Eight Sites in Ohio Being Studied for DOE’s $1 Billion FutureGen Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Ohio Air Quality Development Authority (OAQDA) and its Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) (Columbus, Ohio) have identified a list of eight counties as possible sites for the $1 billion 275-megawatt (MW) United States Department of Energy (DOE) FutureGen Project. The counties that have been identified are Athens, Carroll, Clermont, Coshocton, Hamilton, Meigs, Stark and Tuscarawas. Ohio is one of 27 states that have shown an interest in participating in FutureGen and has some of the best sites available for the project. Ohio, like Texas, is putting together a strong task force that is now in the process of selecting an engineering firm to help identify the most advantageous sites.

FutureGen is the DOE’s plan to build a prototype for sequestering carbon oxides and hydrogen production power plant. The $1 billion dollar project is targeting a zero-emissions fossil fuel plant. When operational, the prototype will be the cleanest fossil fuel-fired power plant in the world.

FutureGen will select an Industrial Team Partnership that will draw upon the best scientific research to address emissions effect on global climate change. The production of hydrogen will have dual results: (1) make the project more economical by creating another product and (2) the product will be a more a cleaner fuel source for vehicles, fuel cells and other combustion operations.

The prototype plant will establish the technical and economical feasibility of producing electricity and hydrogen from coal (the lowest cost and most abundant domestic energy resource), while capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide generated in the process. The initiative will be a government/industry partnership to pursue an innovative 'showcase' project focused on the design, construction and operation of a technically cutting-edge power plant that is intended to eliminate environmental concerns associated with coal utilization. This will be a 'living prototype' with future technology innovations incorporated into the design as needed.

FutureGen will utilize coal gasification technology integrated with combined cycle electricity generation consisting of a combustion turbine/generator [CT] with a heat recovery steam generator [HRSG] and steam turbine/generator [ST] plus the sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions. The project will be supported by the ongoing coal research program, which will also be the principal source of technology for the prototype. The project will require ten years to complete and will be led by an industrial consortium representing the coal and power industries, with the project results being shared among all participants and the industry as a whole.

In the operational phase, the project will generate revenue streams from the sales of electricity, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The revenue will be shared among the project participants, including the federal. government, in proportion to their respective cost-sharing percentage.

It is therefore very significant that at this point in the development process of sequestration techniques, the government and DOE (Department of Energy), together with major companies in the coal and energy production industries, have taken the FutureGen initiative to construct the world's first pollution free, coal-fired power plant that will produce both electricity and hydrogen.

Some of the working group companies in the FutureGen alliance so far are: American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) (Columbus, Ohio), CONSOL Energy (NYSE:CNX) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Kennecott Energy, a Rio Tinto company (NYSE:RTP) (London, United Kingdom); The North American Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of NACCO Industries (NYSE:NC)(Mayfield Heights, Ohio); PacifiCorp (Portland, Oregon), a subsidiary of Scottish Power plc (NYSE:SPI) (Glasgow, United Kingdom); Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) (St Louis, Missouri), Southern Company (NYSE:SO) (Atlanta, Georgia), TXU (NYSE:TXU) (Dallas, Texas), and Battelle (Columbus, Ohio), a non-profit R&D institution assisted in the formation and coordination of the alliance. The group focuses on technology development and commercialization and product development plus has annual revenues of around $1 billion.

In a letter to President Bush the alliance said that FutureGen is squarely targeting three of the most critical long-term energy challenges facing the nation: (1) ensuring the continued availability of low cost electricity, (2) reducing the US dependence on imported oil and limited U.S. natural gas reserves by advancing the production of hydrogen through the use of coal, and (3) managing the potential environmental and financial risks of climate change.

The DOE says that the goals of the $1 billion partnership are to design, construct and operate a nominal 275 MW (net equivalent output) prototype plant that produces electricity and hydrogen with near-zero emissions. The size of the plant will be driven by the need for producing commercially relevant data, including the requirement for producing one million metric tons per year of CO2 to adequately validate the integrated operation of the gasification plant and the receiving geologic formation. At least 90% of the CO2 emissions from the plant should be sequestered with the future potential to capture and sequester nearly 100%. The project should prove the effectiveness, safety and permanence of CO2 sequestration and establish standardized technologies and protocols for CO2 measuring, monitoring and verification.

The project should also validate the engineering, economic, and environmental viability of advanced coal-based, near-zero emission technologies that by 2020 will produce electricity with less than 10% increase in cost compared to non-sequestered systems, produce hydrogen at $4 per million British thermal units (Btu), equivalent to $0.48 per gallon of gasoline, or $0.22 per gallon less than today's wholesale price of gasoline.

For more information on future business trends and project spending in the Power Industry check out Industrialinfo.com's recently released 2006 Global Industrial Outlook.

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