'Clean coal' heads to Illinois

CHICAGO, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. utility Exelon Corp. announced plans to join forces with a non-profit energy group to develop a "clean coal" demonstration facility in Illinois.

Exelon joined forces with U.S. non-profit FutureGen Alliance to develop a clean coal demonstration facility in eastern Illinois.

The facility will be a 275-megawatt integrated gasification combined-cycle power plant. Carbon-capture technology at the plant will store greenhouse gas emissions underground. The design includes plans to approach near-zero emissions for several types of pollutants.

"Coal plays an enormously important role in our nation's energy supply, so it is critical that we explore the most promising technologies for reducing -- and even eliminating -- harmful emissions at coal-fired power plants," said John Rowe, the chairman and chief executive at Exelon.

U.S. President George W. Bush announced the FutureGen project in 2003. Its aim is to expand the use of carbon capture and storage at coal-fueled power plants.

Critics of the technology complain it does little to address the environmental impacts of coal mining and there is no clear management plan for pollutants.