I first heard about The FutureGen Project a few years ago when my company and I were asked to coordinate a meeting with leaders from Oklahoma and Texas at Sarkeys Energy Center, University of Oklahoma, to discuss opportunities of the project for our region. At that time, Texas as was putting together a proposal for the FutureGen Project to be located within its boundaries.
FutureGen , a $1 billion-plus government-industry project, was proposed to make the most of coal as a plentiful fuel. Essentially, the goal was to provide a first-of-its kind clean power plant, with a target completion date of 2012. Nearly every facet of the prototype plant was to be based on cutting-edge technology that already existed. The goal was for this highly energy-efficient, coal-supplied power plant to produce near zero emissions. But the FutureGen project was withdrawn under the Bush administration.
Then, according to the US Department of Energy, in August 2010 US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the awarding of $1 billion in Recovery Act funding to the FutureGen Alliance, Ameren Energy Resources, Babcock & Wilcox, and Air Liquide Process & Construction, Inc. to build FutureGen 2.0, a clean coal repowering program and carbon dioxide storage network.
The project partners plan to repower Ameren’s two-hundred megawatt Unit 4 in Meredosia, Illinois, with advance oxy-combustion technology to capture approx. 1.3 million metric tons of CO2 each year—more than 90 percent of the plant’s carbon emissions.
Although FutureGen appeared to be on hold as of early 2012, Chu remains committed to the FutureGen project as an American energy solution. He stated, “This investment in the world’s first commercial-scale oxy-combustion power plant will help to open up the over $300 billion market for coal unit repowering and position the country as a leader in an important part of the global clean energy economy.”
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