Coal and Biomass to Electric Power and Fuels

globally because it is cheap and abundant. Coal generates 50% of U.S.

electricity but is facing increasingly stiff opposition because of its image of being ?dirty? and because of public/political concern over CO 2

emissions. CO 2 can be captured from PC flue-gas for geologic storage,

but at a cost. Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)

generation can capture CO 2 at lower cost and can be very clean with

respect to criteria emissions. Oxy-fuel combustion has potential for

power generation with CO 2 capture but requires commercial development.

At the same time, there is increasing interest in producing liquid transportation fuels from coal, but CO 2 emissions are twice those of

petroleum-based fuels, unless geologic CO 2 storage is used. Using

biomass and biomass/coal mixtures can reduce life-cycle CO 2 emissions

and provide a path into sustainability. The performance and costs of

these technologies are compared on a consistent basis, without CO 2

storage and with CO 2 storage. With biomass, CO 2 emissions can be

markedly reduced and can be negative, but power and fuel costs are

higher. Base-load electricity generation from coal with CO 2 capture

and storage is economically competitive with power from wind and new

nuclear power plants and is very clean. Integrating power generation

and liquid fuels production can provide enhanced opportunities to economically meet power and fuel demands and decarbonize significant

portions of these two sectors. However, to accomplish this requires

successful commercial demonstration of geologic storage. At the same

time, there do not appear to be any irresolvable scientific or technical issues, or economic showstoppers to long-term geologic storage of captured CO 2 with safety and efficacy.