Will Rodgers
Tampa Tribune
December 12, 2005

With the United States so dependent on oil from abroad and the nation’s supply of coal estimated to last a couple centuries, energy experts and environmentalists say coal unavoidably will play a large role in meeting the nation’s future energy needs.

Coal had been cast aside as a choice fuel for new power generation because of air and water pollutants. But the rising cost of oil and natural gas has moved coal back to center stage for many utilities.

Advanced coal technology tested in our back yard has proven the abundant and relatively inexpensive energy source can clean up its act and generate electricity nearly as cleanly and efficiently as natural gas.

Yet, just three power stations nationwide use the advanced technology known as integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) to generate electricity from coal. And several Florida utilities are seeking permission to build traditional coal-fired plants, albeit with the latest pollutant-scrubbing technology.

If coal plays a big role in the nation’s energy future, then the advanced technology of extracting gas from coal should be the preferred method for generating electricity, say experts. But utility officials argue the technology is too expensive and unreliable.

"I’m disappointed by it," said Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based environmental and consumer group that studies energy issues across North America. "The power industry could be a lot cleaner than what it is today."

In fact, the cleanest-burning coal plant in North America serves the Bay area and is owned by Tampa Electric Co., according to a study released in November by Energy Probe. The Polk Power Station, south of Mulberry on U.S. 37 just north of State Road 674, cranks out 320 megawatts of electricity all day, everyday – with negligible air emissions, said Vernon Shorter, Tampa Electric’s tour guide at the power plant.

Shorter is retired from Texaco Inc., which developed the coal-gasification technology used at the Polk plant. That technology has since been purchased by General Electric.

Energy Probe evaluated emissions data from 403 coal power plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. And the Polk plant came out at the "top of the stack," Adams said.

IGCC technology involves turning coal or coal mixed with petroleum coke or biomass into a gas, known as synthesis gas, or syngas. That gas is cleaned of pollutants and burned in a combustion turbine to generate electricity. Waste heat from the combustion turbine is then captured and used to heat steam, which then spins another turbine to produce electricity.

Some of the byproducts from producing and cleaning the gas are sold, such as sulfuric acid for fertilizer, or reused in the process to create more gas.

Other coal-fired plants burn the coal to generate power and then try to capture or clean up the emissions.

The cleaner-burning coal-gasification power plant also is about 7 percent more efficient in generating electricity.

"I think what Polk [power station] has demonstrated is that coal doesn’t need to be a dirty word," Adams said.

But while many utilities recognize coal-gasification is better for the environment and communities, they argue that power plants built with the technology are expensive and unreliable.

Coal-gasification experts and environmentalists agree that IGCC power plants are more expensive than traditional coal plants initially. But the federal government offers grants and tax incentives to help fund the construction of gasification plants.

The experts also point to Tampa Electric’s Polk Power Station, which ran as a test facility from 1996 until 2000 and now runs commercially as a base load power plant. Base load means that the plant runs around the clock, supplying constant power to the grid.

Ross Bannister, Tampa Electric spokesman said it cost about $500 million to build the Polk Power Station. The Tampa utility paid about $380 million, and the U.S. Department of Energy paid $120 million.

Shorter said the power plant also is Tampa Electric’s lowest-cost producer of electricity. The Polk station has a per kilowatt-hour cost of $2.50. That compares with kilowatt-hour costs of $2.80 for Big Bend, a coal-fired unit, and $9 for Bayside, a natural gas-burning unit.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said coal-gasification is more reliable and more efficient than traditional coal-burning plants. He said the technology is proven and is mature enough for primetime.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy recently helped defeat Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light Co.’s effort to build a coal-fired power plant in southwestern St. Lucie County. County commissioners there voted 5-0 against allowing the power plant after outcry from the community about potentially harmful emissions.

Smith said his organization would not have strongly opposed Florida Power & Light if the company has chosen to use coal-gasification technology. He said IGCC is the only type of coal power plant that will capture or minimize all of the carbon emissions from coal.

"We’re very bullish on coal-gasification as an organization," Smith said.