Southern California Edison coal study starts

LOS ANGELES, April 10 (Reuters) - Southern California Edison on Thursday said it will commence a two-year, $50 million study of methods of burning coal for electricity while drastically cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The Edison International (EIX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) subsidiary said the study could start after Thursday's approval of $4.6 million to help fund the project by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Last October, So Cal Ed also received funding for the study from the U.S. Department of Energy.

So Cal Ed said it is the first U.S. feasibility study to combine various ways of advanced coal-fired power generation.

No concrete or steel will be poured for a power plant. The study will be largely one of computer modeling and experiments of coal-burning generation at a theoretical 600-megawatt power plant.

Methods to be studied include a chemical process to capture as much as 90 percent of the C02; producing a mostly hydrogen fuel and emitting 10 percent of the CO2 released by an integrated gasification combined-cycle coal plant without carbon capture; and sequestering CO2 in a deep saline formation or a deep oil formation to enhance oil recovery.

U.S. utilities have been trying for years to create methods to burn coal without emitting large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Coal-fired power plants are the biggest emitter of CO2 in the United States and CO2 is the cause of the lion's share of climate changing greenhouse gas emissions

While skeptics scoff at the notion of "clean coal," the U.S. Department of Energy and major utilities say coal must be a key component of future power generating plants.

Coal now makes about half the power generated in the United States. California has outlawed coal-burning plants and limited expansion of imports of electricity made at coal plants from outside the state.

Two months ago, the DOE pulled $1.8 billion in funding for a "clean coal" project called FutureGen that sought to build a 275-megawatt plant that cut CO2 emissions about 90 percent mainly by coal gasification and underground storage of CO2 emissions. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall)