Cool Water: Demonstration of a Clean and Efficient New Coal Technology

Abstract

Cool Water, the world's first commercial-scale, integrated coal gasification combined cycle power plant, has been operating successfully since May 1984 near Barstow, California. The 100-megawatt plant, which was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, is probably the cleanest coal-fired power generating facility now in commercial operation. An ongoing demonstration program at Cool Water shows that future baseload power plants that use this technology can be built modularly in increments of a few hundred megawatts and compete economically with much larger, conventional coal-fired power plants equipped for flue gas desulfurization.

Ecosystem Management

“…Transition costs are always associated with major changes in nature and in human affairs. Society has to decide who pays, for example, the cost of new equipment, procedures, and education in changing from highinput to low-input farming or in converting from air polluting to clean power plants (Renner 1991, Spencer et al 1986). …”

Changing Landscapes: An Ecological Perspective

“…In view of Georgia's dependence on coal, the burning of which in power plants is a major cause of air pollution (e.g., Bormann, 1987), it would seem that power companies should invest in known technology for cleaning coal (removing sulfur and other pollutants) before it is burned; A coal gasification combined power plant rated as the cleanest coal-fired power plant in the U.S. has been operating successfully, and competitively with conventional power plants, in California since 1984 (Spencer et al, 1986). Tax and other incentives could be used to promote this.…”

A GCC Power Plant With Methanol Storage for Intermediate-Load Duty

“…Interest in GCC power plants has been steadily increasing in recent years as environmental concerns have grown and oil prices, for long periods, have risen. Operating experience with gasification technology at a near-commercial scale has been obtained at the Cool Water Demonstration Plant in Daggett, California (Spencer et al, 1986), the Shell Coal Gasification Demonstration Plant in Deer Park, Texas (Krewinghaus and Nager, 1988), and the Dow Syngas Project in Plaquemine, Louisiana (Webb and Sundstrom, 1988). The major gasification processes have been reviewed by Simbeck et al (1983) and Stanford researchers (Erbes, 1986;Phillips, 1986).…”