Media General and Wire Reports, August 19, 2008

Results will help industry get ready for climate-change rules that Boucher says are coming...

Researchers began a small-scale test yesterday to determine whether carbon dioxide can be captured in a coal seam instead of being released into the air. About 1,000 tons of the greenhouse gas will be injected into a seam that can't be mined in Russell County.

"This is a major event in securing the future of coal nationally," said U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, who spoke at a gathering yesterday in Cedar Bluff to kick off the effort.

The project is being funded by $4.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and $1.1 million from industries.

Boucher says "carbon dioxide controls are coming," and it will be necessary to sequester emissions from plants such as coal-burning power stations. Dominion Virginia Power held a groundbreaking ceremony last week for a coal-burning plant it is building in adjacent Wise County.

Boucher often has discussed federal climate-change legislation on the near horizon that will limit carbon dioxide emissions. He says having a place to store the gas will be essential to the continued use of coal when such regulations are imposed.

The Russell County test will last two months, said Nino Ripepi, project manager of the project for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research.

Carbon dioxide, as well as other chemical compounds, act as "greenhouse gases," which allow sunlight to freely enter the atmosphere, thus contributing to global warming. When sunlight strikes the earth's surface, some is radiated back toward space as infrared radiation or heat.

The test, which will use an existing coalbed methane well to inject the carbon dioxide, will help determine the viability of carbon storage technology for commercial use.

It will be the first such test in the central Appalachian region.

Ripepi said a characterization study shows a storage capacity of up to 1.34 billion tons -- or enough to store more than 100 years worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the power plants in Carbo and Virginia City.