1) 2005 Balance of CO2 Emission Trading Scheme
2) Start of Construction of Vattenfall's CO2-free Lignite Power Plant
3) 64 Million Tonnes of Coal Combustion Products in Europe
4) VGB ETC Safety and Health at Work
5) Quality Assurance of Automated Measuring Systems - Position Paper on Standard EN 14181
7) Maintenance in Power Plants - VGB PowerTech Journal 6/2006
According to the EU emission trading system the reporting about CO2 emissions in 2005 was to be submitted to the competent authorities by March 31, 2006. By April 30, 2006, each company had to surrender a number of emission allowances equipment to its verified emissions in the previous year. The account of each operator is documented in a national register. The Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL) records all accounts of national registers. The status of the CITL on April 30, 2006, was published by the European Commission on May 15.
In the 21 member states with active national registers (no active register available in Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Poland) 1,829.5 million allowances were allocated for 2005 and the verified emissions amounted to 1,785.3 million tonnes for 2005 resulting in a surplus of allocations of 44.2 million allowances. As a result of this information the price for CO2 allowances decreased from 30 Euro to 9 Euro within a week and is now at a level of 15 Euro.
EU Press release:
http://www.vgb.org/data/vgborg_/Fachgremien/Umweltschutz/Enclosure%207.1%20Press_Release%20EU_IP-06-612_EN.pdf
Balance CO2-Emissions 2005:
http://www.vgb.org/data/vgborg_/Fachgremien/Umweltschutz/Enclosure%207.2%20CO2-Emissions%20in%202005.pdf
EEX-Price:
http://www.vgb.org/data/vgborg_/Fachgremien/Umweltschutz/Enclosure%207.3%20EEX_cost%20allowances%20in%20word%20.pdf
Vattenfall is investing EUR 50 million to build a pilot plant for a CO2-free lignite power plant that is scheduled to be operative in 2008. The new power plant at Schwarze Pumpe near Cottbus will be based on the so-called oxyfuel technology. The objective is to capture the carbon dioxide that is generated during the electricity generation process and liquefy it to be able to transport it to the storage locations.
http://www2.vattenfall.com/www/co2_en/co2_en/399862newsx/404068press/index.jsp?pmid=65603&WT.ac=content
Based on the ECOBA statistics on "Production and Utilisation of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) in Europe (EU 15) in 2004" about 64 million tonnes of CCPs were produced that year. Compared to 2003, about 1.5 million tonnes of CCPs less were produced due to lower generation of electricity and steam in coal and lignite fired power plants and due to the use of lower ash coals. The use of fly ash as a raw material in the construction industry rose by 1 million tonnes. The utilisation rate reached 50 %. The ECOBA statistics on "Production and Utilisation of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) in Europe (EU 15) in 2004" can be downloaded from the website of ECOBA.
http://www.ecoba.org/index.html
On June 21, 2006, the first meeting of the ETC "Safety and Health at Work" took place in Berlin. The committee has representatives from 8 countries. In a contribution "Ordinance on Industrial Health and Safety - Approach for Elaborating Technical Rules" was outlined the implementation of European directives into national right. As "terms of reference" were defined for the future work:
- responsibility,
- third party companies,
- benchmarking for accident,
- noise and optical radiation,
- prevention,
- management systems.
The priorities of these topics will be fixed in the next meeting, which takes place on November 15, 2006 in Essen. Main subject is "responsibility". An external lecture about "Industrial safety in Europe - existing and future regulation" is projected. This lecture will represent a basis for the future work of the ETC.
More information:
mailto:karl-heinz.puch@vgb.org
As the practicability of the standard EN 14181 "Stationary source emissions - Quality assurance of automated measuring systems" (AMS) is put into question from the VGB member companies. VGB Offices installed a European Working Group (EWG) "Emissions monitoring" to compile the experience gathered with the application of this standard.
http://www.vgb.org/news_positionpaper_1418engl.html
Due to the constantly increasing traffic concrete roads are increasingly built besides asphalt roads. However, due to the existing regulations of the Federal Institute for Road Construction (Bundesanstalt für Straßenbau, BAST) the use of fly ash in road concretes is not permitted as no practical proof is existing about a sufficient resistance of the concrete surface to simultaneous exposure to frost-thaw and mechanical load.
With the research project "Influence of fly ash on the durability of the surface texture of road concrete" (VGB 270) the behaviour of the surface mortar of road concrete with fly ash will especially be tested with combined attack of abrasion, frost-thaw and salt besides the frost-thaw resistance.
http://www.vgb.org/research_project270.html
Main topics of the June issue are: Maintenance in Power Plants, Challenge Quality, State of Material Development for New Power Plants.
Abstracts of all articles are available here:
http://www.vgb.org/current_issue.html