The Fossil Report ossil Report ossil Report

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program December 1999 No. 10

IN THIS ISSUE

President Signs FY 2000 Funding Bill

Into Law

SPR Office Recognized for Excellence

Rudins Wins Achievement Award

Kentucky to Host Clean Coal Project

Web Site Provides Information on Global

Climate Change Research

Bechtel National to Convert Carbon

Dioxide to Hydrates

President Signs FY 2000

Funding Bill Into Law

The FY 2000 budget negotitations came to

an end on November 29—nearly two

months into the new fiscal year—when the

President signed into law [Public Law 106-

113] the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

The House and Senate had each passed the

initial Conference Report on the Interior

and Related Agencies Appropriations bill

on October 21.

The Conference Report was approved by the

House on November 19 and by the Senate

on the following day.

But, a threatened veto by the President

caused the bill to be tabled on November

19, and it was never sent to the President.

Instead, a replacement bill for H.R. 2466

[H.R. 3423] was passed by the House on

November 18 and included by reference in

H.R. 3194—a consolidated appropriations

act.

The Senate approved the

bill on November 19, and

the enrolled measure was

signed by both the House and Senate on

November 22.

The measure was sent the President on November 22, and the President signed the bill

into law [P.L. 106-113] on November 29.

The final appropriation for Fossil Energy

R&D in FY 2000 is $330-million, up $41-

million from the Administration’s request

and up $35-million from FY 1999 funding

levels.

This level of funding includes the acrossthe-board 0.38 percent cut to support discretionary programs.

Rudins Wins Achievement

Award

On December 1, George Rudins, DOE’s

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coal and

Power Systems was awarded the prestigious

Washington Coal Club’s Coal Achievement

Award for 1999.

The Washington Coal Club, comprised of

coal technology leaders from industry and

government, cited Rudins’ leadership in advancing clean coal technologies, innovative

pollution control concepts, and climate

change activities as the reason for his being

chosen as the 20th winner of the coveted

award.

Rudins is considered to be the father of the

Vision 21 concept—a vision for a non-polluting fossil energy power plant of the future.

Rudins was also recognized for his support

and innovative leadership in carbon sequestration activities, now one of DOE’s most

important research areas.

SPR Office Recognized for

Excellence

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Program Office was one of seven DOE organizations recognized on December 2 for demonstrating a commitment to excellence by

receiving the Fifth Annual Secretary of Energy Performance Excellence Award.

The SPR Program Office and the other six

recipients were presented their Awards by

Deputy Secretary of Energy T. J. Glauthier.

Each of the organizations was cited for finding “ways to improve and build more effective partnerships and find highly-cost effective solutions for the American public.”

The Award emphasizes efficiency and an

attitude of customer focus, and is open to

all federal and performance-based contractor organizations.

Continued on page 2

Kentucky to Host Clean Coal

Project

With the approval of $79-million in Federal funding, the $432-million Kentucky Pioneer Energy Project, planned for near Trapp,

Kentucky, will be the latest demonstration

project of the DOE Clean Coal Technology

Program. The project promises to be one

of the largest power plant projects in the

Program, with an anticipated output of 400 mega-
2

THE FOSSI L REPORT DECEMBER 1999 No. 10

The Fossil Report is published monthly

for Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil

Energy Program staff.

Paul T. Carlson, Editor and Publisher

Send comments to

carlsonpt@ornl.gov

Clean Coal Project - from page 1

watts.

Federal funding became available for the

project as a result of siting difficulties in

southern Illinois. The original plant was to

have been constructed with Duke Energy

Corporation of North Carolina as the industrial partner. As part of agreements

reached with the DOE, Global Energy Inc.,

the parent company of Pioneer Energy, will

replace Duke Energy.

Global Energy will incorporatein the Kentucky project many of the features of the

Illinois design, including testing of an advanced fuel cell.

The plant, operating with an integrated gasification combined cycle process, will convert coal to synthesis gas. The synthesis gas

will be cleaned and burned in a combustion turbine to produce electricity, and the

exhaust heat will be used to drive a steam

turbine—thus, the concept of a combined

cycle.

As part of the project, municipal waste will

be collected and combined with coal to

form fuel briquettes, which will be used in

the gasification process.

Also, a fuel

cell will be

used in the

plant’s power

generating

section. A

portion of the

plant’s synthesis gas will

be directed to

a 1.25-megawatt molten

carbonate

fuel cell, to be

supplied by

FuelCell Energy, Inc.

The project

has received a considerable head start as

far as siting is concerned. In the early 1980s,

construction at a conventional coal-fired

power plant on the 300-acre site was suspended when demand for electricity

dropped to levels insufficient to justify the

construction of the plant.

At the time construction ceased, the plant

foundations, an administration building, a

railroad spur, and connections to the electrical grid had already been completed.

Web Site Provides

Information on Global

Climate Change Research

The Web site for the U.S. Global Climate

Change Research Information Office

[GCRIO] is a valuable resource for information on global climate change research,

mitigation strategies, and various agencies

Bechtel National to Convert

Carbon Dioxide to Hydrates

DOE has recently awarded a contract to

Bechtel National to study a process which

converts carbon dioxide from power plant

exhaust gas streams to hydrates.

It is well known that methane hydrates exist in natural formations in the Arctic and

in deep ocean regions.

Now, in this research, it will be determined

if the same hydrate-type formation can be

created to trap carbon dioxide effluents from

coal gasifiers.

Bechtel National is receiving $9-million for

the project, which will research this approach to carbon dioxide sequestration

over a 64-month period.

Bechtel will team with the Los Alamos

National Laboratory, IPI LLC, and

SIMTECHE, the latter organization having

first developed the process.

If successful ,the process will be integrated

with future coal gasification systems to form

the basis for the power producing technology of the next century.

and organizations in involved in the Global

Climate Change Research Program.

The GCRIO generates abstracts of key climate change documents and places them

in a searchable bibliographic information

database.

Links to other key sources of information

on global climate change activities are also

provided.

In addition to providing copies of reports

to interested parties, the GCRIO Web site

has a number of documents in their entirety.

The GCRIO was established as part of The

Global Climate Change Research Act of

1990.

Trapp, KY