Clean Hydrogen from Coal with CO2 Capture and Sequestration

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the opportunities for coal-derived hydrogen production technologies in the United States and their impact on environment. In the United States, the challenge to the continued use of natural gas creates an opportunity for coal-derived hydrogen. On a worldwide basis, approximately 18 percent of the world's hydrogen is already derived from coal. Producing hydrogen from coal is more capital intensive than producing it from natural gas. Once the coal is converted to hydrogen, captured CO2, and electricity, the CO 2 must be transported to the site of sequestration. CO 2 can be transported as a compressed gas, a liquid, a solid, or in a high-pressure supercritical state. Furthermore, the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy is soliciting industrial interest in the FutureGen plant, a near-zero emissions coal-fed plant that will produce power and hydrogen. Unlike current coal-to-hydrogen technologies, FutureGen plants would employ integrated CO 2 management. The anticipated $1.0 billion budget will support the design, construction, and operation of a 275 megawatt (MW) prototype plant to serve as a large-scale engineering laboratory for testing new clean power, carbon capture, and coal-to-hydrogen technologies.