Status of the United States
Coal Research, Development & Demonstration Program

Presented by
Patricia Fry Godley
Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy
United States Department of Energy
to the
International Committee on Coal Research
October 24, 1995

Links to sections of this document:
Introduction | U.S. Coal RD&D Program | Environmental Drivers | Content of Program | Status of Clean Coal Technology Program

The United States' energy policy emphasizes the maximum utilization of all of its domestic energy resources in a clean, efficient, and cost effective manner. Every facet of the U.S. economy depends on reliable, low-cost energy. For over a century, fossil fuels -- coal, petroleum, and natural gas -- have been central in filling this need. Today, fossil fuels remain the energy mainstays of the U.S.' energy supply, accounting for over 85 percent of its primary energy consumption.

According to the projections of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States is becoming more energy efficient. From 1970 to the mid-1980s United States energy intensity per dollar of GDP dropped and is projected to continue to decrease through 2010 (a 40 percent reduction in the 1970 to 2010 period). Nevertheless, overall energy demand is expected to increase by about 20 percent between now and 2010, and electricity demand will continue to grow.

Today, coal is an indispensable part of our Nation's energy mix. Because of its abundance, low cost and reliability of supply, coal has become a primary fuel for electric power and industrial steam production in the United States. Approximately 88 percent of the coal produced in the United States is used for electric power generation.

EIA projects that the annual growth for electricity demand in the United States will be in the 0.8 to 1.4 percent range. Coal is projected to remain the dominant fuel for electricity generation (currently providing 56 percent of the electricity).

Through 2010, 29,000 Megawatts (MWe) of new coal-fired electric utility capacity will be added in the United States (that is about 100 new plants). Coal production will increase by an average of 1.1 percent per year through 2010, to meet the demand for coal in both domestic and export markets.

While the United States anticipates increased demand for electricity and continued use of coal as the dominant fuel for power generation, we as a Nation are committed to achieving a cleaner environment. We are developing technology options that enable us to use our plentiful domestic energy sources with fewer impacts on environmental quality. For example, we anticipate that clean coal technologies will serve both the economic and environmental goals of our Nation, by making coal the lowest cost, environmentally sound energy choice.

The same dynamics that make clean coal technologies attractive in the United States will also apply in many other regions of the world. Worldwide energy demand is expected to rise dramatically over the next two decades, particularly the demand for low-cost electricity in developing nations and Eastern Europe. The EIA projects a growth of over 50 percent in global electricity demand between now and 2010 (increasing from 10 to 15 trillion kilowatt-hours).

Coal, which makes up 70 percent of the world's fossil energy reserves, is likely to be the primary fuel source for meeting these energy needs. In a recent report, the U.S. National Coal Council reported that in the next 10 years, for example, Indonesia is planning to add 31,000 MWe of new coal electric capacity and India is planning to add 10,000 MWe. The People's Republic of China is annually adding 10,000 to 12,000 MWe of new coal-fired capacity (currently using conventional steam-cycle power plants).

Unfortunately, as global consumption of coal increases, so will global emissions of carbon dioxide. Clean coal technologies can potentially cut these emissions by close to half over that which would be produced by existing power generation technology.

Clean coal technologies can assure that the world's demand for electric power is met in an environmentally clean and efficient manner.

Clean coal technologies can reduce NOx emissions by over 90 percent, SO2 emissions by over 95 percent, particulate emissions by over 98 percent, and replace much of the waste products with sellable by-products (such as elemental sulfur). They can also reduce CO2 emissions proportional to efficiency improvements. If half of the projected global capacity additions are in the form of clean coal plants, it would reduce SO2 emissions by 30 million tons per year, and NOx emissions by 7 million tons per year (compared to deploying uncontrolled coal plants).

While countries with struggling economies worry about the affordability of clean technologies, more and more countries are imposing tight emission control standards. India and Indonesia, for example, already have relatively tight standards and China is developing standards. Also, with every year as clean coal technologies have been maturing, costs have progressively been coming down.

According to U.S. National Coal Council projections, the worldwide demand for capital for infrastructure projects over the next 20 years is in the $27 trillion range. Seventy percent of this demand is for electrification, of which 50 percent can be supplied by coal fueled plants. This translates to a potential demand for clean coal technologies that could reach $500 billion annually, providing a huge opportunity for deployment of clean coal technologies.

United States Coal RD&D Programs

To advance clean coal technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy has structured an integrated program for research, development and demonstration. The U.S. government and industry have for the last two decades funded, in partnership with each other, substantial research, development and demonstration (RD&D) projects for technologies which use coal more cleanly, efficiently, and at low cost. And we have many successes to show for our efforts.

