Tag: Coal

Ammonia from “Clean Coal” power plants

There are three "clean coal" power plants in development with plans to produce ammonia as a byproduct.

If they get built, these projects will bring to market roughly 1.25 million metric tons of urea and 460,000 metric tons of UAN per year.

Unfortunately, the "clean coal" power industry appears to be in a bit of a pickle.

Read more

Kemper County, MS — Southern Company

UPDATED: 01/23/2018 — see Change Log

OWNER: Mississippi Power Company (Southern Company)
PROJECT: Greenfield power plant, ammonia byproduct

SUMMARY STATUS: Operational / Abandoned
The Kemper County Energy Facility, a 582 MW power plant, was one of the US DOE's flagship "clean coal" projects. It would have produced ammonia as a byproduct of its coal-to-syngas process. The plant has been producing power from natural gas since August 2014, but experienced profound delays and budget overruns with the coal portion, which now appears to have been abandoned, with layoffs at the adjacent coal mine.

Read more

Beulah, ND — Dakota Gas

UPDATED: 10/01/2018 - see Change Log

OWNER: Dakota Gasification Company (Basin Electric Power Cooperative)
PROJECT: Existing plant, urea brownfield

SUMMARY STATUS: Operational
Dakota Gasification Company's new urea plant started up early in 2018, when granular urea became the 11th product made at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant (DEF became the 12th). Fertilizers now represent more than 50% of the entire plant's expected revenues. Construction on the new urea plant began in Summer 2014, and would have been completed by mid-2017 but destructive storms flattened the new urea storage building in 2016, which had to be demolished and the foundations ripped out before construction could restart. A small ammonia expansion was completed during the project.

Read more

Kern County, CA — HECA

UPDATED: 10/23/2017 — see Change Log. No further updates expected.

OWNER: Hydrogen Energy California (HECA), SCS Energy
PROJECT: Greenfield power plant, fertilizer byproduct

SUMMARY STATUS: On hold, indefinitely
Despite years of development, this "clean coal" project never came together. The local oil field backed out, leaving HECA in an existential crisis with no way to sell or sequester its CO2 and, in March 2016, the project put itself on indefinite hold, by withdrawing its application to the CEC.

Read more

Penwell, TX — TCEP

UPDATED: 02/16/2018 — see Change Log

OWNER: Texas Clean Energy Project (Summit Power Group LLC)
PROJECT: Greenfield plant, urea

SUMMARY STATUS: Bankrupt
The Texas Clean Energy Project was going to be a major "clean coal" power plant with significant urea byproduct but DOE effectively killed the project when it suspended funding. Initiated in 2010 and originally scheduled to be completed by 2014, the project continually failed to raise financing for such a long time that the DOE finally withdrew its support in mid-2016. In December 2016, the developers announced one last idea, ditching power generation altogether to focus on urea production but soon after, in October 2017, the company went bankrupt.

Read more