FutureGen
Encyclopedia
FutureGen is a US government project announced by President George W. Bush
in 2003; its initial plan involved the construction of a near zero-emissions coal
-fueled power plant to produce hydrogen
and electricity
while using carbon capture and storage
.
In December 2007, Mattoon Township, Coles County, Illinois
northwest of Mattoon, Illinois
was chosen as the site for the plant from among four finalists in Illinois and Texas. On January 29, 2008, the Department of Energy
announced a restructuring of the FutureGen project, which was claimed necessary due to rising costs. In June 2008, the government announced a call for proposals to elicit commercial involvement in the restructuring. In 2010, after a number of setbacks, the city of Mattoon backed out of the project.
northwest of Mattoon, Illinois, subject to necessary approvals (issuing a “Record of Decision”) by the Department of Energy
(DOE) as part of the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) process.
FutureGen was to be designed, developed and operated by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a non-profit consortium of coal mining and electric utility companies formed to partner with the DOE on the FutureGen project. The project was still in the development stage when its funding was cancelled in January 2008. The Alliance decision of the location of the host site, subject to DOE's completing NEPA environmental reviews, was announced in December 2007 after a two-year bidding and review process. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2009, with full-scale plant operations to begin in 2012.
The estimated gross project cost, including construction and operations, and excluding offsetting revenue, was $1.8 billion. The project was governed by a legally binding cooperative agreement between DOE and the Alliance. Under the agreement, DOE was to provide 74% of the project’s cost, with private industry contributing the other 26%. The DOE also planned to solicit the financial support and participation of international governments in the FutureGen project, since by 2020 more than 60% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are expected to come from developing countries. Foreign financial support was to offset a portion of DOE’s cost-share. As of January 2008, the foreign governments of China
, India, Australia, South Korea, and Japan had expressed interest in participating and sharing the cost of the project.
FutureGen was to sequester carbon dioxide emissions at a rate of one million metric tons per year for four years, which is the scale a Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) report cites as appropriate for proving sequestration. The MIT report also states that “the priority objective with respect to coal should be the successful large-scale demonstration of the technical, economic, and environmental performance of the technologies that make up all of the major components of a large-scale integrated CCS
system — capture, transportation and storage.” An injection field test similar to this was done in Norway.
In March 2009 Washington Post reported that U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu
expressed support for continuing the project using stimulus funds (after some changes that have not yet been specified) and making it a part of a larger portfolio of research plants developed in collaboration with other countries.
for the FutureGen facility was based on a competitive process which began in May 2006. Seven states responded to the Site Request for Proposals with a total of 12 proposals. Proposals were reviewed against a set of environmental, technical, regulatory, and financial criteria with input from external technical advisors on power plant design and carbon sequestration. In July 2006, four candidate sites were selected for further review, including an environmental impact analysis as required by NEPA.
DOE issued its Final Environmental impact statement
(EIS) on November 8, 2007, which concluded that all four sites were acceptable from an environmental impact standpoint and all would move forward in the site evaluation process. EPA published a Notice of Availability (NOA) for the EIS in the Federal Register on November 16, 2007. The DOE is required by federal law to wait at least 30 days after the NOA release before issuing its final Record of Decision (ROD). The waiting period legally closed on December 17, 2007. DOE chose not to issue the ROD and advised the FutureGen Alliance to delay the final site selection announcement, which was scheduled to occur at the end of the 30-day waiting period. The Alliance chose to move ahead with the announcement, citing time, money, and a commitment to proposers to select the final site by year-end. "Every month of delay can add $10 million to the project's cost, solely due to inflation," said Michael Mudd, the Alliance's chief executive.
The FutureGen Alliance announced the selection of Mattoon, Illinois
as the host site on December 18, 2007. According to the EIS, Mattoon, IL the site is located about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest of downtown Mattoon in the eastern part of Mattoon township section 8 on 1.8 km² (444.8 acre) of former farm land. The carbon sequestration area is about 8000 feet (2.4 km) below the ground. In July 2007, Illinois Public Act 095-0018 became law giving the state of Illinois ownership of and liability for the sequestered gases.
Future plants based on FutureGen should qualify for several provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
.
, electricity generation, and carbon dioxide capture and storage
(CCS).
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle
(IGCC) was the core technology behind FutureGen. IGCC power plants use two turbines – a gas and a steam turbine – to produce electric power more efficiently than pulverized coal plants. IGCC plants also make it easier to capture carbon dioxide for carbon sequestration.
