Department of Energy
Washington, D.C.
http://www.energy.gov
May 28, 2004 SECRETARY ABRAHAM INVITES POLAND TO JOIN CARBON SEQUESTRATION LEADERSHIP FORUM WASHINGTON, DC -- Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today invited Poland to become the 17th member of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), an international climate change initiative that focuses on the development of carbon capture and storage technologies. Secretary Abraham made his remarks after touring the "ELCHO" power plant, which is powered with clean coal technology developed under the Department of Energy's (DOE) Clean Coal program and located in the Silesia region of southern Poland. "I believe the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum is a vital part of the world's energy security because coal will be an inescapable part of our energy mix for years to come," Secretary Abraham said. "It's vital that Poland join the Forum because world coal consumption over the next 24 years will increase by nearly 50 percent. The clean coal technologies being developed and implemented by the U.S. and other nations such as Poland are an important step to addressing the environmental challenges of coal, one of the world's most inexpensive and plentiful energy resources." The addition of Poland to the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum would bring the total membership to 17 countries, including the European Commission. The CSLF is designed to improve carbon capture and storage technologies through coordinated research and development with international partners and private industry. The ELCHO power plant, completed last year, is a state-of-the-art clean coal power plant sited adjacent to the Elektrownia Chorzow power plant, built in the 1890's and one of the dirtiest in Europe. The ELCHO plant employs approximately 180 workers and allows the region to use its abundant supply of coal, while still improving air quality. ELCHO provides power to the city of Katowice and its surrounding communities, supplying a population of more than 125,000. The Foster Wheeler circulating fluidized bed boilers that power ELCHO are an outgrowth of the Department of Energy's Clean Coal Program and are based on the technology that powers a similar plant in Jacksonville, Fla. Potential future joint projects of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum include various approaches to carbon sequestration that will cut across a number of disciplines, including physical mechanisms of carbon capture, the geology of deep reservoir injection, and the chemistry of carbon reactions. Global cooperation is already underway in some areas of carbon sequestration, as exemplified by the Weyburn oil recovery project in Saskatchewan, Canada. There, carbon dioxide from the Great Plains Coal Gasification Plant in North Dakota is being injected into an active oil field to help obtain oil that would otherwise be unreachable. Scientists from 18 nations are monitoring the project. Additional information concerning the Department of Energy's Carbon Sequestration program is available at http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/sequestration/. Information concerning the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum can be found at www.cslforum.org. Media contacts:
Jeanne Lopatto, 202/586-4940
Drew Malcomb, 202/586-5806 | 