When the forecasted demand for electricity failed to materialize in the early 1980s, construction at the East Kentucky Power Cooperative's J.K. Smith site was halted, leaving an excavated tract with plant foundations, an administration building, railroad spur and connections to the electrical grid. A key advantage of the gasification step is that the synthesis gas can be meticulously cleaned before it is burned to generate electricity. Municipal solid waste will be collected and combined with coal to form fuel briquettes for the gasification process. The synthesis gas will be burned in a combustion turbine to generate electricity and exhaust heat will be used to boil water to drive a steam turbine. Another high-tech innovation will be the use of a fuel cell in the plant's power generating section.
Fuel cells generate electricity using an electrochemical reaction, much like a battery.
Because no combustion is involved, fuel cells are among the cleanest power technologies now envisioned. When operations begin in 2002, electricity from the plant will be sold to East Kentucky Power Cooperative under a 20-year contract. The project is the fourth in the Clean Coal Technology Program to demonstrate coal gasification but the first to be partially fueled by municipal solid waste and to employ a fuel cell.