FutureGen was to capture carbon dioxide produced during the gasification process and pump it into deep rock formations thousands of feet under ground. FutureGen specifically targeted rock formations containing saline water, as these are one of the most abundant types of geologic formations that can be used to store carbon dioxide worldwide. A study by the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program estimates the storage capacity of these saline rock formations in the U.S. to be 2,970 gigatons of carbon dioxide, compared to a capacity of 77 gigatons of carbon dioxide for all other types of reservoirs, such as depleted gas fields. Focusing on rock formations with saline water was intended to help ensure that the lessons learned from the project are broadly transferable throughout the U.S. and around the world.
In December 2007, the DOE Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy James Slutz stated that projected cost overruns for the project "require a reassessment of FutureGen's design." And that "This will require restructuring FutureGen to maximize the role of private-sector innovation, facilitate the most productive public-private partnership, and prevent further cost escalation."
The FutureGen Alliance wrote a letter to the Department of Energy’s Under Secretary C.H. “Bud” Albright Jr. stating that overall inflation and the rising cost of raw materials and engineering services are driving costs up on energy projects around the world. According to James L. Connaughton
, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
, the market for steel, concrete and power plant components has “just gone through the roof globally”, and much of the reason is the construction of hundreds of new conventional coal plants.
On January 11, 2008, the FutureGen Alliance sent a letter to the DOE offering to lower the government's portion of the project's costs. The initial plans had called for DOE to pay based on a percentage of the total cost, and their portion had risen from about $620 million to about $1.33 billion. The letter indicated that DOE's portion would now be $800 million.
Risk management
was a significant portion of the cost of the first FutureGen experimental implementation. FutureGen involved many complex never-before-solved technology problems. The risks also included significant health risks, if the untested-technology systems failed to work correctly.
, expressed frustration at the move, especially in light of the money and resources that the state had spent to attract the project. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois accused Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman of "cruel deception" of Illinoisans by "creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he has no intention of funding or supporting." Durbin claimed that "when the city of Mattoon, Illinois, was chosen over possible locations in Texas, the secretary of energy set out to kill FutureGen." Mattoon mayor David Cline said "one could question the motivation of the Department of Energy which was ready to move forward with the project until a site other than Texas was chosen."
In March 2009, Congressional auditors determined that the DOE had miscalculated the government portion of the project's cost, overstating the amount by a half billion dollars. As a result, the Bush administration cited the project as having nearly doubled in cost when, in reality, it had increased by 39%
Secretary Bodman stated that with restructuring the FutureGen project, DOE plans "to equip multiple new clean-coal power plants with advanced CCS technology, instead of one demonstration plant. That will provide more electricity from multiple clean-coal plants, sequestering at least twice as much CO2 and providing for wider use and more rapid commercialization."
Despite the cancellation of funding by the DOE, the FutureGen Alliance continues to move forward with the project, opening an office in Mattoon and planning to buy the land for the plant in August 2008, in partnership with a local group.
pledged his support to clean coal technologies
, with plans to develop five commercial-scale coal plants equipped with CCS technology.
In November 2008, Fred Palmer, senior vice president at Peabody Energy
shared his outlook on FutureGen with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), saying that the FutureGen Alliance would "Make a concerted effort in the Obama administration to reinstate the project and get this built as originally planned."
On June 12, 2009, the DOE announced a restart of design work for the FutureGen project. "Following the completion of the detailed cost estimate and fundraising activities," the press release states, "the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance will make a decision either to move forward or to discontinue the project early in 2010."
On August 5, 2010, the DOE announced a retooling of the FutureGen project, dubbed FutureGen 2.0. The revised plan includes retrofitting a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Illinois
to demonstrate advanced oxy-combustion technology, and piping the carbon dioxide 175 miles to Mattoon for underground storage. Due to these changes, leaders in Mattoon decided to drop out of the FutureGen project.
The Illinois sites vying for the underground storage portion of the project were in Christian, Douglas, Fayette, and Morgan counties, after sites in Adams and Pike counties were cut in December 2010. In February 2011, Morgan County was chosen for the sequestration site. Construction on the power plant and carbon dioxide storage site is expected for spring 2013.
As of October 4, 2011, the plant detailed design package and cost estimate have been submitted to the DOE and the evaluation of them by the DOE should be completed by November 30, 2011.
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in 2003; its initial plan involved the construction of a near zero-emissions coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
-fueled power plant to produce hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
and electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
while using carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage , alternatively referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is a technology to prevent large quantities of from being released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuel in power generation and other industries. It is often regarded as a means of mitigating...
