Coal Gasification

Coal gasification involves converting the energy content of coal into electricity, hydrogen and other energy forms, but in a clean, versatile way. Coal gasification breaks coal into its basic chemical parts.

Rio Tinto Energy America sees gasification as an exciting part of the future of coal-fired electricity generation. It offers the potential for coal power plants to have very low emissions and the potential of producing a diverse range of synthetic fuels from coal.

It can also play an important role in developing technologies for ultra-low emission plants. We see this as an important part of our nation’s future energy supply. With the right incentives, we can create opportunities to use other, new technologies such as carbon capture and storage which we see as being critical to the future of coal.

We would like to see many other types of technologies have their chance as well. The more options we help develop for our customers, the better chance they have of finding the kind of power plants to best suit their needs. Improvements to traditional pulverized coal power plants can result in significantly lower emissions which will only help our economy, local communities and the environment.