U.S., Italy Agree to Collaborate on Carbon Capture, Storage Technologies
June 25, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
Working together, the U.S. and Italy will work to further the development of technologies needed to limit carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired powered plants and move toward a sustainable low carbon economy that addresses the challenge of global warming, according to the DOE.
The DOE secretary and Italy's economic development minister met in May 2009 on the sidelines of the Group of 8 (G8) energy ministers' meeting, where world energy leaders addressed energy policies that are designed to help countries overcome the current economic and financial crisis while coping with energy security and climate challenges.
The Clean Coal and Carbon Sequestration Annex signed between the two countries is part of the U.S. government's ongoing efforts to develop technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse gas (GHG) and contributor to global climate change.
For example, the DOE announced $2.4 billion in funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that will be used to expand and accelerate commercial CCS activities in the U.S.
Under the clean coal annex, Italy and the U.S. will cooperate on a variety of CCS projects and issue areas including:
- Power generation processes.
- Advanced coal gasification technologies.
- Power system simulations.
- Characterizing subsurface carbon sequestration potential.
- Exchanging CCS researchers.
The joint work on CCS is part of a larger agreement on energy R&D that was signed by the DOE and Italian Ministry of Economic Development in October 2007.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).