.
In December 2007, Mattoon Township, Coles County, Illinois
Mattoon Township, Coles County, Illinois
Mattoon Township is one of twelve townships in Coles County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 16,184.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, Mattoon Township covers an area of .-Major highways:* Interstate 57...
northwest of Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.Mattoon was the site of the "Mad Gasser" attacks of the 1940s....
was chosen as the site for the plant from among four finalists in Illinois and Texas. On January 29, 2008, the Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
announced a restructuring of the FutureGen project, which was claimed necessary due to rising costs. In June 2008, the government announced a call for proposals to elicit commercial involvement in the restructuring. In 2010, after a number of setbacks, the city of Mattoon backed out of the project.
Original project
The original incarnation of FutureGen was as a public-private partnership to build the world's first near zero-emissions coal-fueled power plant. The 275-megawatt plant would be intended to prove the feasibility of producing electricity and hydrogen from coal while capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide underground. The Alliance intended to build the plant in Mattoon Township, Coles County, IllinoisMattoon Township, Coles County, Illinois
Mattoon Township is one of twelve townships in Coles County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 16,184.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, Mattoon Township covers an area of .-Major highways:* Interstate 57...
northwest of Mattoon, Illinois, subject to necessary approvals (issuing a “Record of Decision”) by the Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
(DOE) as part of the National Environmental Policy Act
National Environmental Policy Act
The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality ....
(NEPA) process.
FutureGen was to be designed, developed and operated by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a non-profit consortium of coal mining and electric utility companies formed to partner with the DOE on the FutureGen project. The project was still in the development stage when its funding was cancelled in January 2008. The Alliance decision of the location of the host site, subject to DOE's completing NEPA environmental reviews, was announced in December 2007 after a two-year bidding and review process. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2009, with full-scale plant operations to begin in 2012.
The estimated gross project cost, including construction and operations, and excluding offsetting revenue, was $1.8 billion. The project was governed by a legally binding cooperative agreement between DOE and the Alliance. Under the agreement, DOE was to provide 74% of the project’s cost, with private industry contributing the other 26%. The DOE also planned to solicit the financial support and participation of international governments in the FutureGen project, since by 2020 more than 60% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are expected to come from developing countries. Foreign financial support was to offset a portion of DOE’s cost-share. As of January 2008, the foreign governments of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India, Australia, South Korea, and Japan had expressed interest in participating and sharing the cost of the project.
FutureGen was to sequester carbon dioxide emissions at a rate of one million metric tons per year for four years, which is the scale a Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) report cites as appropriate for proving sequestration. The MIT report also states that “the priority objective with respect to coal should be the successful large-scale demonstration of the technical, economic, and environmental performance of the technologies that make up all of the major components of a large-scale integrated CCS
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage , alternatively referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is a technology to prevent large quantities of from being released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuel in power generation and other industries. It is often regarded as a means of mitigating...
system — capture, transportation and storage.” An injection field test similar to this was done in Norway.
In March 2009 Washington Post reported that U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu
Steven Chu
Steven Chu is an American physicist and the 12th United States Secretary of Energy. Chu is known for his research at Bell Labs in cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, along with his scientific colleagues Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and...
expressed support for continuing the project using stimulus funds (after some changes that have not yet been specified) and making it a part of a larger portfolio of research plants developed in collaboration with other countries.
