Fossil fuel-based power generation and greenhouse gas emissions: State of the art and perspective

Coal will continue to play a major and stabilizing role in electricity generation in the future. Coal resources are abundant and coal is presently two to three times cheaper than gas. For many countries with large domestic coal reserves - the United States, China, Germany, and India, for example - the combination of cost and security concerns is an argument in favor of the continued widespread use of coal in the future. Advanced combustion technologies and environmental protection systems were introduced successfully on the market in the last 20 years. Nowadays, emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, has become more and more important especially when burning coal. The European community introduced a CO2-trading scheme motivated by the aim to keep to certain CO2 reductions. However, considering the existing coal fleet, significant CO2 reductions can be achieved by replacing old power stations with state-of-the-art power plants. Further reductions may be achieved by cofiring CO2-neutral fuels such as biomass. Despite the increased share of renewable energy sources, carbon capture and storage technologies for coal need to be introduced over the long term to meet the challenging targets recently issued by the European community. The advantages of coal as fuel combined with the development of the technology for coal utilization offer a realistic perspective for reliable, economic, and environmentally friendly electricity generation. Copyright © 2008 by Begell House, Inc.