John Mead, director of the Coal Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, said the FutureGen project is an important step in the future of coal.

Mead called the plan “a real-world demonstration” of state-of-the-art technologies.

“If successful, it will show that coal can be used without negative environmental consequences,” h said.Mead said controlling carbon dioxide emissions could prove crucial to future worldwide global climate change.

“CO2 is the center of worldwide debate on how it affects the future worldwide climate and the Kyoto agreement,” he said.

Mead said the project would have direct application to future coal-operated power plants.

“The demonstration of CO2 control in coal-fired plants is going to be important because it means that in the future, we’ll have the technology available to reduce the carbon emissions from future coal plants,” he said.

More than half of the electricity in the U.S. is generated from coal, he said.

“It’s essential that we see how this works and that we get this data,” he said.

Illinois is in the top 10 coal producers in the country, currently operating 20 mines, mostly located in southern and central Illinois.

The largest coal mine in the state is located in Galatia, in Southeastern Illinois.

Most of the coal mined in the U.S. is either bituminous or sub bituminous, which is of lower energy value that Illinois coal.

Top coal-mining states include Montana, Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, Texas, and Indiana.

Illinois produces between 35 and 40 million tons of coal per year, a combination of bituminous (soft coal) and anthracite, which is only mined in small quantities in other states.

Coal underlies 65 percent of the state’s surface, and the Illinois coal industry annually produces approximately 35 million tons of coal and generates more than $1 billion in gross revenues.

Currently, recoverable coal reserves in the state of Illinois amount to more than 30 billion tons.

Illinois has almost one-eighth of the coal reserves in the United States and one-quarter of the nation’s bituminous coal reserves. Illinois’ coal reserves contain more BTUs than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The geology of the Mattoon area is well suited to the carbon-trapping technology to be developed, and Illinois is home to oil and gas reserves and deep saline aquifers that can permanently sequester carbon dioxide.

The Mattoon FutureGen facility will be built on 444 acres of land located one mile northwest of the city.

Construction of the project is expected to begin in 2010, with full-scale operations beginning in 2013.

FutureGen will have a significant economic impact on the region and state. It is expected to produce 1,300 temporary construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs.

In July of 2006, the FutureGen Alliance named the cities of Mattoon and Tuscola as finalists for the project. The two other finalist cities, Jewett and Odessa, are in Texas.