Alliance members
The FutureGen Industrial Alliance is a consortium of 10 power producers and electric utilities from around the globe.| Company | Headquarters |
|---|---|
| Anglo American Services (UK) Limited | London, UK |
| BHP Billiton Energy Coal Inc. BHP Billiton BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom... |
Melbourne, Australia |
| Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas... |
Peoria, Illinois |
| China Huaneng Group China Huaneng Group China Huaneng Corporation is one of the five largest state-owned power generation enterprises in China, administrated by the State Council of the People's Republic of China, engaging in the investment, construction, operation and management of power generation assets and the production and sale of... |
Beijing, China |
| CONSOL Energy Inc. Consol Energy Consol Energy is an energy company headquartered in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, suburb of Cecil Township, in the Southpointe complex. It is one of the US's largest coal mining companies, along with Peabody Energy and Arch Coal... |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| E.ON E.ON E.ON AG, marketed with an interpunct as E•ON, is the holding company of the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The name comes from the Greek word aeon which means eternity.... U.S. LLC |
Louisville, Kentucky |
| Foundation Coal Corporation Foundation Coal Foundation Coal Holdings, Inc. was a large American coal mining company. Until its July 31, 2009 merger with Alpha Natural Resources to form the third largest American coal company, the company was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FCL... |
Linthicum Heights, Maryland |
| Peabody Energy Corp. Peabody Energy Peabody Energy Corporation , previously Peabody Coal Company, is the largest private-sector coal company in the world. The company is headquartered in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri.... |
St. Louis, Missouri |
| Rio Tinto Rio Tinto Group The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the... Energy America Services |
Gillette, Wyoming |
| Xstrata Xstrata Xstrata plc is a global mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is a major producer of coal , copper, nickel, primary vanadium and zinc and the world's largest producer of ferrochrome... Coal Pty Limited |
Sydney, Australia |
Former members
Four companies initially a part of the FutureGen Industrial Alliance have since dropped out of the project.| Company | Headquarters |
|---|---|
| American Electric Power Service Corp. American Electric Power American Electric Power is a major investor-owner electric utility in various parts of the United States. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S... |
Columbus, Ohio |
| Luminant | Dallas, Texas |
| PPL Energy Services Group, LLC PPL (utility) PPL, formerly known as PP&L or Pennsylvania Power and Light, is an energy company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. It currently controls about 19,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity in the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania and Montana, and delivers electricity to... |
Allentown, Pennsylvania |
| Southern Company Services, Inc. Southern Company Southern Company is a public utility holding company of primarily electric utilities in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is currently the 16th largest utility company in the world and the... |
Atlanta, Georgia |
Site selection
Site selectionSite selection
Site Selection indicates the practice of new facility location, both for business and government. Site selection involves measuring the needs of a new project against the merits of potential locations...
for the FutureGen facility was based on a competitive process which began in May 2006. Seven states responded to the Site Request for Proposals with a total of 12 proposals. Proposals were reviewed against a set of environmental, technical, regulatory, and financial criteria with input from external technical advisors on power plant design and carbon sequestration. In July 2006, four candidate sites were selected for further review, including an environmental impact analysis as required by NEPA.
DOE issued its Final Environmental impact statement
Environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement , under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS is a tool for decision making...
(EIS) on November 8, 2007, which concluded that all four sites were acceptable from an environmental impact standpoint and all would move forward in the site evaluation process. EPA published a Notice of Availability (NOA) for the EIS in the Federal Register on November 16, 2007. The DOE is required by federal law to wait at least 30 days after the NOA release before issuing its final Record of Decision (ROD). The waiting period legally closed on December 17, 2007. DOE chose not to issue the ROD and advised the FutureGen Alliance to delay the final site selection announcement, which was scheduled to occur at the end of the 30-day waiting period. The Alliance chose to move ahead with the announcement, citing time, money, and a commitment to proposers to select the final site by year-end. "Every month of delay can add $10 million to the project's cost, solely due to inflation," said Michael Mudd, the Alliance's chief executive.
| City | Proposals | Finalists |
|---|---|---|
| Effingham, Illinois Effingham, Illinois Effingham is a city in Effingham County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,384 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Effingham County.... |
x | |
| Marshall, Illinois Marshall, Illinois Marshall is a city in Clark County, Illinois, United States, locatedabout west of Terre Haute, Indiana. The population was 3,771 at the 2000 census... |
x | |
| Mattoon, Illinois Mattoon, Illinois Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.Mattoon was the site of the "Mad Gasser" attacks of the 1940s.... |
x | x |
| Tuscola, Illinois Tuscola, Illinois Tuscola is a city in Douglas County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,480 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Douglas County.-Geography:Tuscola is located at .... |
x | x |
| Henderson County, Kentucky Henderson County, Kentucky Henderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1799. As the latest census data update of 2010, the population was counted 46,250. The county seat is the City of Henderson. The county was named for Colonel Richard Henderson who originally purchased of land... |
x | |
| Bowman County, North Dakota Bowman County, North Dakota -Major highways:* U.S. Highway 12* U.S. Highway 85* North Dakota Highway 67-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 3,242 people, 1,358 households, and 890 families residing in the county. The population density was 3 people per square mile . There were 1,596 housing units at an average... |
x | |
| Meigs County, Ohio Meigs County, Ohio Meigs County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,770. Its county seat is Pomeroy, and it is named for Return J. Meigs, Jr., the 4th Governor of Ohio.-Geography:... |
x | |
| Tuscarawas County, Ohio Tuscarawas County, Ohio Tuscarawas County is a county located in the eastern part of the state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 92,582. Its county seat is New Philadelphia... |
x | |
| Odessa, Texas Odessa, Texas Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 99,940 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan... |
x | x |
| Jewett, Texas Jewett, Texas Jewett is a city in Leon County, Texas, United States. The population was 861 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Jewett is located at .... |
x | x |
| Point Pleasant, West Virginia Point Pleasant, West Virginia Point Pleasant is a city in Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census... |
x | |
| Gillette, Wyoming Gillette, Wyoming Gillette is a city in and the county seat of Campbell County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 29,087 in 2010. Gillette is a city centrally located in an area involved with the development of vast quantities of American coal, oil, and coal bed methane gas... |
x |
The FutureGen Alliance announced the selection of Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.Mattoon was the site of the "Mad Gasser" attacks of the 1940s....
