Does Funding Carbon Capture Boost Energy Security?

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The question of whether taxpayer money should be used to help companies and governments capture and store carbon dioxide from power plants and heavy industry — a process known as carbon capture and storage, or C.C.S. — stirs passions across the board.

Proponents of funding C.C.S. say fossil-fired types of electricity will be with us for decades to come, so we’d better find ways to curb emissions of greenhouse gases in the combustion of coal and gas — including burying them underground.

Skeptics of funding for such ambitions say that focusing on this form of technology distracts governments and other bodies from supporting renewable energies. They also argue that, to the extent that C.C.S. technologies are pursued, utilities and companies reliant on fossil fuels should pay for the technologies themselves, rather than asking for taxpayer money to help develop them.

It looks like the proponents of C.C.S. are winning, at least for now.

The European Union is making permits worth about 9 billion euros (a little over $11 billion) to develop up to 12 pilot projects to prove C.C.S. works on a commercial scale, and the lobbying has begun among developers of C.C.S. technologies to get a slice of those funds.

(The European Commission already has allocated – subject to approval by E.U. governments – more than one billion euros ($1.2 billion) to go to five other C.C.S. projects across Europe.)

And while a number of environmental groups, including Greenpeace, oppose C.C.S., other groups, including WWF, say it will be a necessary part of the energy mix in coming decades — simply because so many new coal-fired power stations are already under construction across the globe.

On Tuesday, representatives from Zakłady Azotowe Kędzierzyn (Z.A.K.), a Polish chemicals company, and Poludniowy Koncern Energetyczny, a Polish power company, were in Brussels to showcase their proposal to journalists.

The companies are seeking at least 750 million euros ($950 million) from the E.U.’s funding pot to develop a project costing up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) by 2015.

What is interesting about the Polish project, slated to be built in Upper Silesia and to burn mostly coal, is its claim to be able to do a great deal more than just capture carbon dioxide and bury it. The plant also would produce synthesis gas by burning the coal in a special process. The gas could be used for heating homes or making electricity and chemicals.

The plant also would convert some of the captured CO2 into other fuels, fertilizers and plastics – what Andrzej Siemaszko, a Polish government official at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, on Tuesday called “chemical sequestration” of CO2.

The idea of enhancing energy security and curbing climate change while still being able to burn fossil fuels is of particular appeal in Poland, which relies on its plentiful supplies of domestic coal to produce almost all of its electricity. The country is also dependent on neighboring Russia for much of its gas supplies.

“The European Union currently can either extract or purchase natural gas,” said Krzysztof Jalosinski, the president of Z.A.K., in a statement issued by the companies. “Our project demonstrates that a third supply option is now open to us — and one which enhances energy security in Europe,” he said.