School of Energy Resources Symposium Will Explore Coal Gasification in Wyoming |  
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Feb. 14, 2007 -- The prospects for developing coal gasification technology in Wyoming will be the focus of a symposium Wednesday, Feb. 28, starting at 9 a.m. at Casper's Holiday Inn on the River. The free event is sponsored by the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources (SER) and Western Research Institute.
The symposium features presentations and discussions of key Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) issues and their impact on the coal industry and power generation, as well as coal gasification to create chemicals and fuels in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region. For a complete agenda and more information, see http://www.westernresearch.org and click on "Coal Gasification: What does it mean for Wyoming?"
"Coal gasification and IGCC in particular are potentially very important technologies for Wyoming," says Carol Frost, interim director of the School of Energy Resources.
Coal gasification is the heating and partial combustion of coal under pressure to produce syn-gases for use as chemical feedstocks and clean-burning fuels. The coal gasification technologies are commercially available throughout the United States and the world, and they can also be used to produce marketable commodities, such as liquid fuels.
IGCC, an electricity generating process that involves gasification, results in lower emissions than with standard and supercritical pulverized coal (PC) combustion. It is considered a Best Available Control Technology by some regulatory agencies, state legislatures, and public service commissions, and it offers the ability to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) for sequestration.
Eric Redman, the symposium's keynote speaker, says IGCC often appears to utilities and regulators to be more expensive than advanced PC generation, especially if CO2 capture and sequestration aren't factored in. Another factor, he says, is the loss of efficiency that occurs with IGCC at high elevations. Redman, a recognized authority on IGCC, has been included in the 2007 edition of "The Best Lawyers in America" in the area of energy law.
Last year, Gov. Dave Freudenthal and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a memorandum of understanding forming a joint task force to work with the U.S.
Department of Energy to take advantage of federal funding opportunities for a commercial-scale IGCC coal project with carbon sequestration in Wyoming.
The SER will coordinate UW's existing energy resources, including the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, the Institute for Energy Research, the Ruckelshaus Institute's recently-established Energy Working Group, Western Research Institute, and the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center. Plans for the school also call for the creation of additional research institutes, such as a Coalbed Natural Gas Center, a Center for Coal Conversion Technologies, a Center for Renewable Energy Resources, and possibly a research center dealing with improved design for windmill turbine blades growing out of the university's fluid mechanics expertise.
The school will include an Energy Outreach Center to disseminate scientific, engineering, and economic information to support Wyoming's near-term and long-term energy-related activities; to encourage best practices in energy production; and to conduct statewide workshops and symposia on energy-related science, technology, economics, and legal and permitting issues.
Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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