In a collaborative effort to identify future technologies to effectively use coal, the CURC, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) developed a clean coal technology Roadmap, originally released in 2001. The Roadmap identifies a variety of research, development and demonstration priorities that if adequately funded and pursued, could lead to the successful development of a set of coal-based technologies that will be cost-effective, highly efficient and achieve near zero emissions to our air and water resources.

In mid-2005, the CURC, in cooperation with EPRI, began an update of the Roadmap, including a review of both the programs and technologies identified in the original Roadmap, as well as the costs, performance levels, progress achieved during the last several years and total projected costs to government and industry if the goals of the Roadmap are to be achieved. DOE was consulted on a provisional basis to review the revised document. The new CURC-EPRI roadmap, released in September of 2006, defines the steps necessary to achieve near zero emissions from coal use, including the capture and sequestration of CO2, and suggests that the investment necessary to achieve the goals of Roadmap is approximately $17.0 billion between now and 2025. This amount reflects both the federal and industry investment (traditionally, the Federal cost-share is 80% for R&D projects and 50% for demonstration projects).  

The CURC-EPRI Roadmap includes a technology development program for carbon management, defined as the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide. The Roadmap targeted two approaches to carbon management: (1) higher efficiency; and (2) sequestration of CO2 in underground reservoirs. The cost of higher efficiency is contained within the power plant costs for both gasification and combustion based systems. The Roadmap separately identifies the cost of transport and injection (storage) in the carbon sequestration roadmap.

The goal of the CURC-EPRI Roadmap is to have, by 2025, new combustion and gasification based systems operating with carbon capture with an efficiency between 39% to 46% and a cost of electricity between 37 and 39 $/MW-hr. By 2025, the incremental cost to transport and sequester the CO2 is projected to be between 2 and 7 $/MW-hr.

The major finding of the CURC-EPRI Roadmap is that, by 2025, with sufficient and focused RD&D identified in the Roadmap, combustion and gasification-based power generation options can be available commercially - with the ability to capture and sequester CO2 - at a cost of electricity equal to the cost of new power generation (without CO2 capture) today. This includes the current work on FutureGen. In order to achieve this goal, sufficient public and private funding is required. CURC^SM believes, however, that current funding for coal R&D is barely adequate and funding for demonstrations is totally inadequate. Reduced government and industry investments will postpone or deny our ability to develop the technologies within the timeframes suggested in the Roadmap. If technology is to be the centerpiece for addressing concerns about climate change, then adequate funding and focus is urgently required and sufficient time to develop innovative CO2 capture technologies is needed.

Click here to review the CURC-EPRI Roadmap.