The Louis Berger Group, Inc. (Berger) was selected as part of a team contracted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the FutureGen Initiative, a Presidential Initiative for the United States. FutureGen was an effort to design, construct, and operate the world’s first near-zero emissions coal-fueled power plant, a 275-megawatt prototype facility using advanced coal gasification technology. Rather than emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the facility was designed to sequester, or permanently store, one to two million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year in deep geologic storage.

DOE issued an RFP to all states for potential sites for the FutureGen facilities. The RFP established three levels of Technical Criteria for evaluation of proposed sites, and 12 site proposals were received from 7 states.  Four sites, two in Texas and two in Illinois, passed the evaluation screening.  Before deciding whether to fund construction and operation of the project, DOE conducted an environmental analysis in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to determine the potential environmental effects of locating the project on any of the four candidate sites.  

Berger supported the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) NEPA compliance efforts. Berger participated in the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) covering all four candidate sites, focusing on the following technical areas:

• Air quality

• Land use planning

• Aesthetics and light

• Noise and vibration

• Traffic and transportation

• Utility systems

• Security

• Wetlands

• Biological resources

• Native American and archaeological study

• Geographical information systems

Berger was also involved in reviewing the siting and facility arrangements for the proposed power project.

As proposed, the planning, design, construction and operation of the project facilities wpuld be performed by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, an industry consortium. Berger worked cooperatively with the Alliance and site proponents to meet the information requirements of the NEPA process for impact assessment. Nationally recognized experts in relevant fields such as natural gas transmission engineering, pipeline design, enhanced oil recovery, and risk assessment were also involved in the project’s conceptual design and in designing and reviewing technical studies.

Ultimately, the FutureGen power plant may produce electric power from hydrogen, and would be the cleanest fossil-fuel-based power system in the world.  The product stream would consist mostly of hydrogen, steam, and carbon dioxide.  Following separation of these three gaseous components, the hydrogen would be available to generate electricity in a gas turbine and/or fuel cell, or could be used as a feedstock for chemical plants or petroleum refineries, or as a transportation fuel. The carbon dioxide will be geologically sequestered.

The NEPA compliance activities involved a complex environmental review while meeting a very aggressive schedule for project planning and design activities.  Berger assisted NETL in all aspects of conducting the public scoping process, including public scoping meetings held in the vicinity of each candidate site and analyzing public comments.