New power plant could land here (solution to peak oil?) [View All]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050109/NEWS01/501090369/1056#

Hamilton and Clermont counties are in the running as possible sites for a $950 million project to build the world's first non-polluting, coal-burning power plant.

The federally funded power plant and a related research center seek to develop technology that would gasify coal - an especially abundant source of energy in Ohio - but release "near zero" emissions of carbon dioxide, mercury, sulfur dioxide and other common pollutants into the atmosphere. If successful, such technology could help reduce emissions of carbon dioxide - the primary ingredient in global warming - and mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that is particularly harmful to children.


How it would work

Instead of burning pulverized coal, the plant would gasify coal by pressurizing and superheating it. The gasification - a technology that Cinergy already uses at an Indiana plant on a test basis - would allow the development of other cutting-edge technologies:

• The plant would capture carbon dioxide from the gasified coal, then inject it thousands of feet underground - where it would fuse with rock, thereby keeping it out of the atmosphere.

• It would separate hydrogen from the coal and use it to power gas turbines or fuel cells to produce clean electricity.

• It would capture common air pollutants, including mercury, emitted from power plants, and keep them out of the atmosphere. Some pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide, could be converted to byproducts such as fertilizers or soil enhancers.