A study published in the Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control has highlighted a problem with carbon capture that has not been widely discussed. While carbon capture technology will probably be able to reduce the carbon dioxide emission from coal-fired power plants by between 71 and 78 percent, the cost of doing so is will be the need to produce additional power to compress the carbon dioxide for storage.
Production of this power will mean that about 30% more coal need to will be burnt. The production, transport and burning of this additional coal would result in an increase in the nitrogen oxides and sufur oxides produced by about 40%. These chemicals are linked with the production of acid rain, water pollution and destruction of the ozone layer.
Presumably, additional coal mining would also result in a proportional increase in the number of miners killed – which has been betwwen 5,600 and 7,000 a year in the past decade.
Source: Science News
