A country needs to build new power plants to meet
the increasing demand for electric power. One possibility is
to build coal-fired power plants, which cost $1300 per kW
to construct and have an efficiency of 40 percent. Another
possibility is to build clean-burning Integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants where the coal is subjected to
heat and pressure to gasify it while removing sulfur and particulate matter from it. The gaseous coal is then burned in a
gas turbine, and part of the waste heat from the exhaust gases
is recovered to generate steam for the steam turbine. The construction of IGCC plants costs about $1500 per kW, but their
efficiency is about 48 percent. The average heating value of
the coal is about 28,000,000 kJ per ton (that is, 28,000,000 kJ
of heat is released when 1 ton of coal is burned). If the IGCC
plant is to recover its cost difference from fuel savings in five
years, determine what the price of coal should be in $ per ton.