The FutureGen Industrial Alliance is hoping to evolve its plans in the near future for building a clean coal energy plant in Mattoon.

But the group needs to meet a benchmark set by the U.S. Department of Energy before planning intricate construction details.

Lawrence Pacheco, spokesperson for the FutureGen Alliance, a group of energy and coal producers, said the alliance is recruiting coal and electric companies that specialize in carbon-capture technology to join the group as part of a deal between the Energy Department and the alliance.

The alliance is currently comprised of nine members after two companies left because of financial concerns.

He said the group needs to have 20 members by early 2010 before they proceed with construction.

“The alliance is on a campaign to recruit more members and believes it can do so in the next few months,” Pacheco said.

He said the alliance and the Energy Department are already conversing with a variety of energy and coal companies.

The energy plant would convert coal to hydrogen without emitting carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide in the coal would then be stored underground and turned into gas to fire the plant.

In June, the Energy Department announced it would commit a little more than a billion dollars of the $2.4 billion estimated to build the facility in Mattoon. The department presumably left the alliance to pick up the rest of the construction tab.

The announcement received favorable praise from the alliance after losing the large-scale Mattoon project in 2008.

The Energy Department, under the Bush administration, rescinded in January 2008 its plan to pay the bulk of the costs for the Mattoon project.

Instead, the department favored the idea of building smaller clean coal plants around the country.

Pacheco said the alliance became more optimistic about the project coming to Mattoon after the Obama administration decided to restore the original plan. He said he is confident the alliance will be able to meet the Energy Department’s recruiting goal.

Angela Griffin, president of Coles Together, a local group dedicated to economic development in Coles County, said the Energy Department’s announcement has restored confidence in the FutureGen project, which helps the alliance recruit companies.

“Many of those companies are going to be back at the table and have an interest in the success and outcome of FutureGen,” she said.

Griffin said that the rest of the $2.4 billion to build the project could also come from a variety of sources, not just from the pocketbooks of alliance members.

She said that funding the rest of the project could also come from other government funding, such as grants.

“That still is something that will develop later,” Griffin said.

She said she does not doubt that the alliance will be able to meet its early 2010 recruitment deadline.

Once that is accomplished, the next goal would be to pinpoint total construction costs and finalize how the construction would be funded, Griffin said.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.