Clean Coal Technologies

Did you know many clean coal technologies are under active development that will produce clean, reliable electricity?

Increases in coal-based generation over the past several decades have been accompanied by impressive declines in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter. Mercury emissions also have declined. Technological advances will allow these trends to continue even as our nation uses more coal for both existing and new capacity.

Given the importance of coal-based power plants to meeting the nation's current demand for electricity, significant efforts should go into the development of cost-effective processes to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), ultra-supercritical pulverized coal (USC/PC) plants, and other advanced combustion technologies. According to studies commissioned by the National Coal Council and conducted by Penn State University, the full development and implementation of these advanced generation and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies could generate significant socio-economic benefits for the nation by 2025-2035 – including creating more than 1.4 million new jobs per year.