Siemens to supply latest coal gasification technology in US

Tenaska, based in Omaha, Nebraska, has chosen Siemens Energy to provide the coal gasification technology for its Taylorville Energy Center. With a gross capacity of 730 megawatt the advanced clean coal-generating plant will be one of the first commercial-scale coal gasification plants with carbon capture and storage capability in the U.S. Tenaska is the managing partner of the $3.5 billion facility which will convert Illinois coal into substitute natural gas. The gas will be used for electricity generation or fed into the interstate natural gas pipeline system. TEC’s integrated gasification combined-cycle technology will capture and provide storage for at least fifty percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2). The TEC is scheduled to be completed in 2014. For the TEC, being developed near Taylorville, Illinois, Siemens will provide equipment contracts and licensing agreements for four 500-megawatt-class gasifiers. These gasifiers have a daily processing capacity of as much as 2,000 metric tons of coal or petcoke. In the gasification process, a wide range of coals or other carbon-containing feedstocks, such as biomass or refinery residues, can be converted to syngas and subsequently cleaned to remove environmental pollutants such as sulfur, mercury and carbon dioxide. The syngas can then be utilized for environmentally compatible power generation in IGCC plants or as raw material for the chemical industry through the production of chemical feedstocks or synthetic fuels.