Futuregen Project

This presentation will highlight the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) FutureGen project - a $1 billion government-industry partnership to design, build, and operate a near-zero emissions coal-fueled power plant. The lead organization for the FutureGen initiative is the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), a multi-purpose laboratory operated by the U.S. DOE's Office of Fossil Energy. NETL has a mission to conduct R & D from fundamental science to technology demonstration for resolving the environmental, supply, and reliability constraints of producing and using fossil energy resources. The commercial-scale FutureGen R & D facility is a pathway toward future fossil-energy power plants that will produce hydrogen and electricity while nearly eliminating emissions, including carbon dioxide. The 275-megawatt FutureGen plant will initiate operations around 2012 and employ advanced coal gasification technology integrated with combined cycle electricity generation, hydrogen production, and carbon capture and sequestration. Low carbon emissions would be achieved by integrating CO2 capture and sequestration operations with the power plant.

The FutureGen 2.0 Project will design and build a first-of-its-kind, near-zero emissions coal-fueled power plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS). To assess storage site performance and meet the regulatory requirements of the Class VI Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program for CO2 Geologic Sequestration, the FutureGen 2.0 project will implement a suite of monitoring technologies designed to 1) evaluate CO2 mass balance and 2) detect any unforeseen loss in CO2 containment. The monitoring program will include direct monitoring of the injection stream and reservoir, and early-leak-detection monitoring directly above the primary confining zone. It will also implement an adaptive monitoring strategy whereby monitoring results are continually evaluated and the monitoring network is modified as required, including the option to drill additional wells in out-years. Wells will be monitored for changes in CO2 concentration and formation pressure, and other geochemical/isotopic signatures that provide indication of CO2 or brine leakage. Indirect geophysical monitoring technologies that were selected for implementation include passive seismic, integrated surface deformation, time-lapse gravity, and pulsed neutron capture logging. Near-surface monitoring approaches that have been initiated include surficial aquifer and surface- water monitoring, soil-gas monitoring, atmospheric monitoring, and hyperspectral data acquisition for assessment of vegetation conditions. Initially, only the collection of baseline data sets is planned; the need for additional near- surface monitoring will be continually evaluated throughout the design and operational phases of the project, and selected approaches may be reinstituted if conditions warrant. Given the current conceptual understanding of the subsurface environment, early and appreciable impacts to near-surface environments are not expected.