By KPR
Lexington, KY – The U.S. Department of Energy is giving the University of Kentucky $14 million towards coal technology research. The University's Center for Applied Energy is developing a new way to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plant emissions. Much of the nation's carbon capture research has stalled or been scuttled because it's hard to justify the expense when there's no government-mandated price on carbon. Rodney Andrews, the center's director, says it's critical that universities and other public institutions fill the gap that the private sector has left.
"Developing these sorts of technologies takes a long time. Particularly if we want to do it where they've been proven and they're efficient and all those sorts of thing. So, if down the road, we're going to want to control carbon dioxide emissions, we need to be making these sorts of investments now."
The research will use waste heat from the power plant to power the carbon capture process. It aims to remove 90 percent of the carbon dioxide while only increasing electricity costs by 35 percent.