innovationUTAH.com
Linking Utah's Innovation Community
Advanced Coal Technology
USTAR’s Eastern Utah Technology Outreach Team is working with Utah’s research, industry and entrepreneurial leaders to better utilize Utah’s vast coal resources. 50% of the United States and 80% of Utah’s electricity is produced from coal. There are 489 billion short tons (a short ton is a unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds) of known coal reserves in the US. The US uses roughly one billion tons of coal each year (hyperlink to http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/infosheets/coalreserves.html). Not only is coal abundant but it can be converted into liquid fuels as well as synthetic natural gas. Although coal provides an economical and reliable energy resource, there is growing concern about the high levels of carbon emissions produced from coal-based fuels.
USTAR is currently working with industry and the University of Utah’s Institute for Clean and Secure Energy (ICSE), and Energy and Geoscience Institute (EGI) to promote the responsible and efficient use of Utah’s coal resources. These efforts include the more efficient combustion of coal as well as the gasification and conversion of coal to clean-burning hydrogen. USTAR professor, Dr. Brian McPherson, and his team of EGI scientists are collaborating with Southern California Edison to study the feasibility of a building a next generation clean hydrogen power generation facility with geologic CO2 sequestration in the State of Utah. The new advanced coal technology gasifies coal to produce a mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases. The clean burning hydrogen can be used to fuel a power plant and the carbon dioxide can be captured and stored permanently using geologic sequestration technology.
Major US Coal Reserves