IGCC 101

National Communications Director Steve Gates just visited the 2009 Gasification Technologies Conference as part of the America's Power^SM Factuality Tour. We'll be posting his interviews and videos from the event over the next several days.

A term you hear a lot when it comes to producing electricity from coal these days is IGCC, which stands for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle. But what exactly is IGCC and how does it work?

According to an MIT report:

The integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) produces electricity from a solid or liquid fuel. First, the fuel is converted to syngas which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Second, the syngas is converted to electricity in a combined cycle power block consisting of a gas turbine process and a steam turbine process which includes a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG).

It’s a pretty complex process. So we asked Stephen Jenkins, vice president of gasification services for CH2M Hill, to tell us a little more about it – and explain how coal fits into the IGCC picture. Check out our video interview with Stephen to hear him explain how the gasification process works.

Stephen does an excellent job illustrating the importance of IGCC for our very near energy future. Now that you know a little more about this technology, tell us what you think about IGCC.