An interdisciplinary MIT faculty group examined the role of coal in light of a carbon constrained economy and found that growing electricity demand will require increases in all generation options including renewables, nuclear, and coal, which will continue to play a significant role in power generation. As such, carbon dioxide management will become increasingly important, the study says, and the US must take a leading role.
The study, ‘The Future of Coal – Options for a Carbon Constrained World,’ was led by co-chairs Professor John Deutch and Ernest J. Moniz with Deutch commenting: “Demonstration of technical, economic, and institutional features of CCS at commercial scale coal combustion and conversion plants will give policymakers and the public confidence that a practical carbon mitigation control option exists, will reduce cost of CCS should carbon emission controls be adopted, and will maintain the low-cost coal option in an environmentally acceptable manner.”
Moniz added: “There are many opportunities for enhancing the performance of coal plants in a carbon-constrained world. An aggressive R&D effort in the near-term will yield significant dividends down the road, and should be undertaken immediately to help meet this urgent scientific challenge.”
Among recommendations the study calls for several integrated large-scale US demonstration projects over the next decade with government support, while the government should provide assistance only to coal projects with CO2 capture in order to demonstrate technical, economic and environmental performance.
Senate Energy committee chairman Jeff Bingaman said: “As the report notes, a robust and comprehensive approach towards carbon sequestration is an essential part of future coal technology development and implementation.”
The full report may be found at: http://web.mit.edu/coal/The_Future_of_Coal.pdf
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