These partnerships are responsible for the development of several types of low-NOx burners, suitable for use in different types of existing coal boilers. Without this investment, funded in part by the Federal RD&D and Clean Coal Technology programs, the costs of reducing utility boiler NOx emissions under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments would be far higher.

Atmospheric Fluidized Bed Combustion (AFBC) is now widely used for new applications in the United States, with about 80 AFBC units brought on line in the United States for electricity production (some in cogeneration applications) in the last decade. AFBC has several advantages: it has low NOx emissions, due to its low temperature of operation; it can control SO2 emissions without an expensive scrubber; and it can burn a greater variety of coals, and even coal wastes (including hospital wastes). In fact, one AFBC unit in Pennsylvania burns coal waste that consists of more rock than coal. The ability to use waste coal from long-abandoned gob (waste) piles enables AFBCs to reduce environmental problems associated with such piles, such as acid runoff. Many people don't realize, though, that Federal RD&D played an important role in developing and demonstrating AFBCs in the United States. Investment outside of the United States, too, has played a substantial role in the development of this versatile and clean technology.

As discussed in more detail below, there are many more examples of how government and industry partnerships have helped bring cleaner technology into the commercial marketplace, or to the brink of commercial development.

Environmental Drivers

Through a combination of regulation and new technology development and deployment, the United States has achieved dramatic reductions in waste generation and air emissions (such as airborne lead, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and low level ozone) in the last two decades. For example, between 1970 and 1990, coal-fired electricity generation increased by 241 percent. However, total overall SO2 emissions have actually decreased by about 10 percent from 1970 levels, and particulate emissions have declined 82 percent. That record of progress is assured to continue with the advances being made in clean coal technology and the requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA90).

The CAAA90 require an additional reduction of sulfur dioxide from utility boilers of almost 50 percent; will require as yet unspecified reductions in several air toxics; and will require substantial reductions of oxides of nitrogen (a crucial precursor of low level ozone), of which utility boilers are a major source.

There is one more program driver in the United States which needs to be discussed. This is the movement toward greater competition in the provision of electricity. While the near term emphasis appears to be on establishing rules to open up transmission lines for wholesale competition, few observers doubt that retail competition will be far behind.

The anticipated end of exclusive franchise territories, served only by local monopolies, is even now putting pressure on electricity providers to reduce present and future costs. An important implication is that utilities are less willing to spend money on R&D or on demonstration projects, nor are some of their major customers interested in seeing them do so.

Thus we are in the somewhat ironic position in the United States of having declining Federal RD&D budgets, while at the same time, there is great pressure on utilities to cut back similar expenditures. Despite these very substantial obstacles, we expect to continue the substantial progress we have already made in developing environmentally superior technologies.

Content of RD&D Program

The Department of Energy's Clean Coal Research, Development and Demonstration Program is focused on supporting development of advanced technologies necessary to meet the Nation's energy and environmental needs of the 21st century. The RD&D program has three components: Advanced Research, Applied R&D and Commercial Demonstration. Promising concepts identified in our advanced research program are developed in our applied R&D program and then are ultimately demonstrated in our Clean Coal Technology (CCT) Demonstration Program. The RD&D program is focused on the development of technologies for the production of clean coal fuels and for the generation of electric power in a clean, efficient, and cost effective manner.

The Clean Fuels effort focuses on technologies for producing clean, economically competitive coal-derived liquids and beneficiated solid and slurry fuels. The goal of the coal liquids program is to develop environmentally superior processes for the production of transportation fuels which can compete with crude oil at $25 per barrel or less. Based on current oil price projections, commercial viability of these technologies will not occur until the second decade of the 21st century. However, major recent advances show that plastic and rubber wastes can be blended with coal feedstock that would reduce product costs into the $22 range. If we could fully integrate the liquefaction process with a refinery, product cost could be further reduced by as much as 30 percent. In the coal cleaning area, several technologies have been developed and are now being deployed, such as Virginia Polytechnic Institute's Microcell Process. R&D is also underway to identify cost-effective ways of removing air toxics such as mercury through coal cleaning.

In the Advanced Power Generation area, DOE programs focus on a portfolio of technologies that will yield the clean coal power generation systems of the future. Particular emphasis in coal has been placed on developing progressively higher efficiency power generation systems. These technologies significantly reduce CO2 and exceed environmental compliance requirements through processes that prevent, rather than control, pollutant emissions.

Specific power generation performance goals include progressively raising system efficiency from a current national average of 32-35 percent to 50-60 percent, reducing emission to one-tenth the U.S. new source performance standards, and at the same time reducing the cost of electricity by 10 percent or more.

If we achieve the latter cost goals and these systems are deployed, by 2010 we can save U.S. rate payers over $1 billion annually in their electricity bills. In this fashion, we would recoup the technology development costs within a year or so from the savings. At the same time, efficiency improvements could reduce CO2 emissions by almost half (on a per plant basis).

