The most significant advantage gasification has over conventional coal to steam power plants is increased thermal efficiency. More power is produced per ton of coal consumed. The thermal efficiency in a conventional pulverized coal plant is 33-40%, but an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant can achieve 42-50% efficiency. This means less coal consumed to produce the same amount of power. With less coal consumed, there is less solid waste and lower emissions. The syngas produced from a gasifier unit can be burned in a gas turbine for electricity generation or used as a fuel in other applications such as hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles. Benefits of IGCC plants include the following:

• An IGCC power plant produces only about half the solid wastes as that of a conventional coal power plant.
• The solid wastes include slag or sand-like materials that are inert and can actually be marketed as construction materials.
• The plant can use a variety of fuels including low ranked coal, heavy oils, petroleum cokes, biomass, and even waste.
• IGCC plants use 20-50% less water compared to a conventional coal power station, which is important due to the decreasing availability of water sources for power production.
• IGCC plants remove about 95% of the sulfur emissions and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions are below 50ppm. Most of the CO₂ can be captured from IGCC, making the technology suitable for carbon dioxide storage.