A nice lady in Willcox emailed to let me know about a website that answers a lot of my questions about coal gasification. It is http://www.energyjustice.net/coal/igcc/.
These are the pollutants that you get from coal:
sulfur dioxides (SOx, or acid rain)
carbon dioxide (CO2) (the major source of global warming)
mercury (one of the most toxic substances known)
nitrogen oxides (NOx) (creates permanent lung damage, among other things)
plus some others like arsenic and selenium, which go into the air.
What they want to build in Bowie is a plant that uses IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle). This is a system that gasifies coal into synthetic gas (syngas) to power a gas turbine. The heat from the gas turbine exhaust then generates steam to run a steam turbine. They say that process will make it possible to capture much of the pollutants before they are released into the air.
A large coal-fired power plant like this one emits the CO2 equivalent from one million SUVs. Coal-fired electrical generation has been the largest single source of pollution in the U.S. (and the world) for over 30 years. They say that they can capture and recycle the CO2, but there are no concrete plans to do so, and there are no currently operating plants that have succeeded in doing this.
This website quotes testimony from an IGCC veteran Stephen D. Jenkins, dated January 2007 to the Florida Public Service Commission. Steve Jenkins, who has over 30 years of experience in the power industry, including IGCC power plants, gave an in-depth analysis of the IGCC technology for CO2 capture and sequestration.
"IGCC is not inherently CO2 capture ready without significant additions, modifications and impacts to its efficiency and output. I have heard many people apply the term 'CO2 capture ready' to IGCC without really inderstanding what is involved, both technically and financially, to implement these significant changes. Just because people call it CO2 capture ready does not mean that it is."
The entire report, which describes the IGCC technology in some detail, is available at:
http://www.mncoalgasplant.com/stevejenkins-fgpp-psctestimony.pdf
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