FutureGen and CO2

MIDLAND FutureGen’s shadow stretched Thursday across an oil industry conference focusing on how to use carbon dioxide — a FutureGen byproduct — in oil recovery.

The project, charged with building the world’s first near-zero-emissions power plant, was front and center in many minds when both an electric company executive and a leader of an environmentally conscious organization stressed the need for a worldwide effort to limit greenhouse gases.

Ed Powell, manager of environmental policy for Luminant, the electricity generating arm of TXU, brought up the FutureGen power plant project when he told the gathering of 340 people at the CO2 Flooding Conference in Midland that Luminant will join the effort to build power plants that emit less CO2 “whether the choice is Texas or Illinois.”

Odessa is among four communities in the United States still vying to play host to the $1.8 billion FutureGen power plant, a near-zero emissions coal-fired facility that uses “clean coal” technology. The other sites are Jewett in East Texas and Mattoon and Tuscola, both in Illinois.

The announcement of which community will host the plant is expected as early as Dec. 17.

Powell’s words came on the heels of Thursday’s announcement that Luminant has joined the FutureGen Alliance. The news drew praise from officials across Texas.

Officials for Luminant said joining the multinational coalition tasked with building the world’s first near-zero-emissions power plant is another way to fulfill its obligations to provide cleaner, more efficient energy.

The Clean Coal Technology Foundation of Texas applauded the move.

“Luminant has demonstrated that it’s committed to finding clean energy solutions to meet the energy needs of consumers here in Texas and in the marketplace,” FutureGen Alliance chairman Chuck McConnell said.

Luminant is the first Texas-based company to join the FutureGen Alliance, a fact that Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams characterized as “truly a win-win scenario.”

“It’s significant to have our state’s largest power producer actively participating in this historic, zero-emissions experiment,” Williams said. “Second, it’s a huge boon to the alliance to have the expertise and resources of one of the nation’s largest utilities participating in this research project. FutureGen — and those companies participating in the FutureGen Alliance — could have a significant impact on improving air quality in this country and around the globe.

“If we can do that,” he added, we’ll have CO2 for enhanced oil recovery.”

Powell also announced that TXU had this week contracted to build two Integrated Gasification Carbon Capture plants.

Carbon capture and storage is one of the pieces of the Clean Air Task Force plan to reduce greenhouse gases. Kurt Waltzer, Midwest Coordinator of the task force, also said the group wants oil and energy company executives working around the globe to bring about commercial development of such facilities in the American Midwest, India and China.

Waltzer said the United States needs to take a leading role.

“China and India won’t move without us acting first,” he said. “Basically, they have the attitude of why should we take any action when you put all this CO2 into the atmosphere.”

Noting that China and India are now working to bring online coal plants that will have a lifetime of 50 to 60 years, he showed a graph that illustrated the increase in the amount of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere in the next two decades.

“We’re likely to double our use of coal in the next 20 years,” he said.

At the same time, Waltzer stressed the need for development of more power plants like FutureGen that use integrated gasification carbon capture technology. He said all his information shows that carbon capture and storage can play a significant role in helping the world reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

The Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring clean air and healthy environments through scientific research, public education and legal advocacy, is headquartered in Boston, but its members and advocates are located throughout the United States.

Conferences like the one this week in Midland help representatives from both sides work together.

Midland geologist Steve Melzer, director of the CO2 Conference, said this year’s total attendance of 500 people at the conference broke the record of previous sessions.

The first two days were held in Irving and broadcast back to the Midland audience at the Petroleum Professional Development Center. The three-day CO2 Flooding Conference began Wednesday and concludes today at the Midland Center.

“We’re very pleased with the turnout,” Melzer said.

One of the oil industry employees attending was Sai Krishna of Denver, a reservoir engineer with Anadarko Petroleum.

“There was good information in the sessions,” Krishna said.

When asked if he would return for next year’s fourth CO2 conference, Krishna was succinct: “Oh yeah.”