CCS Project Database
Company/Alliance: FutureGen Alliance, US Department of Energy, State of Illinois, Ameren Energy Resources, Babcock&Wilcox, American Air Liquide
Location: Unit 4 at Ameren's power plant in Meredosia, Illinois, USA
Feedstock: Coal
Size: 200 MW (1.1 Mt/yr) Retrofit
Capture Technology: Oxy-combustion (98% capture)
CO2 Fate: 30 mile onshore pipeline to sequestration in deep saline aquifers near Jacksonville in Morgan County, IL.
The CO2 will be
injected via four wells at a depth of approximately 4'000 feet.
Cost: $1.65 billion US
Timing: Received Class VI permits (September 2014) Construction started (September 2014); Operation (2017)
Project has been cancelled (February 2015)
Motivation/Economics:
Total cost of the project is estimated to be $1.65 billion.
Secretary Chu announced on August 5, 2010 a $1 billion award for FutureGen from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This money was formally committed on September 28, 2010 and needs to be spent by September 2015 or it will be forfeited.
The project is coordinated by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a non-profit group who represents the power and coal industries.
Comments:
The project has been officially cancelled in 2016. This is after loosing its DOE financing in 2015. The DOE financing was withdrawn because of a deadline under the 2009 federal stimulus package, DOE had pledged $1 billion to complete the $1.65 billion initiative.
FutureGen was awarded the first ever EPA Class VI well injection permits on September 2, 2014 for all 4 injection wells. These are the EPA's first well permits for the underground injection of CO2. FutureGen began construction on the retrofit immediately on September 9, 2014.
The FutureGen project had been previously awarded 4 draft well permits in April 2014, which means that the permits are not finalized and still pending the final decision of the EPA, but it means that the FutureGen Alliance can proceed with project development.
On July 24, 2014. The Illinois court of appeals upheld a 2012 state mandate requiring utilities, like Commonwealth Edison, to purchase electricity from FutureGen for the next 20 years.
FutureGen 2.0 is an oxyfuel retrofit of a recently idled 65 year old facility in Illinois. The power plant's unit 4 steam turbine of in excellent condition and the Alliance is maintaining the plant in retrofit-ready condition. It is expected that the plant's new boiler, air separation unit, CO2 purification and compression unit would deliver 90% CO2 capture and eliminate most SOx, NOx, mercury and particulate emissions.
Following the successful completion of the first phase, in February 2013, the Energy Department announced the beginning of Phase II of the project development with a new cooperative agreement between the FutureGen Industrial Alliance and the Department of Energy. This means that the the FutureGen project has government support as it moves into the phase III phase: deployment of the project.
The FutureGen Alliance has selected Morgan County, Illinois as the preferred location for the FutureGen 2.0 CO2 storage site (February 2011). An underground pipeline is planned to carry the CO2 about 30 miles to the injection site in deep saline aquifers.
In December 2012, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a power procurement plan for the state that requires utilities to purchase all of the electricity generated at the FutureGen 2.0 facility for 20 years. This was a major green light for the FutureGen project as it requires Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and Ameren Illinois to purchase all 166 MW of gross electricity generated annually at the $1.65 billion facility beginning in 2017, when the project is due to start.
Secretary Chu announced a revised FutureGen 2.0 on August 5, 2010. Instead of building a 275 MW IGCC plant, the FutureGen Alliance will repower Ameren’s 229 megawatt Unit 4 in Meredosia, Illinois with advanced oxy-combustion technology. The original location for FutureGen (Mattoon, Coles County, Illinois) would have become a storage only site in the new FutureGen 2.0, except Coles County withdrew from the FutureGen Alliance August 13, 2010. In December 2011 the characterization well was completed and the geology proved favorable to CO2 storage.
The FutureGen 30 mile underground pipeline to bring the CO2 from the power plant to the injection site, was approved on February 2014.
Project Links: FutureGen Alliance website
Technical Papers:
Gilmore, T J, A Bonneville, V Vermeul, F Spane, M E Kelley, C Sullivan, J Hoffmann, Overview of the CO2 Geological Storage Site for the FutureGen Project in Morgan County Illinois, USA, Energy Procedia, Vol 63, pp 6361-6367, (2014) <Link to PDF>
Other Sources and Press Releases:
FutureGen Begins Construction, But Project Faces Some Hurdles (September 2014)
EPA Grants First Underground Injection Permits to FutureGen for Illinois Project (September 2014)
Ill. Court Requires Utilities to Buy Power from Carbon Capture Plant (July 2014)
EPA issues draft permits for carbon sequestration (April 2014)
Pipeline approved for FutureGen CCS Project (February 2014)
FutureGen: A Brief History and Issues for Congress (April 2013)
B&W Begins Front-End Engineering and Design Work for FutureGen 2.0 Carbon Capture Project (October 2013)
Congressional Research Service: FutureGen: A Brief History and Issues for Congress (April 2013)
FutureGen alliance fights back, releases CO2 pipeline route (March 2013)
Carbon Capture and Storage FutureGen 2.0 Project Moves Forward Into Second Phase (February 2013)
FutureGen completes CCS test storage well in Illinois (December 2011)
Ameren Said to Be in Talks to Hand Over Carbon-Capture Project
(November 2011)
FutureGen still has legislative hurdles to face (April 2011)
FutureGen selects Morgan County storage site (February 2011)
6 bids received for FutureGen site (November 2010)
FutureGen seeks towns with suitable storage potential (October 2010)
Air Liquide to participate with FutureGen (October 2010)
FutureGen's capture location, Mattoon IL, pulls out (August 2010)
