A cleaner path to coal: The ABCs of IGCC technology

The advanced coal technology that’s headed to a new power plant being built near Bakersfield, California — which we described in our story last week – will produce electricity with much lower emissions than conventional coal plants. Known as “integrated gasification combined cycle” technology, it’s already in action in Florida at a key plant that helped demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the innovation. In the video below, Mark Hornick, general manager of the Polk Power Station in Tampa, Fla., explains the technology and what it’s meant for the plant and the community.

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While the Florida plant delivers 250 megawatts of electricity, GE Energy is also supplying IGCC technology for Duke Energy’s giant plant in Edwardsport, Indiana. It’s expected to be the world’s largest IGCC facility when it reaches commercial operation in 2012, generating 630 megawatts — enough power for about 500,000 homes. The technology at the heart of both of these plants is a complex mix of chemical scrubbers and systems to maximize energy output. The animation below may make you feel a bit like you flashed-back to your high-school chemistry class, but for those with a techie side, it does an excellent job of making a complex process understandable.

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The California plant is also designed to capture up to 90 percent of its carbon dioxide, which would be pumped into oil wells in an adjacent field to aid in oil recovery — and then permanently stored there deep underground. The animated clip below explains how that part of the IGCC process works.

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* Read “California plant picks GE’s advanced coal technology” on GE Reports
* Learn about the alliance between GE and BP to develop IGCC plants
* Watch Hydrogen Energy’s video about how the plant will work
* Read “GE’s advanced coal technology arrives at Duke Energy” on GE Reports
* See the technical specs of an IGCC plant
* Read GE Reports’ story about Australia’s effort to capture carbon from IGCC plants
* Read Forbes’ story about GE’s IGCC work

Tagged as: ecomagination November 5, 2009 at 12:21 pm Share this

11/06/2009 11:27 am Posted by Gheorghe Curelet-Balan
Nice and easy to grasp animations of a complex technological process.
11/09/2009 10:44 pm Posted by Kalyan Mamidanna
Great Technology!
11/19/2009 01:41 pm Posted by Tenton Horton
Bully for GE. This looks like our old reliable GE at work !!
11/20/2009 11:54 pm Posted by helensizemore
Hi my name is helen sizemore i have to babies thats is raze on a miners pay i live in harlan and just wanted to say a few words my daddy was a coal miner and my husband is a coal miner and brothers and brother-inlaw are to and i just wanted to say i think the clean coal thing is crape and we are people that are trying to raze there familys we live payday to paydaywin you take our jobs what do you wont us to live on coal has never hart people so why are you all making big seen out of it just think when up flip your light on or get a drink of water how do you think that happens our coal familys make that happen and they are never had a thank you or anything and when you say win mills they are made out of our coal and like my husband quit school when he was 15 teen and you tell me some one who will give him a job and pay him money that he is making know and if srip mining is so bad how do you think they are going to live now and let me tell you some thing come were i live and live like me and all of us and then you will leave us along coal mining was here long befor my time all i know as a kids let our coal miner raze us with our coal pay we have to has coal on matter what you do so let us be and ill support our coal miners and strip miners as long as this go on and if i was in west var i’d shut the doors and go on a srik and let you all see that we need coal and then you would love our coal miners and strip miners whom ever reads this support our coal miners if you were in my shoes you would think 2 about taken our jobs and for all of them people that go to chruch do you think god would wont our babies to go hurry no so think 2 about what you are doing and whin that time come you will pay cause plant green is not what god is going to look at we all come from the same place and when we die gods only has one place for good people and there are only one for bad peopleand that is hell every job you take from our coal miners thank about our babies i love my coal miners they get down and drity in the dark!!!!!support our coal!!!!!!!!!100% coal it keeps your light on.thank you coal miners wife!!!!!!

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