Carbon capture

In the eastern part of Germany's Brandenburg state, citizens have taken to hanging signs reading "We're no guinea pigs" on their garden fences. They're upset about plans to store liquid carbon dioxide in the earth below their homes.

It's a process known as Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS, in which greenhouse gas emissions are isolated and pressed below ground in liquid form.

Hans-Georg von der Marwitz, who represents eastern Brandenburg in parliament, says he's not convinced Swedish energy giant Vattenfall will ever succeed in building their planned CCS coal-fired power plant there.

"That's primarily because of the citizens here in the region who are making it clear that risky technologies should not and cannot have a place in our future," he told Deutsche Welle.

The fear is that CO2 could leak into ground water and poison it, or force its way to the surface, where at best it would defeat the purpose of capturing it and at worst asphyxiate unsuspecting passersby.

Competing with renewables

But not everyone vilifies CCS technology. Others say it improves the viability of coal power and protects us against the consequences of global warming.

Take the Boston Consulting Group, for instance. They say retrofitting the world's 1,000 largest and most-polluting coal plants and industrial facilities with CCS systems would reduce global man-made carbon emissions by one third.

While CCS could in fact make coal power a suitable short-term solution for global energy needs, critics fear doing so will slow the deployment of renewable energy sources.

Oliver Krischer, the Green Party's energy expert in Germany's Parliament, says the widespread and full-scale adoption of CCS systems has yet to demonstrate results. He says large, industrializing nations like India and China would be better served investing directly in alternatives to coal.

"It would be better for them to go down the right path to start with and base their development on renewable energies and efficient technologies," he told Deutsche Welle.

Substantial investment

Vattenfall operates large lignite coal power plants in East Germany, and has invested significant effort into its CCS pilot project in Brandenburg since 2009.

The project is called "Black Pump."

It's headed up by Uwe Burchhardt, who says future CCS-equipped coal plants will require chemical processing facilities taking up large amounts of space.

Yet the ideas that underpin the technology – filtering gases and storing waste products – are not foreign to the industry.

"We're able to attain a separation degree of 90 percent in the CO2 system," Burchhardt said.

Still, technical problems persist. The way things are now, CCS systems use a significant amount of electricity, making coal plants less productive and their energy more expensive relative to other carbon-free forms of energy.

Lacking acceptance

According to Vattenfall spokeswoman Katarina Bloemer, CCS technology is viable and could be deployed soon.

"We have always said that we'll be in a position to prepare large, commercial power plants equipped with CCS technology by 2020," she told Deutsche Welle.

The liquefied CO2 can be pressed deeply into voided natural gas reservoirs, or salt veins in layers of stand stone.

Given those criteria, Northern Germany and underneath its North Sea are prime candidates. Under pressure from citizens, however, the regional governments there won't accept a CCS reservoir.

Ultimately, economic and political factors will likely determine whether CCS systems are adopted, and fear about the implications of large, underground CO2 deposits abound in Germany.

It's unclear if there are any other areas in Germany willing to allow experiments in CCS technology.

Brandenburg's State Premier Matthias Platzeck says his state alone can't save the world's atmosphere. Meanwhile the country may fall by the wayside as a testing ground for "clean coal."

Author: Bernd Grässler (gps)
Editor: Nathan Witkop