Foundation work for a new chimney at a 65-year-old powerplant in Meredosia, Ill., is under way for a $1.65-billion retrofit designed to create a prototypical commercial-scale coal-fired facility equipped with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), says Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc.
This is the first construction work to be performed on the project, which was originally proposed more than 10 years ago. The project is under a September 2015 deadline to use or forfeit $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, received in 2010 on approval from the Obama administration. Additional pressure comes from a Sierra Club filing, in July, with the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB).