Clean coal, an oxymoron that is becoming a scientific reality, is coming to Pennsylvania. The technology to separate carbon dioxide from coal already exists. The next step is what to do with all the carbon dioxide generated by clean coal.
The safest way found so far is to put it underground, deep underground. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is currently studying the feasibility of recycling old oil and gas wells in western Pennsylvania into receptacles for the deadly poison.
"All of Western Pennsylvania is a prospective area because of the oil and gas drilling over the past 150 years," Kristin M. Carter, section chief of carbon sequestration for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review yesterday.
"While no carbon dioxide emission sites have been targeted, Carter said there has been a case study on an area referred to as Summit Field in southern Fayette County. The underground site is about 15 miles east of Allegheny Energy Inc.'s Hatfield's Ferry power plant along the Monongahela River in Greene County. The Summit Field in the Laurel Highlands includes state-owned land in the Forbes State Forest and is underneath small towns of fewer than 1,000 people, Carter said."
Comments