Published April 1988 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Harnessing a New Coal Technology Coal is America's most abundant fossil fuel energy resource. In recent decades, however, alternative fuels, coupled with environmental concerns, have combined to render coal less attractive as an energy source. Mindful of those obstacles, in 1985, I introduced and won passage of legislation that initiated the Clean Coal Technology Program. The central purpose of this program, joining federal and private funding, is to produce and demonstrate new technologies that will cause coal to be burned in cleaner and environmentally acceptable ways. This program is a keystone in the effort to develop advanced technologies that will promote the efficient, economical, and ecologically safe use of coal, including coal varieties found throughout West Virginia. Recently, I participated in the groundbreaking for the first large-scale demonstration project under this program, making use of a state-of-the-art coal-burning technology. American Electric Power, which furnishes 55 percent of the electricity consumed in West Virginia and consumes 15 percent of the coal produced in our state, is building a pressurized fluidized bed combustion (PFBC) demonstration facility at its currently deactivated Tidd power plant near Wheeling and Weirton at Brilliant, Ohio. The PFBC process produces energy by burning an agitated mix of crushed coal and limestone, which absorbs the sulphur oxides associated with coal-burning and which many blame for producing acid rain. Indeed, PFBC removes up to 90 percent of the sulphur oxides in coal, and produces less than half the nitrogen oxides of a conventional coal-burning generator; a figure 50 percent under the limits required by the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, because of its ability to burn high-sulphur as well as low-sulphur coal, the pressurized fluidized bed combustion process offers greater efficiency and lower fuel consumption than conventional coal-fired power plants, promising to deliver electricity at lower costs to individual and corporate consumers. Pressurized fluidized bed combustion test facilities have proved themselves in locations as varied as Sweden, Britain, Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, and at Rivesville in Marion County. This new coal-burning technology suggests a bright and vital future for coal, yielding an increased demand for this most versatile resource well into the future. April 6, 1988