The Japanese and U.S. governments will likely agree at a bilateral summit
meeting scheduled for Friday on Japan's participation in a U.S. project to
develop a coal-fueled, near-zero emission power plant, it was learned Saturday.
Japan will cooperate with the United States in terms of funds and technologies
for the FutureGen project, which the U.S. government has been promoting since
2003. South Korea and India have also participated in the project.
The project will spend more than 1 billion dollars on developing technologies to
store carbon dioxide from the plant in the ground, making it the world's first
thermal power plant not to emit pollutants and CO2 into the air.
CO2 from the plant will be liquefied by applying massive pressure, before being
injected into the earth at a depth of more than 1,000 meters. The new
technologies currently being studied are also aimed at preventing the liquefied
carbon dioxide from leaking from the rock stratum.
In Japan, the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth has been
conducting verification tests on a CO2 geological sequestration system at a
natural gas field in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture. It is hoped the results of the
research will be applicable to the U.S. project, government sources said.
Although the United States is a major emitter of CO2 and other greenhouse gases,
it did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol that set country-specific targets for
cutting greenhouse gas emissions for the period from 2008 to 2012, aimed at
preventing global warming.
Through its cooperation with the FutureGen project, Tokyo will try to persuade
the U.S. government to join global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions,
while at the same time promoting U.S. participation in post-Kyoto Protocol
negotiations.
Technologies to store CO2 in the ground and sea have recently been attracting
attention, being viewed as one of the most promising measures among others aimed
at cutting CO2 emissions.