The Clean Coal Technology Myth

“Clean coal” is a blanket term that is used by different people in different ways to describe technologies that can be used to reduce the environmental impact of burning coal to generate electricity. The coal industry generally uses the term to refer to the removal of conventional pollutants (e.g., soot and sulfur), not including methods that capture and remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flue gas – referred to as carbon dioxide capture and storage, or CCS.

An important aspect of CCS to remember is that it does not completely remove the CO2 from the Earth – it simply displaces it from the atmosphere into a different area. CCS is also expensive and not yet proven to be viable. Two examples of carbon storage are ocean sinks and geological sinks.

Ocean sinks involve capturing CO2 emissions, liquefying them, and putting the CO2 on the ocean floor. Severe ecological disasters could be caused by this sequestration method.

Geological sinks involve injecting supercritical CO2 into empty pockets of the Earth, such as in empty oil fields and depleted natural gas reservoirs. Unfortunately, CO2 leaks are a potential problem, as is the need for high injection pressures and acidification.

Source: GWEN and Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UNEP, 2005.

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