Companies in the United States have developed a new method to gasify coal, which would reduce their cost of managing its greenhouse gas emissions.
In order to reduce imports of natural gas or oil, US companies are vying with each other to develop a clean-green way of burning coal, even though it emits more carbon dioxide than any other fossil fuel.
That prompted the bigger companies to come up with a method where heat and pressure are used to convert coal into a gas-like fuel at power plants so that it reduces pollutants like acid rain. They believe technology can siphon off CO2 and bury it to ensure it does not reach the atmosphere.
Having such facilities at power plants, however, could be expensive and so the companies are planning to gasify coal close to the mine and then send the gas via pipeline to power plants.
Andrew Perlman, chief executive of GreatPoint Energy, said
We can save money because we don’t have to transport coal via rail all the way across the country to make power.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kirsten Neumann
