City scientist helps 'clean coal' research

Published on Friday 3 April 2009 09:45

THE dream of harnessing power from 'clean coal' could be on the horizon after a team of Edinburgh scientists uncovered underground gas chambers that have held natural CO2 gas for millions of years.

Scientists have been looking at ways to capture the harmful carbon dioxide gas emitted through the burning of coal and store it in underground chambers such as disused gas or oil fields.

However, critics have warned that a breach in these chambers would lead to a large CO2 gas leak into the atmosphere, amplifying global warming.

To analyse this risk, a team led by Stuart Gilfillan, of the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage at the University of Edinburgh, has been studying the chemical signatures from gas fields in North America, China and Europe that are rich in natural CO2.

They found that this gas could be stored indefinitely.

"We looked at nine CO2 fields, ranging from 10,000 years to about 42 million years old, and they have all stored CO2 for this length of time without obvious leakage signs," said Dr Gilfillan.

He added: "Basically, if you store it in the right location, the CO2 should be contained on that sort of time scale."