Gasification & IGCC Forum

Gasification and IGCC in the news

A bright spot for IGCC:

DOE moves to release funding 
for Texas Clean Energy Project

According to today's Fossil Energy Techline, the US DOE issued a Record of Decision (ROD) that – along with a signed cooperative agreement – will allow federal funding to be used to help build the Summit Power Texas Clean Energy Project - an advanced first-of-a-kind clean coal power plant.

The ROD and cooperative agreement between DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and Summit sets in motion continued federal cost-shared funds for the project, to be built just west of Midland-Odessa, Texas.

The 400MW facility is a "poly-generation" plant, combining IGCC power generation, urea production, and CO2 capture for use in enhanced oil recovery in nearby oil fields.

The project will be partially funded with $450 million from Fossil Energy's Clean Coal Power Initiative.  About half of this will come from the funds allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for such projects.

DOE’s action to issue the ROD was reached after considering, among other things, the project’s potential environmental impacts and the options for mitigation of the impacts.

"The Texas Clean Energy Project is vitally important...... and a significant step forward that demonstrates the US commitment to developing clean energy technologies and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases," said Chuck McConnell, FE’s Chief Operating Officer.

The plant will convert sub-bituminous coal into hydrogen-rich syngas and CO2. The syngas and high-quality steam will be fed to the combined-cycle plant to produce electricity.  The facility will integrate Siemens' IGCC technology and Linde Rectisol® acid-gas removal technology to capture 90 percent of the CO2 from the syngas—about 3 million tons per year.

A portion of the captured CO2 will be used to produce urea for fertilizer while most of it will be used for enhanced oil recovery  with monitoring, verification, and accounting to demonstrate the permanence of geologic storage. The CO2 will be transported through existing regional pipelines to the oil fields of the west Texas Permian Basin, the largest CO2-EOR region in the world.

Of the 400MW of electrical power generated by the combined cycle plant, about half will be used on site and the other half will be delivered to the power grid. The plant will also produce sulfuric acid, argon, and inert slag as minor products for sale in commercial markets.

According to Summit, sale of CO2  will generate about one-third of the project's gross revenues.

The project is expected to create an average of 650 jobs during construction, with a peak of 1,500 workers. The project’s operational workforce is expected to be approximately 150 workers.

The current schedule is for TCEP to become operational late in 2014 or early in 2015.  This assumes that financial closing will take place early in 2012.