Coal will save your dupa

Polish and American scientists are to cooperate on clean coal technologies. Poland's Chief Mining Institute (GIG) and the Coal Chemical Processing Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory have signed a memorandum to work together to advance clean coal technologies (CCT).

According to professor Józef Dubiński, the director of GIG, accepting Poland as a partner in this field is a significant achievement, taking into consideration that the U.S. has been working on this kind of projects for almost 20 years.

Both Silesian institutes, among Polish leaders in clean coal technologies research, are making efforts to transform Silesia into a European clean coal R&D center.

Polish and American scientists have planned to launch their cooperation in October. The cooperation will take place through jointly funded research and development projects considering technological, environmental and economic aspects of CCT, information and personnel exchanges.

The focus will be on gasification methods (including underground gasification technologies) , modern carbon dioxide capture and storage and coal-to-liquid fuel technology. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Its mission is to enhance energy security of the United States. NETL implements a broad spectrum of energy research and development (R&D) programs in the field of clean energy production using fossil fuel resources. Even though the USA did not ratify the Kyoto protocol one of the main targets of the federally owned and operated Laboratory is to reduce carbon dioxide emission. (PAP)