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Arizona Public Service Co. will get $70.5 million in stimulus funds to study cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from coal power plants that contribute to global warming, the Energy Department said Tuesday. APS will use the money for a 60-acre research project at the Cholla Power Plant between Holbrook and Winslow on Interstate 40 in northern Arizona's Navajo County.
"This project allows us to research some of the issues with using coal and brings economic activity to a part of Arizona where the unemployment rate is about 13 percent," Gotfried said.
The complex research will study cleaner ways to make electricity from coal and how to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide from coal plants that is released into the atmosphere. APS researchers will use heat and pressure to convert coal to syngas, a fuel that can be used much like natural gas. That process also will create char, which, like coal, can be burned for electricity.
APS will attempt to capture the carbon-dioxide emissions from burning char to make environmentally friendly liquid fuel.
"The CO{-2} from burning the char will be food for algae," Gotfried said.
APS plans to raise algae in large ponds or tanks, feeding the algae CO{-2} like a fertilizer. Algae contain oils that can be pressed out and converted to biodiesel for vehicles, and some algae also can be made into ethanol. The utility will test if algae can be grown fast enough to be raised for fuel.
The $70.5 million grant is part of $1.52 billion in the stimulus act earmarked for research into ways to capture and store carbon from power plants and other industrial facilities such as cement plants.
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