Coming Soon — Clean Coal?
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Coal gets a bad rap, and deservedly so. Few sources of energy contribute more to global warming and atmospheric pollution. Its cheap cost and availability prompt its near-global ubiquity; coal is still responsible for half of U.S. energy production and one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Yet a new high-tech power plant scheduled to open in Illinois in 2012 could change the way coal is perceived, if it ever gets built. That’s a big “if”.
The new plant, known as FutureGen, will utilize a technology known as carbon sequestration, or carbon capture and storage (CCS). This method removes carbon dioxide and other impurities by turning coal into a pure gas, which is then burned to power turbines to produce electricity; the impurities are then pumped deep underground, where they remain trapped in rock and saline aquifers, with supposedly little environmental impact.
While this technology isn’t exactly new, it has yet to be applied on a large-enough scale to significantly affect carbon emissions, or to test its backers’ claims of minimal impact. FutureGen is expected to produce 275 MW of energy. The DOE calls the project “the world’s first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant.” The DOE’s partner in this initiative, a public-private partnership known as the FutureGen Alliance, hopes to break ground by 2009, but delays and mounting costs could apparently hamper the $1.5 billion project. Click here to read a more skeptical account of the potential consequences of CCS.
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