Power Producers Study Integrated Gasification Projects for Power Generation in Ohio and Surrounding States

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Ohio is a state where the power industry has taken an interest in Integrated Gasification (IG) as a viable alternative fuel technology for the future. Three major power companies in Ohio, as well as some private companies, are all studying the construction of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) units for the future, in order to lower greenhouse gas levels. Cinergy Corporation (NYSE: CIN) (Cincinnati, Ohio) announced its interest to build new units utilizing IGCC technology to replace some of their older units. See related April 8, 2004 news article: Cinergy Energy Chief James Rogers Speaks His Mind. American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) (Columbus, Ohio) announced in August 2004 they were studying building IGCC units capable of producing up to 1,000-megawatts (MW). FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE: FE) (Akron Ohio) announced in September 2004 that they had formed a task force with Consol Energy Incorporated (NYSE: CNX) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) to study clean coal technologies including IGCC. None of the companies have announced potential locations for these facilities.

Two private energy companies, Lima Energy Company, a subsidiary of Global Energy USA Incorporated (Cincinnati, Ohio) is proposing a 580 MW IGCC plant in Lima, Ohio, and Baard Energy LLC (Ann Arbor, Michigan) is proposing an 850 MW in Ashtabula, Ohio.

The fuel source of gasification can be coal, waste coal, or biomass fuels. In the gasification process, fuel material is gasified and the gases are separated and cleaned for different applications. Hydrocarbon gas is one of the byproducts of the gasification process. The gas is compressed and then piped to where it would be utilized. The power industry utilizes the hydrocarbon gas as fuel for combustion turbines and engines. The best utilization of this gas is in a combined-cycle (C-C) configuration. Gas is burned in combustion turbine/generator(s) (CT) and the hot exhaust from the CT heats water in a boiler-type device called a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to steam and drives a steam turbine (ST). The C-C process has up to 60% performance level in use of these fuels. Since most impurities are separated when fuel was gasified, it has a much lower emission rate.

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