The Power County Planning and Zoning Commission has unanimously approved a special use permit for Southeast Idaho Energy’s $1 billion coal gasification plant. Construction on the plant, which will be built six miles southwest of American Falls, will begin next summer if the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and other agencies approve. The permit requires SIE to comply with a number of county ordinances, including regulations pertaining to building infrastructure, health, safety, and air quality.
Company spokesman John Burk said the Power County Advanced Energy Center’s first phase, which would use coal gasification to create nitrogen fertilizer, could be operational by 2012. The second phase, costing an additional $1 billion, would convert coal into diesel fuel and gasoline.
Southeast Idaho Energy plans to haul in coal and petroleum coke daily via railcars, mostly from Colorado. Advanced coal gasification technology would reduce pollution, Burk said. While the plant has been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, county officials said the process could still be appealed.
Burk said up to 1,350 construction workers would be needed to build the first phase of the project, which would employ about 150 people once completed.
On Aug. 11, IDEQ determined that Southeast Idaho Energy’s application for a construction permit was complete. SIE submitted an application for the permit in July 2007. In April 2008, SIE withdrew that application and submitted a revised application. The revised project is for a plant to gasify coal and petcoke to produce nitrogen fertilizers. Coal use was revised from 3,000 to 4,000 tons per day to 2,000 to 2,300. Two gasifiers also would be installed ?Çô one for production, the other for hot standby backup.
According to the IDEQ, plans call for the plant to produce up to 500 st/d of anhydrous ammonia, up to 1,800 st/d of granular urea, up to 1,600 st/d of a urea ammonium nitrate solution, up to 500 st/d of elemental sulfur, and slag for road mix and other uses.
SIE has purchased senior industrial water rights from FMC Corp., allowing it to pump about five million gallons of groundwater per day. FMC used the water to support operations at its Pocatello elemental phosphorus plant, which was shut down in December 2001. It is estimated SIE will need to buy up to 150 megawatts of electricity for the project.
Power County Building Inspector Bob Steinlicht said the coal gas plant is more expansive and ambitious than most other local projects approved in the past. Steinlicht said the anticipated complex would not burn coal, but would instead use it to produce synthetic gas.
In September, IDEQ is expected to issue a draft permit and statement of basis for a 30-day public comment period. As requested by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the public, IDEQ will hold public information meetings early in the public comment period in Power, Bannock, and Bingham counties to explain technical analysis and the basis for draft permit conditions. Exact dates, locations, and times have not yet been set.