Wall Street Journal declares CCS a game-changing technology

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is considered to be one of the “five technologies that could change everything,” The Wall Street Journal said in a cover story on Monday.

In other words, CCS could be part of an innovation wave that could help drastically reduce greenhouse gases and “radically change the world energy picture.”

It’s easy to understand why CCS would be considered a breakthrough technology. If commercially deployed, it could cut carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent while limiting cost increases. The Journal acknowledges that the technology exists and has been demonstrated in small-scale pilots, but has yet to make the leap on a commercial level.

Of the other technologies the Journal lauded – such as space-based solar power and utility storage – two of them are involved with coal.

The advanced car batteries that would be used to boost the mileage of hybrid-electric cars would need to run on a grid powered by coal.

And next-generation biofuels, like genetically altered algae, can be used to eat carbon dioxide emissions captured from coal-generated power plants.

Scientists are continuing to work on these technologies. If perfected, it could radically change the way we use electricity – and most certainly pave the way toward a clean energy future.