Preliminary Assessment of Potential Water Supply Sources for the Proposed West Texas FutureGen Site, Ector and Midland Counties, Texas

A. Joseph Reed, Hugh B. Robotham, and Steven P. Tischer, ARCADIS G&M, Inc., 1004 N. Big Spring St., Suite 300, Midland, Texas 79701, phone: 432-687-5400, fax: 432-687-5401

FutureGen is a federal initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build a power facility that is capable of producing hydrogen and sequestering carbon dioxide (CO₂). The $1 billion research project is intended to create the world’s first near-zero-emissions fossil-fuel power plant. The project has two major components: (1) to build an energy facility that will create power and hydrogen and capture CO₂ and (2) to locate a host site that will store the CO₂ permanently. The prototype facility will be designed to allow testing of various components and fuel types in all phases of the process, as well as full measurement, monitoring, and verification of CO₂ sequestration. 

The parameters required for a successful project are: (1) coals varying in quality; (2) economic use of hydrogen and CO₂ (3) other co-products of gasification; (4) access to regulated and deregulated power markets; (5) infrastructure for transporting CO₂ and hydrogen; (6) water; (7) significant permanent storage for CO₂, and, (8) a legacy of leading the world in energy and an inventive spirit are all found in Texas.  The focus of this presentation will be on locating and providing water to cool the power-generating facility.  The total volume of water required to cool the proposed power-generating facility is 2,500 gallons per minute, which is an equivalent to 3,600,000 gallons per day.  Sources capable of providing this volume of water to the proposed FutureGen site(s) in west Texas will be discussed.