Subject: ＥＥＥ会議（米国の温暖化対策：CO2を出さない石炭火力発電所計画）
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 12:29:53 +0900
From: "kkaneko" <kkaneko@eagle.ocn.ne.jp>

各位殿

米国エネルギー省は、昨日（２月２８日）「二酸化炭素などを全量回収し固体にして
地下に貯蔵するような画期的な石炭火力発電所」の建設計画を発表しました。　”Ｆ
ｕｔｕｒｅＧｅｎ”と称するこの発電所（出力：２７万キロワット）では、石炭をガ
ス化し燃やして排気自体を抑えると同時に、水素も製造し、燃料電池の使用促進にも
資することを目指すとしています。　今後１０年間で１０億ドルをかけるこの計画に
は、豪、ブラジル、カナダ、中国、インド、日本、ロシア、英国、ＥＵなど１０カ国
以上の参加を呼びかけているとのこと。京都議定書離脱以来効果的な代替案を模索し
続けてきたブッシュ政権が初めて打ち出した具体的な地球温暖化対策として注目すべ
きものと思います。関心のある方は以下のＤＯＥ発表をどうぞ。専門家の方々のコメ
ントをお願いします。
金子熊夫
****************************************************

Subject:
U.S. Officials Announce International Forum to Address Climate Change

(Plans for world's first pollution-free power plant also unveiled)


Washington - U.S. officials have announced a public-private effort to
construct a prototype electric and hydrogen production plant and the
formation of a new international forum to advance carbon capture and
storage technologies as ways to reduce the world's heat-trapping
greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Under Secretary of State for Global
Affairs Paula Dobriansky, joined at the Department of Energy (DOE)
February 27 by representatives from several countries, said a
government-industry partnership is being set up to design, build and
operate the world's first pollution-free, coal-fired power plant. The
facility will cost an estimated $1,000 million over the next 10 years.

The 275-megawatt plant, to be known as FutureGen, will serve as a
large-scale engineering laboratory for testing new clean power, carbon
capture and coal-to-hydrogen technologies. According to DOE press
material, the goal is to build the cleanest fossil fuel-fired power plant
in the world.

"FutureGen will be one of the boldest steps our nation has taken toward a
pollution-free energy future," Abraham said. He added that virtually
every aspect of the prototype plant will be based on cutting-edge
technology and "will serve as the test bed for demonstrating the best
technologies the world has to offer."

"This creative initiative offers the hope not only of clean coal, but of
even cleaner hydrogen made from clean coal," Dobriansky said.

The plant will be based on coal gasification, in which the coal's carbon
is converted into a hydrogen-rich gas, rather than burning it directly.
The hydrogen would then be extracted for use as a clean fuel in powering
turbines or fuel cells to generate electricity. It could also be used in
a refinery to help upgrade petroleum products.

The plant could also serve as the model for future hydrogen-production
facilities to provide fuel for a new fleet of hydrogen-powered cars and
trucks. President Bush's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, announced on January
28, envisions the transformation of the nation's transportation fleet from
reliance on petroleum to the use of clean-burning hydrogen by 2020.

Common air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides created
in FutureGen's coal gasification process would be cleaned from the coal
gases and converted to useable byproducts such as fertilizers and soil
enhancers. Carbon dioxide, one of the most potent of greenhouse gases,
would be captured and permanently sequestered in deep geologic formations
such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs and unmineable coal seams. The
plant is expected to be capable of producing commercially competitive
electricity by 2020.

In addition to the FutureGen announcement, Dobriansky outlined plans for
creating the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum - an international body
that will bring together ministerial-level representatives to discuss the
latest research and emerging technologies for capturing and storing carbon
dioxide. Dobriansky said the forum, which will hold its first meeting
near Washington, D.C. in June, would also provide an international venue
for planning future, multilateral carbon sequestration projects, such as
FutureGen.

Dobriansky said the United States has so far invited Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, Colombia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Russia,
South Africa, the United Kingdom and the European Union to join the forum,
adding that foreign partners are essential to achieving the ultimate goal
of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

"If we are to succeed in addressing the challenge of global climate
change, we need the sustained effort of many nations," she said. "We need
a collective effort. Science holds the key to much needed breakthroughs
to develop and deploy new clean energy technologies."

Dobriansky said the forum provides a way for the United States and its
international partners to collaborate on carbon capture and storage
activities, and to mobilize international resources. "Through such
collaboration, we can develop technologies that are universally applicable
and not previously thought possible."

Global cooperation is already underway in some areas of carbon
sequestration. One of the most notable projects is the Weyburn oil
recovery project in Saskatchewan, Canada, where carbon dioxide from the
Great Plains Coal Gasification Plant in the U.S. state of North Dakota is
being injected into an active oil field. Scientists from 18 nations are
monitoring the project to determine if the carbon dioxide remains
entrapped in the field.

Dobriansky said such carbon sequestration projects, as well as other
approaches to address the problem of climate change, are needed because
fossil fuels account for about 85 percent of energy use today and will
remain a dominant source of global energy for at least the next three
decades.

"The world holds abundant coal resources, and this coal is in many cases
the cheapest and most available source of energy for developing
countries," she said. "As a result, we expect world use of coal to
increase by half over the next 30 years, and by two-thirds for power
generation uses. That's why we must invest in new technologies for clean
fossil fuels, including coal."