New coal technology could help climate
 

A Norwegian firm's technology for cheaply removing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants is likely to appeal to countries from China to the United States, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor said on Wednesday.
Sargas, a privately-owned Norwegian group which cooperates with Germany's Siemens AG , said its technology can clean more than 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from a gas-fired or coal-fired plant, at lower costs than its rivals.

"The combination of technology which is basically mature and able to capture carbon dioxide at a small differential cost makes it very attractive," said Gregory McRae, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

McRae, who is studying "clean coal" systems, accompanied Sargas leaders on Wednesday when they outlined the technology to Norway's ministers of Energy and Industry after Siemens certified that the process was feasible.

"As engineers, and interested in the environment, we're looking for technologies which are now cost effective and which allow capture of carbon dioxide," said McRae, who is paid as a consultant to Sargas.

Many nations are trying to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed by most scientists for global warming that could spur more droughts, more powerful storms and raise sea levels by almost a metre by 2100.

And many countries, from the United States to China, depend on coal which is a heavily polluting fossil fuel. "China is building one 500-megawatt power plant a week without any capture technology," McRae said.