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Gasification and TRIG™
Kemper County IGCC Project

Over the past decade, Mississippi Power's parent company, Southern Company, along with the Department of Energy, has been developing cleaner, less expensive, more reliable methods for power production from coal. A result of this research is gasification technologies, developed at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) near Wilsonville, Alabama.

Rather than burning coal directly to make electricity, gasification first breaks coal down into chemical components. Gases that result from this chemical breakdown can be used to fuel power plants using integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology.

Southern Company, in conjunction with our partner KBR, has further developed the gasification process to work even more efficiently for low-rank coals, such as the lignite that is abundantly available in Kemper County, Mississippi. Low-rank coals have less energy per pound but account for half of worldwide reserves.

TRIG™ Facts

• Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG™) technology was developed by Southern Company and KBR. It is a superior coal-gasification method with less environmental impact.
• TRIG™ easily handles the low-rank coals that account for more than half of the world's vast coal reserves. It offers a simpler and stronger method than most existing coal-gasification technologies.
• It also produces more power and offers lower capital and operation and maintenance costs than other systems.
• The IGCC facility in Kemper County will use TRIG™.
• The Kemper County IGCC Project is a scale-up of a plant already in operation at the PSDF in Wilsonville, Ala. It was developed by Southern Company and KBR in conjunction with the Department of Energy.
• With TRIG™, the IGCC facility in Kemper County will turn Mississippi lignite into gas while cleaning emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury to near natural-gas levels. It also will produce 65 percent less carbon dioxide emissions than the current pulverized coal plants.