The Details Behind The Facts

In reality, there is no such thing as "clean" coal in America today

There are no homes in America powered by "clean" coal today. There are no "clean" coal power plants selling electricity in America today. In fact, America does not have a single demonstration "clean" coal plant that captures and safely stores its carbon pollution. The technologies that capture or safely store CO2 have not yet been integrated with coal power at commercial scale. This means that the roughly 600 coal plants producing electricity in the US today are not preventing their global warming pollution from entering the atmosphere. Although the technologies are being developed and tested, in reality, there is no such thing as "clean" coal power in America today.

Coal is a leading source of global warming emissions

Burning coal for electricity is a leading source of global warming pollution in the US. Emissions from coal combustion for electricity contribute 32% of US CO2 emissions. The CO2 emissions from this coal combustion are larger than the emissions from gasoline and diesel transportation, which together contribute 27% of US CO2 emissions.1

Coal is also disproportionately more polluting than other fuels used in the US to produce electricity. 83% of the CO2 emissions produced from making electricity come from coal even though coal is the fuel source for only about half of US electricity generation.2 Per unit of electricity produced, CO2 emissions from coal are more than 1.5 times those of natural gas, the other major fossil fuel source of electricity in the US.3

Can coal power be part of the solution to the climate crisis?

If America's coal power plants capture and store their CO2 pollution, they will no longer be contributing to the climate crisis and could form a crucial part of a clean electricity generation mix in America. However, coal power plants that do not have the ability to safely capture and store their CO2 pollution, including all of the plants operating in the US today, are increasing global warming pollution by billions of tons per year. For more information about solving the climate crisis, go to wecansolveit.org.

Do we need to wait for coal power that captures and stores its pollution in order to solve the climate crisis?

We do not need to wait. We can begin solving the climate crisis now by reducing global warming emissions with proven renewable energy technologies and dramatically improved energy efficiency. Carbon-free energy sources are already providing power to millions of homes in America. New policies can stimulate and increase use of renewable generation and upgrades in energy efficiency, that, when combined with a unified national smart grid, will enable 100% clean, climate-friendly electricity within 10 years. Go to RepowerAmerica.org to learn more.

Is coal power necessary to support America's electricity demands?

If coal power plants capture and safely store their carbon pollution, coal can be part of America's 100% clean electricity mix. If the coal industry is unable to prevent CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere, America's electricity demands can be met in numerous other ways. The path towards a clean electricity system includes advances in efficiency, more generation from renewable sources, a unified national smart electricity grid, and a transition to clean cars. Repower America means new industries with millions of high-paying jobs. It means lower and less volatile energy bills.

  • Energy Efficiency: A national upgrade to eliminate waste, save money, and improve comfort. Make every bit of energy we produce work harder for us.
  • Renewable Generation: Accelerate the ramp-up of clean, renewable electricity sources through policies that support increased private and public investment in technologies that work, like wind, solar, and geothermal.
  • Unified National Smart Grid: Modernize transmission infrastructure so that clean electricity generated anywhere in America can power homes and businesses across the nation; Build national electricity 'interstates' that move power quickly and cheaply to where it is needed; Establish local smart grids that buy and sell power from households and support clean plug-in cars.
  • Automobiles: Transition to efficient plug-in cars that 'fuel' with clean electricity. In combination with the unified grid, a nationwide fleet of plug-in vehicles also provides a key source of electricity storage and reliability.

What needs to happen for coal to be part of the climate solution?

Integrated capture and storage for coal power needs to be commercialized so it is available for all coal power plants. The timeline for this commercialization is uncertain - it depends on passing laws and regulations that will make it happen. Although various technologies for CO2 capture, transport, and storage have been in development for decades, technology challenges and insufficient investment have prevented faster ramp-up of demonstrations and pilot projects. Coal industry groups have also been unsupportive of national climate policies that would encourage faster commercialization (i.e. legislation that places a value on CO2 that is captured and stored).

To be part of the future energy mix, the coal industry must quickly devote resources for commercial-scale development of integrated carbon capture, transport, and sequestration (CCS) systems. Greater investment, along with a moratorium on new coal plants without capture and storage and effective US carbon policies, could speed the availability of electricity from coal power that doesn't release its carbon pollution to the atmosphere.

