January 4, 2008
Ken Silverstein
EnergyBiz Insider
Editor-in-Chief
A small central Illinois town got some big news: It has been chosen as the site to build a 21st Century power plant that advertises itself as virtually emissions free and able to sequester and bury carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming.
"FutureGen" -- as the project is known -- won't come cheap. It's a nearly $2 billion investment funded mostly by American taxpayers, and roughly double that of the early estimates. In the end, though, proponents say that it is an essential undertaking, noting that coal is used to produce the preponderance of this country's electric generation and that every effort must be made to make it cleaner. It's particularly true as the global community grapples with how to reduce heat trapping emissions.
Illinois is a coal state in which the geology will ease the transferability of FutureGen's technology. Furthermore, the strategic location of Illinois in relation to other coal-producing states will save millions of dollars a year in rail transportation costs. Shorter travel, by extension, will also greatly minimize the overall carbon footprint associated with transporting coal.
Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Wyoming endorsed Illinois' bid to secure the facility. This coalition of states represents nearly two-thirds of coal produced in the United States each year and 51 percent of the total U.S. coal reserves. The FutureGen Alliance, which represents major U.S. and foreign utilities, used 120 different factors that include cost, risks, benefits and schedule in making the final selection of Mattoon, Ill.
Wyoming's backing, though, may have carried the most influence with decision makers, who were considering three other sites, one of which was in Illinois and the other two in Texas. Wyoming is the nation's leading coal producer and among the leaders in mineable coal reserves while the state provides Illinois with an ally in the growing Western U.S. coal region that FutureGen intends to serve.
"The FutureGen plan is to demonstrate near-zero emissions technology using coal from the nation's three top-producing regions," says Jack Lavin, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. "We have a solid bloc of coal producers in the Illinois Basin and Appalachia supporting our bid. Wyoming and its coal-rich Powder River basin provide the missing link in our efforts to build a coal-state coalition."
Planners say that they expect construction on the site to begin in July 2009 and for the plant to be completed in 2012, noting that they have kept steadfast to their timetables so far. However, cost overruns are taking their toll and may delay the project. Once developers get the go-ahead, their goal will be to determine how to get water to the construction site as well as the building of the necessary infrastructure to ensure the job gets done.
Changing Image
The FutureGen Alliance says that one of the key factors behind the selection of Mattoon is that it has ample water resources and the required geological formation. That is, the carbon dioxide that would be captured could be injected underground at the site into a thick sandstone formation nearly a mile deep, secured by layers of cap rock. Beyond that, the project will start taking bids this month to design the core technology that would convert coal into a clean-burning gas.
FutureGen is designed to be the cleanest fossil fuel-fired power plant in the world. The facility would convert coal into hydrogen and electricity, while capturing and safely storing the carbon dioxide deep underground. It could likely lay the groundwork for developing similar plants elsewhere in the world, pioneering the capture, rather than the release of greenhouse gases.
If the hydrogen can be separated from the other the elements, it could then be used to power everything from vehicles to electric generators. And, if the carbon could be sequestered and bottled up, then it would put a shine to coal's future -- and perhaps win over the environmental community that is ambivalent at best and outright opposed at worst, saying that taxpayer resources ought to be funneled into sustainable projects.
"We welcome an honest discussion about 'is it technically and financial feasible for coal to be burned in a responsible manner,'" says Bruce Nilles, with the Midwest Clean Energy Campaign, in an Associated Press story. "Obviously ... this is a very important research project," he adds, calling it the coal industry's "last stand."
Currently, four such coal gasification pilot projects are now operating, with two in the United States and two Europe. But the immediate challenge is to develop the gasification technology -- the ones that convert coal to fuel gases before the sulfur, mercury and carbon dioxide would be removed. Right now that process is expensive and fraught with obstacles. If it can be shown to work, then the carbon dioxide would be more concentrated and therefore much easier to capture and store.
It's a noble goal. According to the Department of Energy, the United States mines more than 2.8 million tons of coal each day and if it did not, the nation would have to double its natural gas production. Coal remains cheap and plentiful, with 250 years worth of reserves. It comprises about 52 percent of the electricity generation.
Coal's prominence, however, is threatened by the strong emphasis on minimizing the release of heat-trapping emissions. According to the Congressional Research Service, coal is responsible for about a third of all CO2 emissions. It also releases double the other pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act that include sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
"Let's face it: We are going to use coal," says Richard Bajura, director of West Virginia University's National Research Center for Coal and Energy. "I do think coal can be carbon neutral."
If FutureGen delivers on its promises, it will assuredly change the course of power delivery around the globe. Planners are confident that the technology will work and that it will help reshape coal's image.
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