FutureGen Project Launched
Government, Industry Agree to Build Zero-Emissions Power Plant of the Future
WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman today announced that the Department of Energy has signed an agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance to build FutureGen, a prototype of the fossil-fueled power plant of the future. The nearly $1 billion government-industry project will produce electricity and hydrogen with zero-emissions, including carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
The initiative is a response to President Bush’s directive to develop a hydrogen economy by drawing upon the best scientific research to address the issue of global climate change. Today’s announcement marks the official “kick-off” for the FutureGen Project. Over the next year, site selection, design activities, and environmental analyses will lay the groundwork for final project design, construction, and operation.
“This agreement places the Alliance members among the world’s most responsible and forward-thinking coal and energy companies,” Secretary Bodman said, as he praised them for their initiative. “The prototype plant will be a stepping-stone toward future coal-fired power plants that not only will produce hydrogen and electricity with zero-emissions, but will operate with some of the most advanced, cutting-edge technologies.”
The FutureGen Industrial Alliance will contribute $250 million to the project. Current Alliance members are: American Electric Power (Columbus, Ohio); BHP Billiton (Melbourne, Australia); CONSOL Energy Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.); Foundation Coal (Linthicum Heights, Md.); China Huaneng Group (Beijing, China); Kennecott Energy (Gillette, Wyo.); Peabody Energy (St. Louis, Mo.); and Southern Company (Atlanta, Ga.).
The Industrial Alliance plans to issue a site selection solicitation in early 2006, to develop a short list of the most qualified candidate sites by mid-2006, and to make a final site selection in mid to late 2007.
FutureGen will initiate operations around 2012 and virtually every aspect of the prototype plant will be based on cutting-edge technology. The project will integrate testing of emerging energy supply and utilization technologies as well as advanced carbon capture and sequestration systems. Technologies planned for testing at the prototype plant could provide future electric power generation with zero-emissions that is only 10 percent higher in cost than today’s electricity.
At the heart of the project will be coal-gasification technologies that can eliminate common air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and convert them to useable by-products such as fertilizers and soil enhancers. Mercury pollutants will also be removed.
These technologies also will turn coal into a highly enriched hydrogen gas, which can be burned much more cleanly than directly burning the coal itself. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be used in a fuel cell to produce ultra-clean electricity, or fed to a refinery to help upgrade petroleum products. In the future, the plant could also become a model hydrogen-production facility for President Bush’s initiative to develop a new fleet of hydrogen-powered cars and trucks.
Carbon sequestration will be one of several key features that will set the prototype plant apart from other electric power plant projects. FutureGen will be designed to capture carbon dioxide and sequester it in deep underground geologic formations. No other power plant in the world has been built with this capability. The initial goal will be to capture 90 percent of the plant’s carbon dioxide, but capture of nearly 100 percent may be possible with advanced technologies.
Once captured, the carbon dioxide will be injected as a compressed liquid-like fluid deep underground, perhaps into saline reservoirs thousands of feet below the surface of much of the United States. It could even be injected into oil or gas reservoirs, or into unmineable coal seams, to enhance petroleum or coalbed methane recovery. Once trapped in these formations, the greenhouse gas would be permanently isolated from the atmosphere. The project will include an intensive measurement and monitoring effort to verify the efficacy of carbon sequestration.
The FutureGen plant will be sized to generate approximately 275 megawatts of electricity, which is roughly equivalent to a medium-size coal-fired power plant and sufficient to supply electricity to approximately 275,000 average U.S. households.
The ultimate goal for the FutureGen plant is to show how new technology can eliminate environmental concerns over the future use of coal and allow the nation to tap the full potential of its coal reserves. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the United States with supplies projected to last 250 years or more and is the workhorse of the United States’ electric power sector, supplying more than half of the electricity the nation consumes.
FutureGen’s production of hydrogen will support the President’s call to create a hydrogen economy and provide fuel for pollution-free vehicles, and the use of coal will help ensure America’s energy security by developing technologies that utilize a plentiful domestic resource.
The FutureGen Initiative was initially announced by President Bush in February 2003. The project is being funded through the Department’s Office of Fossil Energy and will be managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
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