FutureGen Version 2.0 Receives $1 Billion in DoE Funding

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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The future of coal-fired power generation grew much brighter last week after the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) (Washington, D.C.) announced it would grant $1 billion in stimulus funding for a project to repower a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Illinois and create a carbon dioxide pipeline and storage network.

Dubbed FutureGen 2.0, the new project has significant differences from the original FutureGen project, which called for construction of a 275-megawatt (MW) integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant with a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) system at a greenfield site in Mattoon, Illinois. The captured gas was to be injected in an underground formation near the power plant. The original project was selected to receive DoE funding in 2003, but this funding was cancelled five years later, after estimated costs doubled from the original $950 million price tag.

FutureGen 2.0 goes in a different direction. Rather than building a grassroots IGCC plant with CCS in Mattoon, FutureGen 2.0 will repower the shuttered Ameren 200-MW Meredosia Unit 4 coal-fired power plant with advanced oxy-combustion technology. The project also includes construction of a 175-mile pipeline that will transport CO2 from the generator for injection underground.

The FutureGen 2.0 project team includes the FutureGen Alliance; Ameren Energy Resources, a unit of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) (St. Louis, Missouri); Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group (Barberton, Ohio); and Air Liquide Process & Construction Incorporated, a unit of Air Liquide SA (EPA:AI) (Paris, France). The plant's new boiler, air separation unit, and CO2 purification and compression units will deliver 90% CO2 capture and eliminate most SOx, NOx, mercury, and particulate emissions, according to the DoE.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) told reporters that the FutureGen Alliance would be expected to contribute $250 million to $275 million to the project. He said that engineering and land acquisition is scheduled to begin this fall, with construction scheduled to kick off next spring.

Speaking about the original FutureGen IGCC project, Durbin said: "It really didn't make any sense to prove a technology that has already been proven." FutureGen 2.0 "is going to build way beyond the original FutureGen concept."

If FutureGen 2.0 succeeds, it could considerably brighten the outlook for new-build coal-fired plants, as well as the viability of retrofitting existing power plants. By dramatically reducing emissions of CO2 and mercury, the advanced oxy-combustion process would become a viable alternative to repowering boilers with natural gas. Next year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Washington, D.C.) is expected to propose tough new rules on mercury emissions from stationary sources such as power plants.

The new project's CO2 pipeline and storage network will be capable of transporting and injecting more than 1 million tons of CO2 per year. DoE said it expects that the pipeline network, along with the repository in Mattoon, will help lay the foundation for a regional CO2 network. The Mattoon site will be used to conduct research on site characterization, injection and storage, as well as monitoring and measurement.

FutureGen 2.0 also will provide performance and emissions data for future commercial guarantees and establish operating and maintenance experience for future large-scale commercial projects, according to DoE. The FutureGen Alliance will help design the test program for the new facility to incorporate a broad range of goals and operating conditions to expand the market for this repowering approach.

"Today's announcement will help ensure the U.S. remains competitive in a carbon-constrained economy, creating jobs while reducing greenhouse gas pollution," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "This investment in the world's first commercial-scale, oxy-combustion power plant will help to open up the over $300 billion market for coal unit-repowering and position the country as a leader in an important part of the global clean-energy economy."

Capitol Hill Republicans blasted the award as a pork project for President Obama's home state. Environmental critics blasted the project from a different direction: Bruce Nilles, director of energy programs for the San Francisco-based Sierra Club, told Bloomberg News that FutureGen 2.0 was a "boondoggle. There are smarter, cheaper ways to cut pollution without relying on 19th century fossil-fuel technology."

An Energy Department spokesman defended the project's location, telling the Wall Street Journal that Mattoon's geological characteristics make it the best site in the country to build such a facility. "This is a site that can handle 50 million tons of CO2 per year for 50 years," the DoE official said.

The project is expected to create 900 new jobs in downstate Illinois, as well as another 1,000 jobs across the nation for equipment suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors.

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