Wyoming takes charge of its energy future

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

By Henry Sweets

The University of Wyoming signed a letter of intent last week to partner with General Electric to build a $100 million research facility in Wyoming dedicated to cleaner burning coal technology. The plant will explore Integrative Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), a process that utilizes Carbon Capture and Storage, and could remove up to 90 percent of the carbon from coal used for energy, said Keith White, director of IGCC technology for GE.

In his ‘State of the State’ speech last week, Gov. Freudenthal recommended that an initial $20 million be set aside from the Abandoned Mines Fund for this project.
The gasification process requires that coal be heated to temperatures that would normally cause combustion. Carefully regulated air pressure and oxygen levels allow the coal to break down into Syngas, a combination of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and other gases, which could be used to generate electricity in gas and steam turbines.

This method would allow carbon to be captured and stored underground instead of being released into the atmosphere. A growing demand for cleaner energy has driven government agencies and corporations to take a closer look at the coal gasification process and the associated carbon capture possibilities.

According to GE communications manager Cynthia Coleman, the plant will host experimental gasification of Powder River Basin coal. “What the format will take, and what the advancements will be we don’t know yet,” she said. Over the next 60 days, GE and UW will hammer out the details of the agreement, including its location and the percentage of the project’s cost to be paid by each party. A roughly 50/50 financial obligation is expected, according to Coleman.

Rob Hurless, Energy policy Advisor for Governor Fruedenthal, noted that “Wyoming has an interest, long term, in making sure Powder River Basin coal has a presence in the marketplace as technology shifts to more advanced ways to use coal.”
White called the plant “a research facility that is born in current day technology, but…allows us to advance to the future.” Powder River Basin coal is abundant but holds higher moisture content than the bituminous coal currently being gasified worldwide. This facility will look at reducing the ‘performance penalty’ of gasifying high moisture coal, White said.

General Electric owns coal interests all over the world, including licenses for up to 30 gasification plants in China. The gasification of high-moisture coal would be a boon to many economies with abundant coal that is not bituminous. With global awareness of carbon emissions rising, the work done at this research plant could help shape the global landscape of carbon emissions.

Critics call clean coal an oxymoron and point to cleaner renewable energy sources, like wind, as more viable investments. Wyoming’s Infrastructure Authority is working on transmission lines to promote Wind Energy development in the state, Fruedenthal said, but this will be a small fraction of the energy output by a state responsible for 15 percent of our nation’s energy.

Ted Ladd, owner of Ladd Energy, invests in renewable energies, but he said that technology, infrastructures, and government policies have a long way to go before wind, solar, hydrogen, and other renewable energies can dominate the energy market. As the demand for energy continues to rise, Ladd said clean coal technology must be pursued to keep our current energy grid functioning.

Clean coal technology does not come without problems. Ladd pointed out that carbon has not yet been sequestered on a full production scale anywhere in the world. Carbon dioxide leakages after sequestration pose significant environmental, health and legal concerns, as well. “Before we set goals for carbon reduction we need to have a firm grasp on what is physically possible,” Ladd said.
The state legislature last week passed two bills aimed at regulating the storage of carbon underground.

Earlier this month Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley announced a set of principles evaluating carbon risk in energy investment. As a transitioning energy market tries to reinvent itself, Wyoming is moving to preserve its stake.
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Wyoming takes charge of its energy future | Planet JH News Article: General Environment

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