Gasification Research Is A Coal New Story
Published Nov 03, 2009
General Electric and the University of Wyoming are partners in a $100 million to $120 million project that aims to gasify coal from the Powder River Basin, a robust energy source that also poses challenges for clean-coal technology.
The High Plains Gasification Advanced Technology Center will be built on land provided by economic development organization Cheyenne LEADS in the 900-acre Cheyenne Business Parkway industrial park. The small-scale gasification plant is expected to be fully operational in 2012.
Coal gasification is getting attention because the waste stream, which includes carbon dioxide, is easier to process and sequester, or capture, than the byproducts of traditional coal-fired power generation. The ability to capture carbon and store it, possibly deep in underground saltwater aquifers, is what gives gasification technology its appeal as a cleaner energy source.
Wyoming is a good home for research into clean coal technologies. Nearly 40 percent of the nation’s coal comes from Wyoming and more than a third of the coal used to produce electricity in the United States comes from the Powder River Basin.
The coal is abundant and accessible.
It also has a high moisture content, which makes the coal incompatible with some gasification systems. The High Plains Center, about 1/100th the size of a full-scale plant, will test a different method of feeding the coal into the gasification chamber along with oxygen and steam.
“Our partnership is extremely important for Wyoming,” says Bill Gern, vice president of research and economic development at the University of Wyoming. “And GE is very interested in making their technology efficient.”
The gasification project will be part of the School of Energy Resources, which in August 2009 received a competitive $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study carbon sequestration.
Powder River Basin coal is not only moisture-rich, it also has a lower energy content than some other coals, and the higher altitude affects the gasification process. GE wants to expand the type of coals that can be used with its Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle technology.
“We are thrilled,” says Randy Bruns, CEO of Cheyenne LEADS.
Competition for the project was fierce, and when GE and the University of Wyoming put out a request for proposals, LEADS already had 35 properly zoned, shovel-ready acres that fit the bill.
The project will create an immediate economic boost by adding about 300 construction jobs, but the long-term potential is far greater. LEADS says the known coal reserves in Wyoming could power the entire United States for 200 years or more.
Other companies have that resource in their sights, too. In September 2009, Casper-based GasTech Inc. and Linc Energy of Australia announced separate plans for an underground coal gasification test project in the Powder River Basin.
The GE project is different because it involves public partners and taxpayer money. LEADS donated the land to the University of Wyoming, and the state, through the university, will pitch in $50 million for the demonstration plant.
Bruns says it is a wise investment.
“We’ve chosen to be at the front end of research to solve problems rather than just defend our resource. That is forethought,” he says. “Wyoming is investing in the research into how to cleanly use carbon and what may be next.”
Story by Pamela Coyle
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