Eon Near ‘Green Coal’ Solution

Power company Eon says it is close to creating “clean coal” electricity at a power station in the Midlands.

The owner of electricity distributor Central Networks said it had successfully started burning coal in pure oxygen – known as “oxyfuel” – at its Power Technology facility at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire.

The process releases pure carbon dioxide and, once tests are completed, Eon said it hoped to capture this and store it underground. Known as carbon sequestration, this process avoids CO2 being released into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

Bob Taylor, Eon UK board member with special responsibility for innovation, said: “This is a major step for us and our industry.

“It is early days and we’re studying the effects of such a process very closely but it gives us the possibility of creating a whole new generation of coal-fired power stations that do not contribute to climate change.

“We’re looking at a number of potential ways of doing that – including “scrubbing” out the carbon dioxide with the chemical amine and gasifying the coal but it’s clear that we need a number of options as we battle against global warming.”

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