Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will get a chance to prove itself next week at the 1,600 MW Schwarze Pumpe coal-fired power plant in Germany. The CCS demonstration will capture up to 100,000 tons of CO2 each year and bury it 3,000 m under a nearby gas field.

The scheme uses oxyfuel technology, which relies on burning coal in pure oxygen and CO2 instead of normal air. This results in a byproduct of almost pure CO2 that is bottled and pumped underground.

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The recent news that the demand for coal is climbing rapidly around the world has left many of us deeply unsettled. And a new study from Australian energy consultancy ACIL Talisman doesn’t make things sound any more cheery.

The company believes that clean coal technologies such as carbon capture and storage are unlikely to be commercially available before 2020 unless major technological breakthroughs occur in the very near future.

However, the firm predicts that both geothermal and concentrated solar will be in widespread commercial use by the 2020 target date. But none of these technologies can squelch the CO2 coming from the 40% increase in coal consumption expected by 2030.

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“Currently, the existing U.S. coal fleet accounts for over half of all electricity generated in this country,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said in a release. “The projects announced today will combat climate change and help meet current and future energy needs by curbing CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired plants.”

But carbon capture and sequestration, along with “clean coal” are still perceived by many as mythical technologies that are simply not cost effective.

My question is this: If carbon capture and sequestration is such a central component of President Bush’s broader energy vision, why aren’t they doing more about it?  To put things in perspective, since 2001 the Bush administration has invested more than $2.5 billion in clean coal research and development - roughly the same amount it spends per week on the Iraq war.

Oh, and that $36 million figure mentioned at the top of this article? $36 million is roughly equal to what the U.S. spends on the Iraq war in two and a half hours.

Read more about the specific projects receiving funding at the DOE’s website.

Other posts on the DOE and carbon capture/sequestration:

• “Assistant Secretary of Energy Karsner Announces Resignation”
• “EPA Drafts Rule for Carbon Sequestration”
• “Wyoming Passes Carbon Capture and Sequestration Legislation”
• “CO2 Capture and Technology of the Future”

Photo: hAdamsky via flickr under a Creative Commons License

The concept works like this: researchers will plant things like cattails and tules (a type of rush that grows in freshwater marshes) in parts of the delta that have been subsiding and giving off greenhouse gases thanks to unsustainable agricultural practices in the area. Over time, the marsh plants will reproduce, die, decompose and rebuild the region’s peat soils … all while also soaking up carbon dioxide and creating new, sustainable wetlands.

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As climate change become a more central issue for people and governments around the globe, a lot of people are looking for solutions - fast solutions. If there were a quick and inexpensive way to dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, we should go for it right? Well a number of “quick fix” solutions, which have centered around hacking the environment to fight climate change, have been floating around for years. One strategy is to capture the CO2 with plankton and bury it in the ocean (which is much easier and cheaper than pumping it into the ground). Another is to change the composition of our atmosphere to reflect sunlight. Others tend to be more sci-fi and outlandish - but all of them might just turn out to be disastrous.

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