If coal captures and stores its CO2, does that make it "clean"?

No—not unless other environmental practices, standards and rules are adopted as well. Coal mining practices like mountain top removal permanently destroy landscapes and pollute waterways. Burning coal to produce electricity can release over 100 pollutants into the atmosphere.4 Without adequate pollution controls, many plants today still emit dangerous levels of mercury (which enters our food supply and causes birth defects), nitrogen oxides (which contribute to smog and asthma), and fine particulate matter (which causes heart and lung disease) that prematurely kills thousands of people every year. Coal cannot be clean without capturing and storing its global warming pollution but CCS by itself is not sufficient—comprehensive environmental controls must be applied to all coal power plants.

How does a coal power plant make electricity?

Coal power plants burn coal or its byproducts to produce electricity.

In pulverized coal plants, coal is ground up, blown into a furnace and then burned to produce steam, which turns a steam turbine coupled with an electric generator, which produces electricity. Nearly all coal plants operating and being built today are pulverized coal power plants. In a pulverized coal plant with CO2 capture, carbon would be chemically separated and captured from the exhaust (flue) gas created by burning the coal.5

In integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants, the coal is ground up and fed into a gasifier that converts it into a syngas. This coal–based gas is burned to produce very hot gases and steam that turn turbines coupled with electric generators, which produce electricity. IGCC is a relatively new technology and there are just a few plants operating in the US. In an IGCC power plant with CO2 capture, the CO2 would be captured from the syngas before it is used to produce electricity (whereas the pulverized coal plant captures the CO2 after the electricity is produced).6

What is "Clean" Coal?

For a coal power plant to be clean, in addition to addressing local environmental concerns, its CO2 emissions must be captured and safely stored so that they cannot enter the atmosphere. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is the technical term for preventing global warming pollution from coal power plants. Technology assessments indicate CCS can prevent 80% to nearly 100% of a coal power plant's CO2 from entering the atmosphere. CCS can include pre–combustion or post–combustion capture. CO2 injected for enhanced oil recovery can be considered a storage solution as long as the CO2 is permanently retained in the oil field.

What is sequestration?

Sequestration in the context of coal power refers to long–term storage of CO2 from coal power plants in non–atmospheric reservoirs, mainly geologic formations that trap the CO2. Geologic carbon sequestration involves injecting carbon dioxide, usually in a liquid form, into underground media like deep saline formations, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, and unmineable coal seams. Sequestration is the last stage of the CCS process after CO2 has been captured at a coal power plant, compressed from a gaseous phase to a fluid, transported by pipeline (if the plant is not near a sequestration site), and then finally injected into deep subsurface formations.

In order to ensure that sequestration sites and operations are safe, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Energy, and many environmental organizations are beginning to develop potential frameworks and criteria for CO2 sequestration. As part of this effort, the EPA has published a proposed rule under the Safe Drinking Water Act to safeguard underground sources of drinking water from injection activities.

What is the status of US coal power plants with CCS?

  • Commercial CCS Today: There are currently no coal power plants that capture and store their CO2 in operation or under construction in the US.
  • Near–term Planned Pilot CCS: There is one project under construction in West Virginia that will test CCS technologies by siphoning off about 1–2% of the exhaust from a very large existing coal power plant and then capturing and sequestering the carbon from the siphoned gas. In the medium–term several other projects plan similar slipstream tests.
  • Testing of Capture Technology for CCS: There is one small 1.7MW project testing CO2 capture technology for the purpose of CCS development. This project is not testing CCS however, as the captured CO2 is subsequently released to the atmosphere.
  • Capture without Sequestration: There are a few power plants that siphon a portion of their exhaust to capture CO2 that is sold for the food and beverage industry. This captured CO2 is not prevented from entering the atmosphere (i.e. there is no sequestration). There is also an industrial coal facility that captures the CO2 from its power production for use in mineral processing but there is no sequestration.
  • CCS without Electricity Production: An industrial coal gasification facility in North Dakota captures about one million tons a year of its CO2 for injection into the Weyburn oil field sequestration project in Canada.
  • Proposed New Power Plants with CCS: There are several power plants in the permitting phase that indicate a plan to demonstrate CCS technologies.

Citations:

Resources:

Additional Information provided by:

  • MIT Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies Program
  • Public Citizen
  • Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
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