as the host site on December 18, 2007. According to the EIS, Mattoon, IL the site is located about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest of downtown Mattoon in the eastern part of Mattoon township section 8 on 1.8 km² (444.8 acre) of former farm land. The carbon sequestration area is about 8000 feet (2.4 km) below the ground. In July 2007, Illinois Public Act 095-0018 became law giving the state of Illinois ownership of and liability for the sequestered gases.
Future plants based on FutureGen should qualify for several provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Energy Policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a bill passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
.
Technology overview
FutureGen was intended to combine and test several new technologies in a single location, including coal gasification, emissions controls, hydrogen productionHydrogen production
Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen. Currently the dominant technology for direct production is steam reforming from hydrocarbons. Many other methods are known including electrolysis and thermolysis...
, electricity generation, and carbon dioxide capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage , alternatively referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is a technology to prevent large quantities of from being released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuel in power generation and other industries. It is often regarded as a means of mitigating...
(CCS).
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle
An integrated gasification combined cycle is a technology that turns coal into gas—synthesis gas . It then removes impurities from the coal gas before it is combusted and attempts to turn any pollutants into re-usable byproducts. This results in lower emissions of sulfur dioxide, particulates, and...
(IGCC) was the core technology behind FutureGen. IGCC power plants use two turbines – a gas and a steam turbine – to produce electric power more efficiently than pulverized coal plants. IGCC plants also make it easier to capture carbon dioxide for carbon sequestration.
FutureGen was to capture carbon dioxide produced during the gasification process and pump it into deep rock formations thousands of feet under ground. FutureGen specifically targeted rock formations containing saline water, as these are one of the most abundant types of geologic formations that can be used to store carbon dioxide worldwide. A study by the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program estimates the storage capacity of these saline rock formations in the U.S. to be 2,970 gigatons of carbon dioxide, compared to a capacity of 77 gigatons of carbon dioxide for all other types of reservoirs, such as depleted gas fields. Focusing on rock formations with saline water was intended to help ensure that the lessons learned from the project are broadly transferable throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Challenges
Maintaining the project schedule and keeping costs down were two major challenges with which the DOE and the FutureGen Alliance grappled. The project had remained on schedule with the announcement of the host site before the end of 2007; however, a desire by DOE to restructure the project’s financial arrangement has brought the project to a halt.In December 2007, the DOE Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy James Slutz stated that projected cost overruns for the project "require a reassessment of FutureGen's design." And that "This will require restructuring FutureGen to maximize the role of private-sector innovation, facilitate the most productive public-private partnership, and prevent further cost escalation."
The FutureGen Alliance wrote a letter to the Department of Energy’s Under Secretary C.H. “Bud” Albright Jr. stating that overall inflation and the rising cost of raw materials and engineering services are driving costs up on energy projects around the world. According to James L. Connaughton
James L. Connaughton
James Laurence Connaughton is an American energy industry lawyer and the former George W. Bush administration environmental adviser...
, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Council on Environmental Quality
The Council on Environmental Quality is a division of the Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices in the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives...
, the market for steel, concrete and power plant components has “just gone through the roof globally”, and much of the reason is the construction of hundreds of new conventional coal plants.
On January 11, 2008, the FutureGen Alliance sent a letter to the DOE offering to lower the government's portion of the project's costs. The initial plans had called for DOE to pay based on a percentage of the total cost, and their portion had risen from about $620 million to about $1.33 billion. The letter indicated that DOE's portion would now be $800 million.
Risk management
Risk management
Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities...
was a significant portion of the cost of the first FutureGen experimental implementation. FutureGen involved many complex never-before-solved technology problems. The risks also included significant health risks, if the untested-technology systems failed to work correctly.
