BOSTON, Feb 15, 2008 -- UPI

A U.S. government scientist said coal gasification is a clean and versatile way to convert coal into electricity.

George Muntean of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said gasification provides "significant economic and environmental benefits to conventional coal power plants," the agency said Friday in a release.

Rather than burning coal directly, gasification breaks down coal into its basic chemical constituents using high temperature and pressure. Muntean said the process allows carbon dioxide to be captured from a gas stream more easily than from the smokestacks of a conventional coal plant.

"If we plan to use our domestic supply of coal to produce energy, and do so in a way that does not intensify atmospheric CO2 concentrations, gasification is critical," Muntean said in a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston. "It has the potential to enable carbon capture and sequestration technologies and play an important role in securing domestic sources of transportation fuels."

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