The DoE is awarding US$37 million to seven projects and will make US$81 million available for cost-shared research and development projects.

Power plants built under the Coal FIRST banner (Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative) will convert coal, biomass, and waste plastics to generate clean and affordable carbon-neutral electricity and hydrogen.

The power plants will operate flexibly to meet the needs of the grid, use innovative components that improve efficiency and reduce emissions and will be smaller than conventional utility-scale coal-fired plants, the DoE said. 

They will incorporate carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies and be able to generate carbon-neutral electricity or hydrogen. 

Among the seven projects selected thus far are research projects to create critical components for the new-style plants, a test set-up for a zero emission syngas combustor and studies into improving the efficiency of the power generation process.

For the US$81 million funding package, the DoE is inviting submissions for cost-shared R&D projects that will advance engineering-scale plant prototypes producing electricity or hydrogen.