Coal Gasification 2007

IGCC is emerging front and center in the "perfect storm" where energy security and climate change meet. The gasification card is now firmly on the table. Of 66 coal projects on the drawing boards, 28 are gasification-based, according to NETL. Meanwhile, traditional coal projects are under attack from shareholder activists, environmentalists and the public.

Almost overnight, coal gasification for power and liquid fuels has leapt from R&D-status into commercialization. 2006 saw almost weekly evidence of forward motion in the form of rate recovery approvals, tax credits and loan guarantees, and project announcements.

But which of these projects will make the cut from business plan to "steel in the ground"? Even with active state and federal support, IGCC remains a complicated proposition, even for the biggest utilities. A long list of boxes must be checked, and the cost is sobering. Meanwhile, a handful of "second generation" gasification technologies are emerging, alongside a wave of Coal-to-Liquids projects. Smaller "sub-utility" scale projects using newer technologies are already suggesting alternatives to full-bore IGCC. Product switching (from electricity to syngas to fuels and chemicals) can expand revenue options, but also complicate business and engineering plans.

Big utility or small, regulated or not, developer, investor, banker or tech supplier, state or local government, industrial power purchaser: understanding the gasification option, and its carbon disposal implication, is now critical to your long-term planning. Coal Gasification 2007: The Path Forward is the place where you will find the strategic guidance crucial to navigating a rapidly changing regulatory, technological and financial landscape. In a situation of such rapid evolution, your presence or absence at the table may affect the way things play out. Come to the table in Denver where the key players will be meeting face-to-face to build a new industrial sector. At stake is a new hybrid power/fuels/chemicals sector, capable of meeting the security and low-carbon energy demands of 21st century America.