Clean coal

INDIANA, (WTHI) - Indiana and Illinois are pursuing major clean coal power projects. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has announced a measure that will create 2 clean coal projects including a $2.5-billion plant near Taylorville, Illinois.
That plant comes in the wake of another $2 billion coal gasification project in southern Indiana.
The Illinois coal basin covers much of southern Indiana and Illinois.
It produces a lot of coal now for the nation's power plants, but could produce even more.
"We've been referred to as the Saudi Arabia of coal and with energy reserves somewhere around the life of 375 years," said Vincennes University Mining Professor Keith Simpson, "with the technology we have available it's time to pursue that."
The problem with burning coal in the past has been emissions.
Now, clean coal technology is arriving in the Wabash Valley.
"Gasification I think is the future," said Director of the V.U. Mine Program Ron Bucci, "It will help meet certainly this state's growing demand for electricity so I think it's going to be a driving force."
At Edwardsport Duke Energy is building a state of the art coal gasification plant.
When the work is complete it will turn coal into natural gas, deeply cutting dangerous emissions.
The project at Edwardsport is not your grandfather's power plant.
Compared to the current Edwardsport station, it will produce 5 times the elecricity with less than one third of the emissions.
"We believe we can make this a more friendly, environmentally friendly method of using coal," said Roger Tomes with Duke Energy, "something that's usually considered to be dirty."
The success of the technology being used in Knox County may well turn into a blue print for clean coal operations, not just in the midwest and the nation, but also around the world.
Officials say that once the plant is in full operation it will use 1.5-million tons of coal per year.