http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/science/28COAL.html
U.S. Seeking Cleaner Model of Coal Plant By ANDREW C. REVKIN The Energy Department yesterday announced plans to build an experimental power plant within 10 years that runs on coal but emits no carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that makes coal plants major contributors to global warming. The project, called FutureGen, is considered a first step toward creating a generation of coal-fueled power plants that emit no greenhouse gases and cost no more than 10 percent extra to run, department officials said. The technology is essential, said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, if the vast coal reserves in the United States and in many developing countries are to be used without adding to the atmosphere's burden of greenhouse gases. Coal-fueled plants now produce about 40 percent of the roughly 23 billion tons of carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere each year, and coal is still considered a vital underpinning of economic development, here and overseas. "There is no doubt coal is going to be a principal fuel source in the 21st century," Mr. Abraham said. The project, he said, "will help turn coal from an environmentally challenging energy resource into an environmentally benign one." The $1 billion cost of the pilot project over the next 10 years would be shared by the United States, other countries and private companies, although no partners have been enlisted, officials said. The outlines of the plan were described yesterday in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Abraham said that the administration would proceed with the project with or without international partners, but that it was seeking assistance from more than 20 coal-flush countries, including Australia and China. Scientists, environmental groups and power industry officials generally lauded the plan, but many said the resulting technology would probably not change the status quo unless new emission standards forced plant owners to buy new equipment. President Bush has rejected mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gases, calling only for voluntary measures to curb growth in emissions unless scientific research reveals clearer environmental risks. "A large-scale demonstration of carbon-capture technology is a good idea, but without a requirement to limit carbon emissions the market won't use it," said David G. Hawkins, a climate policy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private environmental group. Under the plan for the pilot power plant, governments would cover as much as 80 percent of the cost, and industry would pay the rest. Yesterday, officials from several big power companies said that committing their share, perhaps $200 million, would be hard, particularly with no guarantee that Congress would allocate the government's share. "Companies are skittish about the ability of the federal government to deliver on a financial commitment over a long period of time," said Dale E. Heydlauff, a senior vice president of American Electric Power, an Ohio company that is the largest consumer of coal in the Western Hemisphere. The prototype plant would be somewhat akin to several coal "gasification" power plants, which extract less-polluting gases from coal instead of burning it and unleashing all manner of emissions. But the new design would go far beyond existing technologies, extracting nonpolluting hydrogen to generate electricity or to power fuel cells and pumping the carbon dioxide deep into the earth to avoid further buildup of the gas in the atmosphere. Independent experts said that there were major technical challenges to overcome in every aspect of the design but that they were surmountable with a sustained effort and money. The prototype plant would generate about 275 megawatts of electricity, or about a fourth of the output of a conventional large coal-fueled plant. The Energy Department did not name a site but said it would probably be somewhere near coal reserves and in an area that would allow waste gases to be pumped into natural repositories. Bush administration officials said they would play host to about 20 countries in June to try to enlist them in the project and other efforts to store carbon dioxide underground. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
