On October 4th, 2018, organized by Jiangnan Environment Technology Inc (JET), hosted by the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, supported by Ernst & Young, the JET Technical Symposium was successfully held at St. Regis Hotel, Washington D.C.. About 50 industry experts attended the Symposium, including government experts from the U.S. Department of State, Department of Energy, executives from power companies, representatives of coal associations, and well-known experts from the industry. The Symposium was moderated by Ms. Aida Araissi, CEO of the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce.
The Symposium began with welcoming remarks from Ms. Aida Araissi, on behalf of Mr. David Phillips, Chairman of the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Aida Araissi said that Mr. David Phillips was visiting Japan entrusted by the White House. He expressed his regrets for not being to attend and wished the Symposium a grand success.
Afterwards, Mr. Phil Gonet, President of the Illinois Coal Association shared some thoughts on behalf of the association. Mr. Gonet expressed his pleasure to be invited to the Symposium with the opportunity to speak. He affirmed the tremendous value that JET’s technology could bring to U.S. coal-fired power plants and coal mining companies, especially to high-sulfur coal producing areas such as Illinois. The value of JET’s technology to these high-sulfur coal producing areas is immeasurable. He is currently commissioned by the Illinois State Government to lead the FGD Task Force to enable Illinois-based coal-fired power plants to use high-sulfur coal produced locally in Illinois rather than buying expensive low-sulfur coal from other states. He said that the emergence of JET’s technology gave them a truly viable solution to accomplish the FGD Task Force’s mission. The FGD Task Force has confirmed that a meeting will be held on October 10th, and JET has been invited to present at this meeting to introduce its solutions. He thanked JET for bringing their technology to the United States and wished the Symposium success.
Next, Mr. Richard Westerdale, Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State, gave a keynote speech on the current U.S. energy policy and the direction of Sino-U.S. relations. He said that although the Sino-U.S. relation is currently encountering some setbacks, in the long run, it must be developed into a healthy, stable, cooperative and win-win direction. JET’s technology will make solid contributions to the safer and more efficient application of energy in the U.S. He believes that the U.S. energy policy and the future direction of the Sino-U.S. relation will support the development, promotion and application of JET technology in the States.
Ms. Deborah Byers, Americas Industry Leader & U.S. Energy Leader for Ernst & Young, analyzed the current status and problems encountered in the American coal power industry. She said that the current situation faced by the U.S. coal power industry is grim. The increasingly stringent environmental emission regulation, high operating costs and competition with low-cost natural gas power plants have caused most coal-fired power plants to face their most serious crisis in history. However, JET’s technology is perfectly capable to solve some of these problems so that coal-fired power plants can continue to stay competitive against gas-fired power plants.
After Ms. Debroah Byers’s speech, Mr. Xu Junsheng, founder and Chairman of JNG, the parent company of JET, delivered a keynote speech on the development and characteristics of JET technology. First of all, Chairman Xu thanked the leaders and experts who attended the Symposium, the Bilateral U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce for hosting the Symposium, and Ernst & Young for their great assistance to the Symposium. Chairman Xu then introduced the origin of JET’s efficient ammonia desulfurization technology (EADS) in detail, as well as the great value it can bring to American coal-fired power plants. From the establishment of the Environmental Protection Research Institute in 1998 to study the ammonia desulfurization technology, to the successful development of the fourth generation, JET’s ammonia desulfurization technology has been applied to more than 300 sets of devices. After more than 20 years of development, the EADS technology has become mature and reliable. With the establishment of the American branch company JET, this well-developed technology was further promoted to the U.S. market and the rest of the world, enabling more and more clients to benefit from the tremendous value created by EADS. The fourth-generation JET ammonia desulfurization technology can remove sulfur dioxide to below 35mg/Nm3(12ppm)and remove total dust to below 5mg/Nm3. This index is comparable that achieved by gas-fired power plants. In addition, the by-product of JET’s ammonia desulfurization technology is high-value ammonium sulfate fertilizer, which significantly outruns the value of the gypsum by-product from the limestone process technology.