The CCT Program is now demonstrating the first generation versions of clean fuel and power generation technologies. These are systems that, for example in the case of power generation, offer system efficiencies in the 40-45 percent range. Second generation or advanced systems with efficiencies in the 50-60 percent range and further reductions in emissions are under development under the R&D program.

Progress is continuing to be made in developing these systems. The technical feasibility of achieving the goals mentioned earlier has been established at a benchscale level, key problems have been identified (such as filter durability and heat exchanger performance), and an R&D effort is underway to solve those problems. Plastics and other wastes were fed into a liquefaction reactor with coal during this past year and a high quality liquid (synthetic oil) was produced, thereby demonstrating its technical feasibility.

DOE will shortly complete construction of a central test facility for testing power generation components (the Wilsonville facility in Alabama). Advanced power system technologies, including particulate removal devices and a transport reactor gasification system, will be tested on about a 4-7 MWe scale at this facility, which is scheduled for startup in FY1996. Operation of this facility will provide an opportunity to scale-up critical components and to demonstrate the integration of hot gas cleanup and gas turbine components.

A coal pyrolyzer, or carbonizer, is a key component of advanced PFB systems, which with other system improvements can raise PFB system efficiencies from the 40 percent range to about 50 percent. Good results have been obtained running the carbonizer at Foster Wheeler. It will now be integrated into a scaled up PFB test train at our Wilsonville test facility to verify the previous results and address scaling issues.

High temperature removal of sulfur can increase IGCC system efficiencies by several points. Good results have been obtained during the past year from tests conducted at General Electric (GE) and DOE's Morgantown Energy Technology Center (in-house R&D) which have demonstrated its technical feasibility, but sorbent stability problems were found in the presence of steam which would reduce system durability. Work at the Wilsonville Facility will verify the GE results in an integrated fashion and address scaling issues.

Particulate capture is a major problem for both IGCC and PFB systems, especially for PFB (where capture has to occur at a higher temperature to avoid efficiency loss). Promising results have been obtained during the past year with the testing of candle filters and other systems, but filter durability (cracking) continues to be a problem. Future testing in this area will also be integrated at Wilsonville, which can run under both PFB (high temperature, oxidizing) and IGCC (low temperature, reducing) conditions.

This work -- at an increased scale and integrated with other system components -- will provide the engineering base for further advancing the technologies currently being demonstrated in the CCT program.

Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program Status

The Clean Coal Technology Program is a cost-shared industry/government technology development effort (2/3 of the funding is provided by U.S. industry and state agencies). Begun in 1985 to meet the recommendations of the United States and Canadian Special Envoys on Acid Rain, the CCT Program has resulted in a capital investment of nearly $7 billion in 43 competitively selected projects. As the program has developed, the early emphasis on acid rain abatement has been broadened to include the full range of environmental issues including global warming and air toxics.

Approximately 74 percent, or about $5.3 billion, of the total CCT Program costs are directed toward enhancing efficiency and reliability of electric power production by addressing advanced electric power generation systems and the market applications of environmental control devices.

Over 1,000 MWe of new capacity and over 800 MWe of repowered capacity are represented by 14 advanced electric power generation projects with an estimated cost of over $4.6 billion. Projects include five integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) systems, six fluidized-bed combustion systems, and three advanced combustion/heat engine systems. These projects not only will provide environmentally sound, more efficient, and less costly electric power generation in the mid-to-late-1990s, but will also provide the demonstrated technology base necessary to meet new capacity requirements in the 21st century.

There are 19 environmental control device projects valued at more than $686 million. These projects include seven NOx emissions control systems installed on over 1,700 MWe of utility generating capacity, five SO2 emissions control systems installed on about 775 MWe, and seven combined SO2/NOx emissions control systems installed on about 765 MWe of capacity.

Participants in these two categories of projects involve over 55 investor-owned utilities, non- utility power generators, municipals, and cooperatives. These electric power generators represent approximately 50 percent of the coal-fired capacity in the United States and almost 70 percent of the units affected by Phase I under Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

The five projects in the coal processing for clean fuels application category, valued at nearly $522 million, represent a diversified portfolio of technologies. These projects involve the production of high-energy-density solid compliance fuels for utility or industrial boilers. One of these projects also produces a liquid for use as a chemical or transportation fuel feedstock. One project will demonstrate a new methanol production process. The fifth project is developing an expert computer system which will enable a utility to predict operating performance of coals being considered but not previously burned in the utility's boiler.

The five projects in the industrial applications category have a combined value of over $1.3 billion. Projects encompass the substitution of coal for 40 percent of the coke used in iron making, integration of a direct iron-making process with the production of electricity, reduction of cement kiln emissions, and the demonstration of two industrial-scale combustors.

