Where is the technology headed?
The efficiency of future Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants using gasification technology could exceed 60%. A future system may be able to use a portion of the hydrogen produced in the gasification process as fuel to power a fuel cell. This would create a third form of power generation from a single generating facility. Producing electricity from fuel cells is an efficient process but the hydrogen driving the fuel cell must be very pure. This means using fuel cells in future IGCC plants will depend on technology advances in gas separation technology. More about fuel cells.

IGCCs may also provide an economically feasible route for hydrogen production from coal, providing a pathway to a future hydrogen economy. One of the many attractive features of a hydrogen economy is that hydrogen-powered vehicles would be nearly pollution free and IGCC could provide hydrogen fuel in sufficient quantities to power a fleet of American vehicles.

	Click the diagram below for a larger view.
	Future IGCC Process

The diagram to the right highlights how a future IGCC process could work: capturing as much of the energy in the coal as possible, reusing the gas and steam, using fuel cells to generate more electricity without emitting any pollutants, and utilizing co-generation technologies to make marketable products, such as ammonia, methane, and liquid fuels. Click the diagram to view a full picture  

The IGCC plant of the future will be able to process many types of feedstock and alter its production from energy to commodities as markets dictate, making it the most flexible and economical choice for a carbon fuel power plant.

Also, IGCC power plants use the most environmentally friendly coal-fired power generation technology. Because of this, IGCC technology lies at the heart of  FutureGen, a $1 billion dollar initiative to create the world’s first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant.

What research is being done to advance use of gasification and IGCC?
With IGCC power plants being used commercially in full-scale applications, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy has turned its attention to future gasification concepts that offer significant improvements in efficiency, fuel flexibility, and economics.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has a vision of where gasification will be in the future:

Gasification becomes the technology of choice for multiple U.S. and worldwide applications by being a low-cost energy system, providing superior environmental performance, reliability, and flexibility. Low-cost gasification systems will result in enhanced U.S. energy security through increased use of domestic resources.

To make this vision a reality, under its Coal and Power systems program, NETL is researching gasification systems in several areas. There are only a few IGCC plants operating around the world, and while gasification has been in use for over a century, we must advance the technology to make gasifiers more robust and flexible. Most power plants will operate for 40 years or more, so it is important that the technology be reliable before the plant starts operating. Advanced gasification concepts will squeeze more energy from the feedstock and allow multiple fuels to be used in a single plant.

	Click the diagram below for a larger view.
	This diagram shows how gasification works to produce energy.

Gasification is a demanding process that involves injecting heat, air or oxygen, and a suitable raw fuel (coal, petroleum, petcoke, and biomass) into the gasifier under high pressure, then extracting the fuel gas (syngas) and excess heat generated by the resulting thermal and chemical reaction, as shown in the diagram below. Gasification system improvements center on technology advances in the gasifier and associated systems.

NETL is also focusing on gas separation and investigating a number of concepts for improved oxygen (O₂), hydrogen (H₂), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) separation under varying conditions. There are advantages to using pure oxygen in the gasification process instead of air, but current technologies for separating oxygen from air are energy intensive and expensive. Improved air separation technologies can potentially reduce cost and increase efficiency of the separation process, leading to cost improvements for IGCC plants. Improved H₂ recovery and CO₂ removal from the syngas are also important. NETL is developing membranes and other novel technologies that will minimize cost and efficiency losses for H₂ and CO₂ separation.

A third area of research is in gas cleaning and conditioning. NETL is committed to developing technologies that will help reduce IGCC to near zero emissions while meeting system performance and cost goals. Impurities from coal that end up in the syngas must be removed to address environmental concerns as well as to prevent damage to equipment downstream from the gasifier. Gasification is already an ultra-clean technology, but the cost of removing contaminants must be reduced and the processes consolidated in order for gasification to become widely accepted. The result of these efforts in clean coal technology is a secure and reliable energy supply.