DOE grants $1 billion for carbon capture and storage project

Posted on: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:21:35 EDT

Aug 10, 2010 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) --
The US Department of Energy, or DOE, has awarded $1 billion funds to four clean technology developers for a near-zero emission carbon capture and storage project.

The funds will be utilized by the FutureGen Alliance, a non-profit consortium of global energy firms Ameren Energy Resources, Babcock & Wilcox, and Air Liquide Process & Construction, to repower Ameren's existing 200MW plant in Meredosia, Illinois.

The project, called the FutureGen 2.0, will reportedly replace plans to construct an experimental coal-fired power plant, which will capture and store CO2 underground.

This project is also expected to create approximately 2,000 jobs in Illinois with work scheduled to start in spring 2011, revealed businessGreen.com.

FutureGen 2.0 will comprise of a boiler, an air separation unit, a CO2 purification as well as a compression unit, which will capture 90% of the CO2 from the plant and eliminate most sulphur and nitrous oxides, as well as mercury and particulate emissions, said NewNet.

Steven Chu, energy secretary of DOE, said: "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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