Once You Clean the Coal, Where Does the CO2 Go?

John McCain and Barack Obama have both campaigned on the need for alternative fuels to petroleum and cleaner sources of energy. Both have raised the possibility of ‘clean coal’, and Germany may have discovered a solution to the problem of emissions from power plants. The BBC reports this week in a series of articles on a new power plant in Eastern Germany that burns clean coal and emits heat, water vapor and nine tons of CO2 per hour. The CO2 will then be separated, squashed to one 500th of its original volume, squeezed into a cylinder, transported to a gas field and then stored 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) underground. German experts believe that this solves the energy puzzle for a country with abundant coal supplies and a resource to avoid the carbon emissions that are generally blamed for climate change.

Click here to see pictures of a carbon capture and storage plant and to learn more about the process of carbon burial.