:: Economic Growth Verses the Environment

As the early astronauts gazed from space at the "thin blue veil" of the atmosphere, they were deeply impressed by the earth's fragile environment. It is ironic that the rocket technology which sent them on their trip can now provide a solution to many of today's ecological problems.

A robust economy needs abundant electrical power, yet up to now more power has meant more pollution. Traditional power plants generate oxides of nitrogen (NOX), sulfur (SOX), and carbon (CO, CO2), which are dumped into the air. With automobile engines getting cleaner (autos now account for only 12% of NO_X pollution, and this percentage is falling), the air pollution contribution of power plants is becoming increasingly important.

• 51% of America's energy is produced by burning coal. Technology to permit use of fossil and biomass fuels without pollution is essential to long term national economic stability.
  
  
• In addition to keeping carbon from the atmosphere, capture and use of carbon dioxide (CO2) has enormous value. Use of CO2 is enhanced oil recovery is providing 4% of US national oil production, 150,000 barrels per day.
  
  
• CES technology offers the lowest cost separation and capture of carbon from a power plant, ensuring clean air and facilitating enhanced oil recovery.
  
  
• Combustion of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide (CO2) a greenhouse gas that many believe contributes to global warming. Under the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, the United States was requested to cut greenhouse gases to 7% below 1990 levels.

:: With Current Technology, the Conflict Continues

The large investment in research by industrialized nations to diminish air pollution has resulted in significant reduction in automotive pollution and smokestack gas. As automobile exhaust gas emissions decrease, however, power plant pollution becomes increasingly significant, and the power generation industry will be compelled to reduce their emissions. Global interest in reducing fossil fuel consumption will continue to broaden and drive up the cost of fossil fuel based electricity dramatically.

Increasing carbon dioxide emissions (a greenhouse gas) are chiefly attributable to the growing consumption of fossil fuels. Global CO2 emissions are estimated at 1 ton per person each year, with 25 per cent of the total produced by 5 per cent of the world's population. However, there is a CO₂ sequestration technology that has been practiced commercially for years because it produces a valuable product at a profit. This technology is called enhanced oil recovery (EOR). It injects CO2 into oil bearing strata and has produced oil worth billions of dollars. CO2 sequestration is also being conducted in the North Sea via CO2 injection into brine-saturated formations beneath the seabed.

:: The CES Solution