Partnership boost to clean project

Plant is scheduled to be completed in 2012

Plans to build a clean coal power station at Hatfield colliery in Yorkshire have been boosted with the announcement of a partnership that will see a fuel cell plant installed at the site to produce electricity from syngas.

Powerfuel, which owns and operates the mine, coal gasification company B9 Coal and fuel cell firm AFC Energy, plans to install fuel cells with a capacity of up to 300MW alongside the power plant being built at the colliery. 

The 900MW integrated gasification combined cycle plant will initially run on natural gas when completed in 2012 and switch to syngas in 2013. Syngas is a product of a gasification process which partially combusts coal in oxygen to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Syngas used in the plant will be cleaned to produce hydrogen suitable for use as feedstock for AFC Energy’s alkaline fuel cells. The fuel cells use alkali technology, which operates at 70°C, and has injected moulded plastic and rubber sealants and non-platinum electrode materials to reduce the cost.

Alisa Murphy, director of B9 Coal, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for fuel cell technology on a local and global scale. We can offer a technically advanced solution to the problem of rising carbon emissions, as well as a practical and commercial template for clean energy generation.” 

Powerfuel is said to have made plans with National Grid to create a pipeline  network to carry the CO2 to the North Sea from Hatfield.

AFC Energy is also part of a joint venture withWaste2Tricity and Thornton New Energy, which aims to convert coal into electricity by combining fuel cells with underground coal gasification.