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New Technology Turns Coal Into Gas

8 May 2000

Clean Coal Technology Milestone Reached

    Wilsonville, Ala. - Southern Company, the nation's largest generator of 
electricity, and the U.S. Department of Energy announced today that they 
have reached a milestone in their efforts to transform coal  America's most 
abundant and economical energy resource  into a cleaner, more efficient 
source of energy.

    At the Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville, Ala., researchers 
have successfully tested a technology that turns coal into gas, which then 
would be used to produce electricity more cleanly than traditional power 
plants. Southern Company operates the facility  the world's most advanced 
test center for future power technologies  for the Energy Department.

    "The research we're doing in Wilsonville will set the foundation for coal 
as an efficient and environmentally friendly fuel for the future," said Dr. 
Charles H. Goodman, Southern Company's vice president for research and 
environmental affairs. "Our goal is to make coal both cost competitive and 
environmentally comparable to natural gas, and we're almost there."

    Researchers at the Power Systems Development Facility have made advances in 
an innovative power technology that uses a device called a transport 
reactor, developed by Kellogg Brown & Root  a business unit of Halliburton 
Company (NYSE: HAL)  and Southern Company. Researchers successfully 
operated the device, which is similar to technology used in the petroleum 
industry, as an "advanced pressurized combustor" for about 5,000 hours and 
then converted the transport reactor to operate as a "gasifier." An 
advanced pressurized combustor is different from traditional coal-based 
power generation because it operates at high pressures instead of normal, 
atmospheric conditions. A gasifier converts coal into a combustible gas 
that advanced power plants can use to power gas turbines or run fuel cells.

    The transport reactor and associated equipment significantly reduce 
emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. They 
also are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than one-third 
compared with conventional coal-fired power plants. Researchers anticipate 
that the technology can be applied to both new and existing generation.

    "When operating as a pressurized combustor, the transport reactor 
performs better than any in the world, and we've now demonstrated that we 
can operate smoothly as a gasifier," Goodman said. "We're now trying to 
optimize the process of converting coal into gas."

    Goodman said Southern Company is on track to make a decision as early as 
next year whether to build a commercial power plant using this technology.