U.S. Energy Department Invests $118 Million to Advance Clean Coal Technologies

The U.S. Energy Department announced funding for cost-shared projects focused on developing the critical components required under its Coal FIRST initiative, according to a July 17 news release. The department selected seven projects to share the $37 million federal funding and released a new funding opportunity announcement for $81 million. The initiative aims to develop modular coal-based power plants built with advanced methods to meet the requirements of the evolving electric grid.

The Coal FIRST program, unveiled in November 2018, envisions future plants to be “Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small and Transformative.” The department expects the small-scale design to be cheaper, more efficient, low-emitting, and operationally flexible. The power plants under the initiative will convert coal, biomass, and waste plastics into clean carbon-neutral electricity and hydrogen.

The seven projects selected this time includes the integration of a supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycle with a coal-fired primary heater, the development of high-temperature seals for sCO2 turbines to reduce leakage, and the test of a zero emission syngas combustor.

The new $81 million cost-shared funding focuses on areas such as flexible ultra supercritical coal-fired power plants, pressurized fluidized bed combustion within a supercritical steam power plant, and hybrid natural gas turbines.

Interested applicants should submit the required materials including a design development, a host site evaluation & environmental information volume, an investment case analysis, and a system integration design study by Aug. 26.