means of separation, McKeever explained. 1 , , r V"" ..t^-__.._O..\, 1 '0. II 0 I .~ 1--- " A . It ().. ~ COLO. ~/"E. INDIAN .Es. LO "U/JtE CPHDbax a.IC.4TION DlS1~1CT ~ I I l ---- '---- "---- .----- ,M1'lro The first curve in the S shape formed by the proposed aquatraln pipeline, weaves through the crucial coal pro- ducing areas, including Moffat County, and heads west to the coal users in Utah, Nevada and California. Aquatrain Inc. proposes transporting coal slurry using liquid carbon dioxide as a medium via pipeline from the coal mines in Southwestern Wyoming, Western Col- orado and Eastern Utah and carrying it to the designated power plants. The coal is taken to a central preparation plant where it is ground and put into the pipeline. locations for the pro- posed preparation .plants have not yet been identified, but there may be one in Moffat County Ind in Southwestern Wyoming, said Aquatrain Inc, President Ira E. McKeever. On an alternating basis with the coal and liquid carbon dioxide mix, the pipeline will also transport saline water the water reaches Mexico, said Clinton. The project could receive as much as a 25 percent federal enerlY tax credtt lor the cost of the $3 billion project because the pulverized caol shipped through the pipeline would be con- sidered as an alternative energy source. By year 2000 the bureau is supposed to have Colorado River salinity levels back at the measured point 10 1972, he said.At the outside the bureau could pay for about 25 percent of the project through federal fUDds, Clinton added, According to CHnton, the planning stage for the $3 billion aquatratn project should be complete this summer, at which lime the environmental impact statement project will belln. Construc- tion of the project is scheduled to begin In 1987, with a tentative completion date in 1m. CHnton's estimation includes two years floating time. According to McKeever, the earliest possible comple- tion date would be September 1917, McKeever predicts the project would generate about 1,200 long-term. .base jobs in the Craig area, with more Jobs resulting from the potential prosperity. The company Js trying to structure the project to generate long-term employment, and the magnitude of employment depends on how much coal moves through the line, said Clinton. The cost to send a ton of coal from Craig to Long Beach, Cal. by rail is about '28 per ton. and McKeever said that cost should be reduced to about $19 per ton using the aquatrain. The RoinR price for a ton of coal is about $25. United States coal is priced out of the international. market because of the bilb transportation costs, he added. But the major advantage Is that cost escalation for use of the aqua train is leas than cost escalaHon for coal transportation, McKeever said.Most of the aquatraln cost is in construction with only 15 percent subject to escala- tion. but 55 percent of coal transporta- tion costs are variable and subject to escalation, he esplained. The result is that railroad costs will rile with inflation while aquatrain costs will remain relatively stable, so the future benefits outweigh the Immediate ODes, he added. Addreninl the problem of croSSing railroad tracks, McKeever said since reducinl the salinity of area water is In the public interest and backed by the federallovernment, the project should have the r1&bts of eminent domaIn. He a1so pointed out that Interested railroad companies, coal companies or any other company bas the opportunity to buy into the project. W.R, Grace Company set goals at the outset of the project and McKeever said he constantly refers back to those loals to determine if the project is on the right track. The first goal was to substantial- ly affect the salinity of the Colorado River by collecting the salt sources before they enter the river. Second on the project gaalUst was to effectively subsidize the removal pro- r i -'---j I I I " . "'0"", (; ,.,., '" i I , I." "' f ~ I r 0 " , r cess by developing a cost-effective coal transportation system, and this gopl will be met by the aquatrain liqUid car- bon dioxide carrier. The two goals Aquatrain Inc. must still work out is to; obtain long-term energy contracts to stabilize the socio- economic fluctuations of areas affected by the development, and stabilize the cost of power to the end customer, said McKeever. "1 think it (the aquatrain} can actual- ly reduce the current costs of power, but I know it will reduce Increases in cost," said McKeever. The project analysis also addressed the problem of what to do with the car- bon dioxide once It has travelled through the line. McKeever said the company is considering the tertiary use of carbon dioxide as a scrubbing agent for hydrocarbons. However, if this use does not work out, the next alternative Is to pump the the carbon dioxide back and reuse It for transportation, he said. Looking toward the future, McKeever predicted the possibility of transporting other commodities such as soda ash prevalent in Wyoming, and grains, which could becarried in the liquid car- bon dioxide to Mexico, a major importer of American grain or shipped to Japan, McKeever said. Currently the United States ships five million tons of grain per year to Mexico and 20 million to Japan, he said. "By the year 2000 we may be moving 60.80 milU~n tons of products per year."