Power generation does not emit CO2

One of Europe's largest energy companies, Vattenfall (Sweden), has just unveiled a power plant using technology that is seen as a breakthrough in the fight against climate change.

Schwarze Pumpe workers with _CO2 pipeline liquid.

With the Schwarze Pumpe power plant in East Germany, Vattenfall expects to continue to produce electricity by coal but significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) emissions.

To do that, the company uses carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to collect greenhouse gases generated during fossil fuel combustion. The amount of exhaust gas collected is then compressed into liquid and pumped deep into the ground, so that it can not become an agent that increases the temperature of the Earth.

Vattenfall's power plant in Germany is the world's first factory to use a new coal-fired method - lignite combustion - also known as coal combustion by oxygen. Accordingly, the coal is burned with pure oxygen, so only the only gas is CO ₂ (not a mixture of exhaust gases as traditional methods).