Cleaner path to coal coming to power plants

The advanced coal technology that’s headed to a new power plant being built near Bakersfield, Calif. — which was described in General Electric's 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.

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.

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.

Watch the three videos by clicking on the link below:

http://www.gereports.com/a-cleaner-path-to-coal-the-abcs-of-igcc-technology/

* 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 “