The coal industry is betting its future on carbon capture and storage (CCS). They are working to convince policy-makers that they can reduce coal's contribution to global warming pollution and continue to burn coal. The industry is seeking huge subsidies they claim will enable power plants to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2). CCS refers to technologies that could theoretically allow power plants and other industrial sources to avoid releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and to permanently store it. Currently, storage in geologic formations underground, such as saline aquifers, are the most common proposals. Much is still unknown about this technology, and it is only now being tested at a commercial scale.
The separation of carbon dioxide and compression for transport is expected to consume large amounts of energy and water. The 2005 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 1 estimated that for a new high-efficiency pulverized coal plant, capturing CO2 would reduce plant efficiency between 24 and 40 percent, or 14 to 25 percent for a gasifi cation-type coal plant. This means that to make up for energy used for capturing CO2, a plant would need to burn 14 to 40 percent more coal. Burning more coal would increase air pollution and solid waste residue from the additional combustion. Mining and transporting more coal would add to those increased environmental impacts.
1 Bert Metz et al, Special Report: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2005)
2 Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport and Storage. (World Resources Institute, 2008) p. 36 table 5, p. 38 table 6
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