1) EU Energy Green Paper published
2) Project Group VGB/VDEW "Power Plant By-products and REACH" established
The European Commission published the Green Paper "A European strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy". This Green Paper puts forward suggestions and options that could form the basis for a new comprehensive European energy policy.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/efficiency/index_en.htm
After the political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council about the REACH Regulation it is expected that the regulation will come into force at the end of 2006 and/or at the beginning of 2007. The REACH Regulation is of great importance for power plant operators as consumers of chemicals and in particular as producers of power plant by-products in coal-fired power plants. Manufacturers of substances - among others also fly ash and gypsum from flue gas desulphurisation - have to prepare a dossier of registration with information about the produced amounts and properties of the materials, the application conditions as well as possible effects on the environment and on human health. In addition, a Chemical Safety Report is to be submitted. The current draft of the REACH Regulation offers the possibility for manufacturers to form a European syndicate and to work jointly on the dossier of registration. Thus, the expenditure for necessary investigations (e.g. animal tests) can be reduced.
The VGB/VDEW Joint Working Panel "Waste Management" has established a project group. The project group and the gypsum industry will develop a dossier of registration for FGD gypsum. After this activity the project group and ECOBA (European Coal Combustion Products Association) will also develop corresponding registration dossiers for other power plant by-products. The remaining work for the single manufacturer is substantially reduced by this joint development.
http://www.vgb.org/data/vgborg_/News/REACH_VO_st15921.en05.pdf
Chemistry in Power Plants: Water Steam Cycle, Firing Systems, Flue Gas Cleaning, Power Plants and Nets.
Abstracts of all articles are available here:
http://www.vgb.org/current_issue.html