BASF, Linde, RWE Pursue Clean Coal

BASF, Linde, and RWE Power plan to cooperate on a project to develop clean-coal technologies. Electric utility RWE says it will spend $113 million on the project, which will include a pilot facility at a coal-burning power plant in Niederaussem, Germany. BASF plans to test new solvents for the efficient capture of carbon dioxide; it has already carried out some work in developing novel amine-based solvents to absorb CO₂ from gasified coal. Linde will engineer and build the pilot facility. The project's goal is to come up with a commercial process by 2020 to remove 90% of CO₂ from combustion gas for injection underground. Last month, industrial gas concern Praxair and engineering firm Foster Wheeler said they were cooperating to develop clean-coal technology.