The Babcock and Wilcox Power Generation Group has inked a deal with the Meredosia facility’s owner, the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, to kick off the second of three phases of work.

The company will design and supply FutureGen’s boiler island, oxy-coal combustion system and its gas-quality control system. It will also supply the balance of plant engineering for the first-of-its-kind coal-fired plant.

“This agreement is an important next step in our progress toward making near-zero-emissions power generation from coal a reality,” B&W president and chief operating officer J Randall Data said.

“We look forward to continuing our relationship with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, the DOE and the project team in demonstrating the value of carbon-capture technology.”

The US Department of Energy has green-lighted funding of up to $US49 million for the FEED work.

The plant’s construction makes up Phase 3, expected to start in June.

FutureGen is aiming to capture more than 90% of combustion-generated carbon-dioxide, which could reduce the plant’s CO2 footprint by over one million tonnes every year.

The CO2 captured from FutureGen 2.0 will be transported and stored underground at a nearby storage facility.

The first FutureGen project was shelved by the US government and a redesign set for construction in Illinois was unveiled in 2011.

Morgan County, Illinois, was selected as the preferred site for FutureGen 2.0 in February 2011 following an open and competitive solicitation process.

Coal will be mined primarily within the state, from Arch Coal’s Viper mine in Sangamon County and Coalfield Transport’s Shay 1 Mine and Tri-County Coal’s Crown III Mine, both in Macoupin County.