Today a total of 21 CCT Program projects have completed operation: 2 advanced electric power generation systems (one atmospheric fluidized-bed combustion system project and one pressurized fluidized-bed combustion system project); 16 environmental control device projects (6 NOx control technology projects, 5 SO2 control technology projects and 5 combined SO2/NOx control technology projects); 1 clean fuels application, and 2 industrial applications projects.

This portfolio of completed projects is providing valuable data for addressing the pressing environmental and energy issues associated with the utility and industrial use of coal. An in- depth discussion of the CCT Program summaries of technical, environmental and economic results of completed projects and all 43 projects is available in DOE's annual report, "Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program: Program Update 1994." A number of the projects have received technology achievement awards. These include the Tidd pressurized fluidized-bed project by Ohio Power Company; Babcock & Wilcox Company Low- NOx/Cell Burner Project; Pure Air Lake Advanced Flue Gas Desulfurization Project; and Southern Company Services, Inc. CT-121 FGD Project.

In addition, a number of commercial successes have been realized from projects in the CCT program and from which U.S. taxpayers are receiving repayment for their cost shared investment. A brief list of these successes includes:

• The Babcock & Wilcox Company has installed the low-NOx cell burner (LNCB) technology on more than 2,500 MWe of capacity in the United States -- each installation achieving more than 50 percent NOx reduction. In addition, LNCB retrofits have been ordered for an additional 3,250 MWe.

• The Babcock & Wilcox Company has sold 85 contracts (61 domestic and 24 international) for the DRB-XCL low-NOx burners demonstrated by Public Service Company of Colorado. These sales involve 1,515 burners or 20,396 MWe of capacity.

• Foster Wheeler has had about $20 million in sales of the low-NOx burners demonstrated on Georgia Power Company's Plant Hammond.

• Successful testing of the AirPol demonstration project resulted in the city of Hamilton, Ohio, receiving a $5 million grant from the Ohio Coal Development Office to install the GSA technology on a 50 MWe coal-fired boiler at the city's municipal power plant. The system is also being used in Sweden and Taiwan.

• In 1994, a CT-121 scrubber was purchased by a Canadian industrial concern for its facility that extracts oil from tar sands.

• Ohio Edison Company has retained ABB Environmental Systems' SNOX system at its Niles Station as part of its Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 compliance strategy. Commercial SNOX plants have been started up in Denmark and Sicily.

• A commercial version of Babcock & Wilcox's successfully demonstrated limestone injection multistage burner (LIMB) is being installed in an independent power production project in Canada.

• The flue gas recovery system for SO2 reduction, demonstrated by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, has been incorporated as a permanent part of a 1,450-ton-per-day cement plant. A Taiwanese cement-maker has engaged the Tribe's technology company to do a study for installing the scrubber there.

• Pyropower Corporation saved almost 3 years in establishing a commercial line of atmospheric circulating fluidized-bed units because of the demonstration conducted at Tri- State Generation and Transmission Association's Nucla Station between 1988 and 1991.

• The first commercial sale of the Coal Quality Expert Acid Rain Advisor software package was made in 1993, the final version was released in August 1995.

• Liquid and solid products from ENCOAL Corporation's demonstration project have been sold for commercial applications. Feasibility studies also are under way for projects in China, Indonesia, and Russia.

• Custom Coals led a U.S. consortium which has signed a cooperative agreement worth $888.6 million with China to build a coal-cleaning plant, a 500 mile underground coal slurry pipeline, and a port facility in China. The pipeline would bring coals from the Shanxi Province in Northwest China to the coastal Province of Shondong.

• Rosebud SynCoal Partnership is working on three potential semi-commercial projects located in Wyoming, North Dakota, and Montana, ranging in size from 0.5 to 1 million tons per year. The Wyoming project is a stand alone mine-mouth design. The North Dakota project is integrated into a mine-mouth power plant with project sales offsite to regional markets. The Montana project is designed to expand the existing demonstration facility.

Furthermore, test results from the Southern Company Services, Inc., demonstration of low-NOx burners were used by EPA to develop Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 regulations for NOx control. Data on hazardous air pollutants collected under the CCT Program are also being shared with EPA for use in formulating air toxic control regulations required under Title III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

In conclusion, the number of complex, capital-intensive projects put in place as a result of the CCT program is unprecedented, as is the degree of cost-sharing achieved in this cooperative government and private sector technology development program. With the government serving as a risk-sharing partner, industry funding has been leveraged to improve the environment, reduce the cost of compliance with environmental reductions, reduce the cost of generating electricity, improve power generation efficiencies, create jobs, and position United States-based industry to compete successfully in the international market place.