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Green Chimneys

The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, to generate power is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, and one of the greatest contributors to global warming. So oftentimes, discussion of how to slow global warming focuses upon alternative energy sources that would reduce our reliance upon coal-fired power plants.

But a promising new technology raises another potential solution: capturing greenhouse gases that escape from coal and natural-gas furnaces and converting them to harmless material that could be used in construction or even to rebuild coral reefs.

The technology would use “green chimneys” that filter exhaust from power plants into a liquid-filled tank. While the basic technology has actually been around for 30 years, it hasn’t been very efficient. Now an entrepreneurial engineer in Ohio thinks he has found a way to make the system efficient and to retrofit it to work with industrial furnaces or boilers that run on natural gas. He hopes to eventually make it work with coal and other fossil fuels as well.

The technology is far from widespread commercial use, but there are plans to try it out in a new factory being built to produce pomegranate juice. If these plans prove successful, lower greenhouse gas emissions from power factories could be on the horizon.

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To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org