Using Swedish technology, a utility plant in Spremberg, Germany, near the Polish border, has begun capturing the carbon released by the burning of coal for electricity.

First, the lignite coal is being burned in pure oxygen, which makes the effluent cleaner — still carbon-laden but with less sulphur, mercury, and other elements typical to coal burning.

The effluent is then compressed until it is liquid, and injected underground into naturally occurring caverns.

My question — not buttressed by scientific expertise — has always been whether the holes deep in the ground can accommodate the huge volumes of CO2 produced by continuous coal burning. There are other questions, too, of course: What about plants that aren't located near underground caverns — do you truck the liquid CO2 to where they are? Would the process work with dirtier coal? How much energy is required to produce the pure oxygen, to compress the CO2, and to pump it underground?

I remain skeptical, but am glad that the trial is going forward. The political pressure exerted by the coal industry is enormous — certainly stout enough to compress CO2 — and if there is a safe way to burn their wares, that would be better for all.

'Course, then we have to address the energy to extract the coal, and to transport it to the plants. And the destruction of mountains and the soiling of streams and the ruined health of the miners.

By AFP, via CNet green news and Yahoo News.