JET can recover the investment cost in a short period of time with the sales of ammonium sulfate fertilizer. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s, all coal-fired power plants must achieve zero discharge of wastewater by 2023, or they will face the risk of force shutdown. Since most of the current US coal-fired power plants are using the limestone/lime wet desulfurization technology, wastewater treatment equipment needs to be built to meet the latest wastewater zero-emissions policy. The new wastewater treatment plant is expensive and undoubtedly unbearable for coal plants that are currently in trouble. However, the characteristics of JET’s ammonia desulfurization technology which has zero wastewater discharge, which perfectly complies to the zero-emissions regulations, allowing coal-fired power plants to avoid large investments.
The speech of Chairman Xu was well received and highly complimented by the guests.
Mr. Bradley Scott, COO of JET explained the business model of JET in the United States after Chairman Xu’s speech. Currently, in addition to using the BOO business model in the US market, JET is also actively considering leasing and acquiring US coal power plants. Through the BOO business model, owners do not need to invest in ammonia desulfurization unit, as JET will be responsible for the investment, operation of the entire FGD unit and sales of by-product ammonium sulfate fertilizer. JET will share the operating costs saved by JET with the owners. JET will also recover its costs from the sharing of savings on operating costs and fertilizer sales. This business model does not require any advance investment by owners of coal power plants. Owners just need to share part of the previous desulfurization operation costs with JET. It can be said that this business model does not pose any risk to these owners and is the best option for these owners. The leasing business model will bring stable rent income to the current plant owners for quite a long period in the future, without having to worry about all kinds of problem or the operational risks they may encounter in the future. A number of JET’s clients are taking the leasing model into serious consideration as an alternative recently. The plan to acquire a coal-fired power plant can allow the current coal-fired power plant owners to obtain a large amount of funds in a short period of time, avoiding future problems. It is a once-and-for-all solution.
Afterwards, three experts who visited the JET ammonia desulfurization project in China were invited on stage to make panel speech The three experts are Mr. Ben Albright, former Managing Director of Zimmer Power Plant (the largest single-unit power plant in the United States with a capacity of 1300 MW), Mr. John Molloy, Plant Manager of the Cambria Power Plant, and Ms. Katherine Dombrowski, Principal Technical Expert of Trimetic .The three experts exchanged views on their field trips in China, including field communications with plant owners and on-site investigation of JET’s technology. In addition, they fully agree with the various features and advantages of JET’s technology mentioned by Chairman Xu and COO Mr. Bradley Scott in their previous speeches. Three experts agreed that JET’s ammonia desulfurization technology can bring new opportunities and development to the U.S. coal power industry.
Mr. Fareed Salem, CEO of JET Middle East, introduced the unique advantages of JET’s technology in the petroleum refining industry, especially sulfur recovery tail gas and FCC flue gas treatment. Mr. Salem also briefed the guests on JET’s business development in the Middle East, including progress with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Finally, he analyzed and predicted the future market of ammonium sulfate, which was acknowledged and complimented by all attending guests.
The meeting was concluded by Mr. Neil Bush, Independent Director of JET’s parent company – JNG Group, Chairman of A&A Consultant, and son of the 41st President of the United States. Mr. Bush expressed that the long-term stable development of Sino-U.S. relation is a consensus of the whole society. JET’s technology has been applied in more than 300 sets of units, and it is a truly reliable desulfurization technology. At the same time, he highly recognized that JET, under the leadership of Chairman Xu , has continuously developed and perfected its own technology within 20 years, and has never dared to relax. As the value and core corporate culture, JET always puts the interests of customers in the first place. Mr. Bush believes that JET’s technology will certainly succeed in the U.S. market as well as other markets around the world. Finally, Mr. Neil Bush thanked the experts for taking their time to participate in the Symposium.
After the meeting, Chairman Xu Junsheng attended a luncheon with the guests and made further communications in the afternoon, addressing every concerns held by the guests.
For further details of the Washington D.C. Symposium, please kindly see JET’s follow-up report.