The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $15 million to Linde for the advancement of carbon capture technologies. Linde is building a pilot plant in Wilsonville, Ala., which will be operational by early 2014, the company said. The facility will test novel CO₂ scrubbing solutions to reduce the energy consumption and costs of advanced carbon capture and separation systems for coal-fired power plants.

"Advanced CO₂ capture for power plants is a critical element in achieving global greenhouse gas emission reduction targets," said Dr.  Andreas Opfermann, head of Linde's Clean Energy and Innovation Management unit.

The pilot plant will be designed to capture at least 90% of the CO₂ generated at an increase in the cost of electricity of no more than 35 percent. This would represent a significant improvement over existing technologies that can add as much as 80% to the cost of electricity, the company said.

The new plant will be based on the experience gained in a comparable project in Niederaussem, Germany. Since 2009, Linde has been testing new CO₂ scrubbing solvents in collaboration with electricity supplier RWE and BASF. Linde said post-combustion capture technologies offer great
near-term potential for reducing CO₂ emissions because it can be added to existing power plants.