Clean coal: A new power generation process with high efficiency, carbon capture and zero emissions

An environmentally friendly electricity generation process using coal gasification and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) produces electricity with high efficiency, 99.95% carbon capture and essentially zero atmospheric emissions. Coal is gasified into syngas, cleaned and shifted to hydrogen gas to fuel SOFCs. The primary waste products, CO2 and H2O, are separated with a very small energy penalty. The carbon dioxide purity is high enough to meet most specifications for geological sequestration. Even with carbon capture capability, the power plant has a higher efficiency (4-10 percentage points) than standard pulverized coal or integrated gasification combined cycle processes without carbon capture and consumes significantly less fresh water. If cooling towers are replaced with dry-cooling technology, net water can be produced and recovered, rather than consumed. Moreover, under a cap-and-trade scenario, the process has the lowest cost-of-electricity, even with carbon capture, for carbon prices above $5-10/tonne. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.