Returning carbon to nature: coal, carbon capture, and storage

Abstract

From the window of the room where I write I can see a plume of condensing water that hangs over the south of Nottinghamshire day-in day-out. On some days it seems to ascend to a huge height and its upper surfaces are white and billow outwards like summer thunderclouds. Underneath is Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station is one of the most efficient coalfired power stations in Britain. It has four 500 MW turbines which produce enough electricity for 2 million houses burning coal that was formed in the Carboniferous period (approximately 300 million years ago). Some of it used to come from the Daw Mill coal mine about 40 miles away. The mine is situated in the small Warwickshire coalfield between the English towns of Birmingham, Nuneaton and Banbury, but the coalfield was once a swamp in an embayment in the ancient landmass called by geologists St. Georges Land.