Now that American Electric Power’s carbon capture and storage project has begun operating at its Mountaineer plant in New Haven, W.Va., it has received a flurry of media attention.
And rightfully so – with the help of technology developed by French energy company Alstom, SA, the Mountaineer plant has become the nation’s first coal-generated power plant to capture and store its own carbon dioxide emissions. The goal is to capture and store about 1.5 percent of the CO2 the plant produces.
In the days after the plant’s announcement, many news organizations and publications have tried to explain Mountaineer’s clean coal process to the public – but few appear to have done it better than Scientific American.
We absolutely love the interactive slideshow that award-winning environmental journalist David Biello put together for the magazine.
At first glance, his photos look like a jumble of tubes, pipes and smokestacks, but he explains how each part of the plant plays an important role in cooling, capturing, storing and regenerating the carbon dioxide.
By the end of it, we guarantee that you’ll be up-to-date with the Mountaineer project and the process of capturing carbon emissions.
If you like what you see, check out the clean coal photos that the America’s PowerSM team took during this year’s Factuality Tour on Flickr. We got to see carbon capture and sequestration in action at the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant and the Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration.
And don’t forget to read Scientific American’s related article and guide to carbon capture technology.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is committed to the idea that America can have the affordable, reliable electricity we need, with the clean environment we want. ACCCE’s Behind the Plug blog is the place for up-to-date news and analysis on clean coal technology developments and energy policy progress.