Coal-gasification expert criticizes energy plans
The Department of Energy insists that combining two environmentally friendly processes into one – or more – commercial plant is the best deal for taxpayers.
But one expert on coal gasification thinks it will slow down the technology that converts coal into a synthetic gas that is cleaned before it's used.
"We need to get (coal gasification) on a commercial scale first and get it operational and get it moving forward before we add the carbon dioxide capture on top of it," said Steve Jenkins, the vice president of gasification services for CH2M Hill, the fifth-largest engineering firm in the country.
Before that, he was the deputy project manager for the Polk Power Station, one of two plants in the United States that gasifies coal.
Carbon capture could add several years to coal gasification plant projects already in the works, he said.
"Why add two to four more years?" Jenkins said. "We need the technology now."
It would also be expensive, adding between $600 million and $700 million to the cost. That amount could be higher, Jenkins said, if a plant must be redesigned to add the carbon dioxide capture technology. On their own, the plants cost about $2 billion.
Only five coal gasification plants exist worldwide, Jenkins said, and none includes the technology to capture carbon dioxide.
"Many feel that was the whole purpose of FutureGen, (to take) two pieces and put them together," Jenkins said, without the pressure of making the project into a commercial plant.
It's possible for a power company to create a plant with both technologies by 2015, Jenkins said. Plants take about six years for approval, design and construction. But sequestration, which requires a way to pipe and store the carbon dioxide, isn't proven.
"There are a lot of questions that FutureGen was going to answer," Jenkins said. "Now, we've basically lost that link."
Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for the FutureGen Alliance, said that's the reason the project needs to continue as originally planned in Mattoon. It's the only project in the world that would combine the technologies, he said.
"It's the furthest along and can move the technology faster and further than any other project in the world," Pacheco said. "That's why the alliance is committed to FutureGen at Mattoon and is working with Congress to make that a reality."
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