Funding cancellation
On January 29, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it would pull its funding for the project, mostly due to higher than expected costs. The move is likely to delay the project as other members seek the additional funds that the DOE was to provide. The sudden concern over cost after an Illinois site was chosen over those in Texas raised questions about the motives for the cancellation. Local and state officials in Illinois, including then Governor Rod BlagojevichRod Blagojevich
Rod R. Blagojevich is an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago...
, expressed frustration at the move, especially in light of the money and resources that the state had spent to attract the project. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois accused Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman of "cruel deception" of Illinoisans by "creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he has no intention of funding or supporting." Durbin claimed that "when the city of Mattoon, Illinois, was chosen over possible locations in Texas, the secretary of energy set out to kill FutureGen." Mattoon mayor David Cline said "one could question the motivation of the Department of Energy which was ready to move forward with the project until a site other than Texas was chosen."
In March 2009, Congressional auditors determined that the DOE had miscalculated the government portion of the project's cost, overstating the amount by a half billion dollars. As a result, the Bush administration cited the project as having nearly doubled in cost when, in reality, it had increased by 39%
Secretary Bodman stated that with restructuring the FutureGen project, DOE plans "to equip multiple new clean-coal power plants with advanced CCS technology, instead of one demonstration plant. That will provide more electricity from multiple clean-coal plants, sequestering at least twice as much CO2 and providing for wider use and more rapid commercialization."
Despite the cancellation of funding by the DOE, the FutureGen Alliance continues to move forward with the project, opening an office in Mattoon and planning to buy the land for the plant in August 2008, in partnership with a local group.
Revised plan under new presidential administration
During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns, Sen. Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
pledged his support to clean coal technologies
Clean coal technology
Clean coal technology is a collection of technologies being developed to reduce the environmental impact of coal energy generation. When coal is used as a fuel source, the gaseous emmissions generated by the thermal decomposition of the coal, include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon...
, with plans to develop five commercial-scale coal plants equipped with CCS technology.
In November 2008, Fred Palmer, senior vice president at Peabody Energy
Peabody Energy
Peabody Energy Corporation , previously Peabody Coal Company, is the largest private-sector coal company in the world. The company is headquartered in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri....
shared his outlook on FutureGen with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), saying that the FutureGen Alliance would "Make a concerted effort in the Obama administration to reinstate the project and get this built as originally planned."
On June 12, 2009, the DOE announced a restart of design work for the FutureGen project. "Following the completion of the detailed cost estimate and fundraising activities," the press release states, "the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance will make a decision either to move forward or to discontinue the project early in 2010."
On August 5, 2010, the DOE announced a retooling of the FutureGen project, dubbed FutureGen 2.0. The revised plan includes retrofitting a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Illinois
Meredosia, Illinois
Meredosia is a village in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,041 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jacksonville Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Meredosia is located at ....
to demonstrate advanced oxy-combustion technology, and piping the carbon dioxide 175 miles to Mattoon for underground storage. Due to these changes, leaders in Mattoon decided to drop out of the FutureGen project.
The Illinois sites vying for the underground storage portion of the project were in Christian, Douglas, Fayette, and Morgan counties, after sites in Adams and Pike counties were cut in December 2010. In February 2011, Morgan County was chosen for the sequestration site. Construction on the power plant and carbon dioxide storage site is expected for spring 2013.
As of October 4, 2011, the plant detailed design package and cost estimate have been submitted to the DOE and the evaluation of them by the DOE should be completed by November 30, 2011.
See also
- Clean coalClean coalHistorically used to refer to technologies for reducing emissions of ash, sulfur, and heavy metals from coal combustion; the term is now commonly used to refer to carbon capture and storage technology...
- Carbon capture and storageCarbon capture and storageCarbon capture and storage , alternatively referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is a technology to prevent large quantities of from being released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuel in power generation and other industries. It is often regarded as a means of mitigating...
- Combined cycleCombined cycleIn electric power generation a combined cycle is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem off the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy, which in turn usually drives electrical generators...
- GasificationGasificationGasification is a process that converts organic or fossil based carbonaceous materials into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. This is achieved by reacting the material at high temperatures , without combustion, with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam...
- Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate
- North American Carbon ProgramNorth American Carbon ProgramThe North American Carbon Program is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide , methane , and carbon monoxide in North America...
External links
- FutureGen Industrial Alliance, Inc
- Marshall University Studies related to the Clean Coal Initiative
- Clean Coal Push Concerns Environmental Activists. October 16, 2005.