DECARBONIZED FUEL PRODUCTION FACILITY - A TECHNICAL STRATEGY FOR COAL IN THE NEXT CENTURY

The US electricity market is undergoing major changes. Deregulation, increased competition, and growing environmental concerns are major challenges facing the electric power industry. These challenges also have the potential to significantly inhibit the future use of coal to produce electricity. In this paper, the authors describe a technical strategy for the coal industry that can help assure coal's competitiveness during the next century as the industry responds to these major challenges. Recently, the US Department of Energy unveiled a new concept. ``Vision 21''--a futuristic way of combining high-efficiency power technologies with advanced coal processing technologies and environmental controls to create a near-zero discharge, multi-product energy complex. This paper presents one conceptualization of a Vision 21 Plant that focuses on production of hydrogen from coal. It will show how the concept can help assure that coal can remain competitive with natural gas as a fuel for baseload electricity generation for existing and new power plants. It can also provide a feedstock for chemical and liquid fuels production, even if emissions of carbon dioxide must be controlled. Analyses are presented that provide the basis for the projected economic and technical performance objectives.