Alstom Expert Talks Carbon Capture and Storage with SmartPlanet.com

What if we could cut 90% of the CO2 emissions from power plants burning coal and natural gas?

Power companies around the world could reduce greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to invest in renewable energy sources like wind, hydro and solar. It would be a giant leap towards a cleaner energy future.

Good news! This technology isn’t 20 years, 10 years or even 5 years down the road. It’s here today and it’s called Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS. With CCS, power plant operators can capture CO2 and store it safely underground.

Robert Hilton, Alstom’s Vice President of Power Technologies for Government Affairs, and a resident expert on CCS, recently spoke with Melanie D.G. Kaplan of SmartPlanet.com about CCS technology and its role in America’s ‘Clean Energy Future.’

The following is a brief excerpt from Melanie’s article. Click here, or on the headline, to read the full text.

Also, check below for a few videos on Alstom's work in the area of CCS.

Alstom’s Answer to Climate Change: Bury the Carbon

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan
Dec 27, 2010

At a power plant in West Virginia, Alstom—a Paris-based company that focuses on power, transportation and smart grid–is demonstrating how carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be a viable solution for climate change. CCS involves burying the carbon emissions from a power plant 8,000 feet underground. According to Alstom, this process can capture as much as 90 percent of the CO2 from a plant’s emission stream.

I recently talked to Bob Hilton, Alstom’s vice president of government affairs for Power Technologies, who is based in the company’s U.S. headquarters office in Washington. We talked about how CCS works, the challenges of burying carbon deep in the ground and why we should look at this as an energy solution.

Click here to keep reading… 

• Robert Hilton Bio

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