Obama administration invests billions for cleaner coal

DOE to fund up to 10 commercial demonstration projects

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, whose 2008 campaign promoted the clean use of coal, has followed through with the largest investment in history for advanced coal research and development, administration officials say.

The Department of Energy is supporting up to 10 commercial demonstration projects in the power generation and industrial sectors. These projects will test whether various technologies for carbon capture and storage (CCS) are viable at commercial scale. CCS technologies involved in coal-fired power generation remove carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas, before it is burned in a boiler (pre-combustion), after it is burned (post-combustion), or using an oxy-combustion process. The captured CO2 is then compressed and piped to permanent storage sites for injection deep underground.

To date, DOE has awarded close to $5 billion in federal funds to demonstration projects. Private investments have added another $7 billion. DOE estimates that five to 10 commercial demonstration projects will be online by 2016. Boilermakers have already been involved in, or will soon take part in, at least several of these projects.

Commercial demonstration projects that have been awarded or are currently in negotiation include:

• American Electric Power — Retrofit of an existing power plant in West Virginia with a chilled ammonia system to remove CO2 from exhaust flue gas, with CO2 storage near the plant in a saline formation.
• FutureGen 2.0 (Ameren) — Retrofit of an existing power plant at Meredosia, Ill., with oxy-combustion technology, piping captured CO2 150 miles for storage in a saline formation in Mattoon, Ill.
• Southern Company — Construction of a new power plant in Mississippi using integrated gasification combined cycle technology (IGCC), with captured CO2 used for enhanced oil recovery.
• Leucadia Energy LLC — Construction of a new methanol plant in Lake Charles, La., where CO2 will be captured and used for enhanced oil recovery.
• Air Products & Chemicals Inc. — Installation of a CCS system to capture CO2 from existing steam-methane reformers in Port Arthur, Texas, with captured CO2 used for enhanced oil recovery.
• Archer Daniels Midland Corporation — Installation of a CCS system to capture CO2 from an existing ethanol plant in Illinois, with CO2 sequestered in a saline reservoir about one mile from the plant.
• Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) — Construction of a new poly-generation facility in Texas, using IGCC technology, with captured CO2 used for enhanced oil recovery.
• Basin Electric Power Cooperative — Installation of ammonia-based technology to remove CO2 from the flue gas at an existing plant in North Dakota, with captured CO2 made available for piping either to a saline reservoir or for enhanced oil recovery.
• Hydrogen Energy California (HECA) — Construction of a new coal plant in California using IGCC technology, with captured CO2 used for enhanced oil recovery.
• NRG — Installation of an ammine-based system to remove CO2 from the flue gas at an existing plant in Texas, with captured CO2 used for enhanced oil recovery.

In addition to funding commercial demonstration projects, DOE is investing about $400 million in 2010 for research into new CCS technologies to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of the carbon capture process. This research involves such areas as advanced membrane systems, CO2 compression, high-temperature materials for ultra-supercritical plants, next generation gasification technology, and advanced oxyfuel combustion.

DOE is also investing over $500 million over 10 years in sequestration science and monitoring techniques to ensure safe, long-term geologic storage of carbon dioxide through seven regional carbon sequestration partnerships.

The Obama administration’s initiatives for cleaner coal are not limited to the United States. DOE has also expanded its leadership role in international collaborative efforts to develop and promote CCS technologies, including the multinational Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum and the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center.

Cleaning up coal is imperative if nations are serious about climate change, since “coal combustion accounts for 40 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the consumption of energy,” according to a recent report by the Obama administration’s Intra-Agency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage.

That report, issued in August concludes, “While there are no insurmountable technological, legal, institutional, regulatory or other barriers that prevent CCS from playing a role in reducing GHG emissions, early CCS projects face economic challenges related to climate policy uncertainty, first-of-a-kind technology risks, and the current high cost of CCS relative to other technologies.”

Today government investments are helping firms move forward with promising technologies to ensure coal has a place in America’s — and the world’s — future. Ensuring widespread acceptance and implementation of these technologies will require comprehensive climate and energy legislation that, so far, has been blocked by Republicans in Congress.