Alstom and various US partners have been testing carbon capture on a small Wisconsin coal-fired plant. After a year of testing, this pilot project is a success as 90 percent of carbon dioxide was captured.
The French company is willing to commercialize CCS for new and existing coal fired plants as early as 2015. But for this to happen the technology will have to increase its scale to fit plants bringing hundreds of megawatts to the grids.
This is important news as coal-fired plants are a major source of greenhouse gases emissions around the world as still many countries rely on this fuel for their electricity generation.
However storage still has to be tested. This is due for the next test. (Thanks Susan for pointing that out.)
For more on these important news, please check out the links below:
- CleanTechnica : 90% of Coal Plant CO2 Captured in 12-Month Test ;
- Reuters : Alstom captures CO2 from Wisconsin coal plant ;
- Journal Sentinel : We Energies says carbon-capture project works ;
- Official website and report.