Niche market fuels will continue to have a presence, especially renewables such as biomass. It is not so much the fuel as the fuel technology that will enable diversity. For many countries parts of the U.S. included vast and accessible coal reserves make this the fuel of choice. Waste fuels such as petcoke are growing in popularity, especially when the power plant is located near or as part of the source refinery. For those areas where natural gas is economically available, combined cycle gas turbines equipped with heat recovery steam generators are a popular alternative.
Local fuels generate local employment and boost the balance of trade.
In order to meet the ever tightening environmental and commercial pressures, industry technology will have to advance in order to survive. For many existing facilities, that means repowering, refurbishing or rehabilitation nomenclature depending on where in the world you are. Call it what you will, modernization of existing facilities can be a way of achieving greater plant efficiencies and increasing profit margins while mini mizing capital costs. In the CIS, for example, a new generation of visbreaking technology is part of the modernization of more than a dozen refineries in processing bottom of the barrel residue. And in Donges, France, the renovation of a hydrosulfurization unit and the construction of a new sour water stripper will help Elf Antar France comply with more stringent fuel and gasoline regulations required by the European Community.