Power needed to bury CO2 a coal issue – experts

A big challenge facing electric utilities seeking to burn coal cleanly is providing enough power to capture and bury the carbon dioxide produced, experts said Friday.

The process called carbon capture and sequestration requires as much as 20 percent of the electricity a power plant generates.
That essentially means that for every five coal plants using the technology, a sixth would be required just to power the capture and burial of carbon dioxide produced, said Hill & Associates analysts speaking on the sidelines of the McCloskey 2008 Coal USA conference.

Hill, a unit of Wood Mackenzie, is a leading coal industry consulting firm.

The challenge may not be widely understood by the public, analysts said.

“We’re very aware of it,” Connie Trecazzi, Hill’s lead analyst for U.S. coal research, said of the coal and power industry. “It’s going to be very expensive.”

Reuters