New hydrogen plant.?

Question

The town nearby to me, Mattoon IL. has just won a bid to host a new hydrogen power plant. I know hydrogen is supposed to be cleaner and more effeciant, but this thing will be HUGE. our towns are very excited that it will boost the economy, but what will be the envortonmental effects, is it worth it?

Answer 1

Yea, I'm not even sure what a hydrogen plant is.  sorry.

Answer 2

The plant in Mattoon will be a 275 Megawatt Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant that converts coal to a synthetic fuel gas, and then burns that fuel gas to make electricity.  

While an IGCC plant is a significant upgrade over a typical coal-fired boiler plant, where they simply burn the coal to create electricity (the boiler will emit thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide, smog-forming pollutants, hazardous air pollutants and mercury), it still will emit some air pollutants.