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On Wednesday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation that advances a plan to build the state’s first coal gasification plant in Chicago.

Leucadia National Corp. is developing the Chicago Clean Energy project, which calls for constructing a $3 billion coal gasification facility on the site of a former LTV Steel plant on Chicago’s southeast side. The plant would produce a substitute natural gas from Illinois coal and petroleum coke without burning the materials, capturing 85 percent of all emissions and storing them underground as part of the process.

The plant, which would use about 1 million tons of Illinois coal annually, would “substantially reduce” carbon emissions, create 1,500 jobs and save consumers more than $100 million over the next several years, Quinn said in a prepared statement. The facility would be served from the north by Norfolk Southern Railway and from the south by Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co., said Hoyt Hudson, a spokesman with Chicago Clean Energy consultant Eco-Industrial Development, in an e-mail.

The Chicago Clean Energy project now will undergo a several-year process of regulatory and local reviews before construction can begin, according to Leucadia National.

Meanwhile, Corsa Coal Corp. yesterday announced that train shipments of metallurgical coal have commenced from its new coal preparation plant near Somerset, Pa. A load-out facility now is fully functional and regular rail shipments with CSX Transportation have started, Corsa Coal officials said in a prepared statement. The company so far has loaded and shipped two 80-car unit trains carrying about 16,000 tons of met coal.

The coal preparation or “wash” plant, which began operating last month, is located about 170 miles from the Port of Baltimore. The rail load-out facility is designed to handle 120-car unit trains.