Future coal technologies
| Technology | How it works |
| Carbon capture | Solvent absorption utilises the ability of certain liquids to preferentially absorb carbon dioxide from gas streams. The gas is bubbles through the liquid in purpose-built equipment. The gas is then recovered from the liquid by increasing its temperature or reducing its pressure in a cyclical process. |
| Adsorption utilises the ability of certain solids to preferentially absorb carbon dioxide from gas streams. The gas is passed through beds of solids that absorb the carbon dioxide in purpose-built equipment. The gas is then recovered from the liquid by increasing its temperature or reducing its pressure in a cyclical process | |
| Hydrates/cryogenics – This process uses low temperatures to either condense or greeze out carbon dioxide from gas steams to produce pure carbon dioxide or a carbon dioxide hydrate. | |
| Mechanical thermal expression | This process heats up coal and then squeezes it in a mechanical press to extract the moisture. This produced drier coal and captures the water contained within the coal. |
| CO2 to algae | To turn CO2 in algae, gases are first collected from the flue gas chimney of a power station, and are then piped to an algae farm. Using sunlight, waste nutrients (including sewerage, waste from feedlots, or waste water), and the flue gases, an algae synthesiser is then able to create algae, which can be turned into algae meal or algae oil. |
| Integrated drying and gasification combined cycle (IDGCC) | The technology first involves drying coal in direct contact with hot gas. The coal is then converted into a gas, and burned in a gas turbine to create power. Hot exhaust gas from this process is also used to produce steam, which is fed through a steam turbine to create additional power. The primary fuel used for power generation is synthesis gas (syngas) generated from brown coal and natural gas is used as a start- up fuel as well as a supplementary fuel. |
