Another challenge: capturing gases to be buried

Companies and cities are pushing to build coal-fired power plants that emit no greenhouse gases.

from the July 31, 2007 edition

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If the typical household had to pay, say, $30 for every ton of CO2 emissions it produced, it would pay an extra $13.50 a month for electricity, the MIT study estimates.

Coal-fired power plants around the world produce about a third of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the US Energy Department.

That's why some 50 IGCC power plant projects are now in various phases of development around the world – 27 of them in the US alone across 16 states, reported Emerging Energy Research, a Boston-based market research firm, earlier this year.

The most visible US effort is the $1.5 billion "FutureGen" project, partially funded by the Energy Department, which Odessa is trying to land. It faces tough competition from two sites in Illinois, as well as another in Texas. Final proposals are due Wednesday.

But FutureGen is now in a race with the private sector to build the first IGCC plant capable of sequestering at least some of its CO2. In Edwardsport, Ind., Duke Power filed a request earlier this month with the state public service commission to build a 630-megawatt IGCC plant.•In Mountaineer, W.V., American Electric Power also this month filed to build a 630-megawatt IGCC plant for completion by 2012.•So did Tampa Electric Company in Polk County, Fla. Two other plants proposed by independent power producer ERORA Group LLC of Louisville, Ky., are also in advanced stages of development in Taylorville, Ill., and Cash Creek, Ky.

Back in the Lone Star state, it had looked like the state would get the typical solution to Hoxie Smith power demand – 11 big new pulverized-coal power plants emitting tens of millions of tons of CO2 emissions and other pollutants. But TXU has dumped plans for eight of those plants and intends instead to erect two IGCC facilities. Meanwhile, Hunton Energy, a division of Houston-based Hunton Group, is moving ahead with plans for a 1,200-megawatt IGCC power plant. The municipal power company for Austin, Texas, has also announced plans to build an IGCC plant.

US could lead global push

IGCC development in the US could have important ramifications abroad. For example, China is a partner in FutureGen and some experts believe the project could convince China to begin building IGCC plants instead of the hundreds of conventional coal-burning plants it has been erecting at a rate of two per week.

"What happens in Texas has clear potential to affect plans for power-plant construction worldwide, including China," says John Thompson, director of the coal-transition project at Clean Air Task Force, a Boston-based environmental group.

A final decision on siting FutureGen is slated for November. While he's a little nervous, Smith isn't too worried because he says Odessa would still be a shoo-in for another IGCC plant.

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