DOE kills FutureGen Coal Gasification Plant

[mheslep]

Futuregen was the DOE's clean coal, carbon capture, and hydrogen production prototype plant all rolled into one. Started in 2003, DOE http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/02/06/futuregen-fight-gloves-off/?mod=googlenews_wsj" it had enough of the big bang project, it was busting its budget and DOE thought it might fail regardless. DOE is now morphing Futuregen into several smaller projects that would keep the clean coal - carbon capture but dump the rest.


http://www.futuregenalliance.org/news/doe_proposal_fact_check_013108.stm"
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/FED1EF50F9C186CA862573E70017463B?OpenDocument"
http://www.futuregenalliance.org/news/futuregen_alliance_statement_020608.stm"

Block Diagram of Futuregen technology

 

[vanesch]

What was the principle of carbon capture ? I have personally my doubts about this, but then I can be wrong...

EDIT: I should have looked better: the carbon sequestration is by deep geological storage. It is funny that for millions of tons of non-decaying CO2 which should hence be kept for millions of years seems to be no problem in the eye of the (green) beholder, but if the same is proposed for much smaller quantities of nuclear waste that will be harmless after a few 1000 years, then this is an untollerable risk!

 

[mheslep]

What was the principle of carbon capture ? I have personally my doubts about this, but then I can be wrong...

EDIT: I should have looked better: the carbon sequestration is by deep geological storage. It is funny that for millions of tons of non-decaying CO2 which should hence be kept for millions of years seems to be no problem in the eye of the (green) beholder, but if the same is proposed for much smaller quantities of nuclear waste that will be harmless after a few 1000 years, then this is an untollerable risk!

Generally agree, though the occasional CO2 leak is perhaps not so dramatic