Washington (Platts)--29Jul2008

The US Department of Energy plans to award nearly $8.8 million to 10
projects designed to use water more efficiently to cool large coal-fired power
plants, the agency said Tuesday.

Private industry and universities will conduct the research over the next
two to three years. In total, the recipients will put in $2.8 million, making
all of the projects worth a combined $11.5 million.

DOE said the sponsors envision commercial ventures by 2020. The largest
project, worth about $1.9 million, would help GE Global Research use
"non-traditional waters" in evaporative cooling towers. The second largest
project, worth just over $1.4 million, involves the Gas Technology Institute,
which would develop a way to derive water and excess energy from power plant
smokestacks.

DOE cited several reasons for making the investment in the projects,
including the need to replace older, less efficient plants with new facilities
that use "closed-loop" cooling systems.

The agency noted that power plants are the second largest user of fresh
water in the US, behind agriculture.

The demand for water will rise as the population grows, energy demand
rises and stricter water-use requirements take effect, DOE said.

Private recipients include two projects from SPX Cooling Technologies,
Applied Ecological Services and Arthur Langhus Layne. Recipients also include
Lehigh University, Drexel University, the University of Illinois and Carnegie
Mellon University.

--Alexander Duncan, alexander_duncan@platts.com