New technology is needed to lower CCS costs. Private companies will develop much of that cost-lowering technology as they build plants, but the federal government’s research efforts are also critical.
CATF’s report, Coal Without Carbon: An Investment Plan for Federal Action describes a federal research blueprint for achieving cost breakthroughs in carbon dioxide controls. The report was written by experts at MIT, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, and advanced coal project developers.
Key findings include:
- Underground coal gasification technology could dramatically reduce carbon emissions and electricity prices. The report describes key research needs.
- With federal help, advanced above-ground coal gasification technologies could be commercialized, lowering coal carbon emissions by 90% or more and reducing the nation’s costs of meeting carbon targets.
- We need better and less expensive ways to scrub the CO2 out of the older coal plants and store it. Federal investment in post-combustion carbon controls would help to move breakthrough technologies from the lab to commercial plant scale.
- More federal investment is needed to commercialize the storage of captured CO2 deep below the Earth’s surface in saline formations.
