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Southern Co., Korea Power will study clean coal

Southern Co. subsidiary Southern Company Services has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea Electric Power Corp. to jointly study clean coal power generation and carbon capture and storage technologies.

They will explore opportunities for these and other technologies in the U.S., the Republic of Korea and in developing nations where the environmentally acceptable us of coal could strengthen energy security.

Among the technologies to be evaluated is transport-integrated gasification, the 21st-century coal technology at the center of subsidiary Mississippi Power's Kemper County plant. Southern Co. and KBR are jointly marketing the technology to energy companies around the world.

The Kemper plant is designed to generate electricity using low-rank coal with resulting carbon emissions better than a similarly sized natural gas plant. At least 65 percent of the plant's carbon emissions are expected to be captured and repurposed through enhanced oil recovery.

The memorandum with KEPCO is Southern Co. system's fifth such agreement with a leading international energy company.

source: http://www.sunherald.com