www.AKRDC.org 39 Drive production and shrink operating costs when you choose Inlet Energy as your fuel and lubricants provider. We empower miners through our team’s unmatched expertise, extensive product inventory and dependable delivery capabilities. SERVING ALASKA’S MINING INDUSTRY FOR OVER 35 YEARS Contact us to discuss your company’s needs (907) 274-3835 or order@inletenergy.com access. Chugach Electric’s Beluga power plant, for example, was built in the 1960s without a road, and there is still no road to the Beluga plant. What makes Skwentna a good candidate for carbon capture from coal is its relative proximity to the Beluga gas field for CO2 storage. Other locations for a coal plant with carbon capture are possible, such as near the existing Usibelli coal mine at Healy, south of Fairbanks. But Healy is much farther from the Beluga gas field and would require a longer CO2 pipeline. However, it may also be possible at Healy to inject and store CO2 in underground coal seams or saline aquifers, but research on this is not very far along. The plus for Healy is that there is already a coal mine, two coal-fired power plants and long-distance electric transmission lines. The university hopes to examine the possibility of carbon capture there but needs additional U.S. DOE support along with industry partners. Alaska may have a potential clean energy source hiding in plain sight also. It’s “clean coal,” or more correctly, cleaned-up coal with 95 percent of its carbon dioxide, or CO2, removed in emissions from power plant combustion. A bonus is that 100 percent of other pollutants like sulfur dioxide are removed and the majority of nitrous oxide and particulate matter could also be removed. For the less informed, coal is a dirty word. But it shouldn’t be. Coal is packed with energy. It’s low-cost and abundant around the world, including Alaska. The problem is that coal releases carbon dioxide when used as fuel and contributes to global warming. But if the CO2 release can be mitigated, what was a problem becomes an advantage. VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 2 | SUMMER 2024 Photo Courtesy Usibelli Coal Mine
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