Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) said that the oxy-coal combustion technology has been included by the US Department of Energy (DOE) in its award of a cooperative agreement to Ameren Energy Resources Company for the $1bn FutureGen 2.0 project, an integrated test of an oxy-coal-fired power plant with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS).
The technology has been developed by B&W subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group (B&W PGG) and Air Liquide Process & Construction.
The cooperative agreement between the DOE and Ameren is the first step in the development of the project to repower a 200MW power generation system at Ameren’s Meredosia Plant near Jacksonville, Ill with oxy-coal combustion technology developed by B&W PGG and Air Liquide.
The project is designed to produce clean energy from coal by capturing and storing approximately 1.3 million tons of CO2 each year.
B&W PGG expects its scope of work will be to design the near-zero emissions plant’s oxy-coal combustion system, air quality control systems, boiler, steel and other control systems.
Construction is estimated to begin in 2012 and be completed by the fourth quarter 2015.
The oxy-coal combustion process uses oxygen mixed with recycled flue gas to replace the normal combustion air in a coal-fired boiler. As coal is burned, the resulting flue gas consists primarily of CO2, which is well-suited for compression and storage.
B&W PGG has successfully demonstrated oxy-coal combustion technology at its Clean Environmental Development Facility, a 30MW-thermal combustion test facility in Ohio, which is applicable for new coal-fired power plants and for repowering or retrofits on existing coal-fired facilities.