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Published: 1979

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The Department of Energy's demonstration plant program was started in 1974 by one of the Department of Energy's predecessor agencies: the Office of Coal Research, US Department of the Interior. The objective of the program is to establish the technical and financial feasibility of coal conversion technologies proven during pilot plant testing. Demonstration plants will minimize the technical and economic risks of commercialization by providing a near commercial size plant for testing and production. Thus, DOE is sponsoring the development of a series of demonstration plants, each of which will be a smaller version of commercial plants envisioned for the 1980's. These plants will be wholly integrated, self-sufficient in terms of heat generation, and dependent only on feedstock of coal, water, and air. Under the DOE program, contracts for designing, constructing, and operating the demonstration plants will be awarded through competitive procedures and will be jointly funded. The conceptual design phase will be funded by the government, with the detailed design, procurement, construction, and operating phases being co-funded, 50% from industry and 50% from the government. The cost involved in building and operating a demonstration plant will probably be between $200 million and $500 million, depending on the size of the plant. Individual demonstration plant contracts are described briefly.