Cheap Carbon Storage

Carbonacous sorbents can reduce carbon capture costs to 27 dollars a ton of CO2 captured using activated carbon. That would increase electricity prices from coal by 3 cents a kwh with a 90% capture efficiency for CO2 from flue gases. The main breakthrough seems to be caused by energy savings from not having to pump all of the flue gases through an amine scrubber as the process works at standard atmospheric pressure. Previous estimates found that CCS could cost in the range of 150 dollars a ton of CO2 captured. In any case, I wouldn't recommend the construction of new coal plants based on this study but the technology might save us as it provides a reasonably affordable means to reduce emissions in China and other developing countries that have already build these coal-fueled death machines.

The study which provided the info is:

Radosz, M., X. Hu, K. Krutkramelis, and Y. Shen (2008, May). Flue-gas carbon capture on carbonaceous sorbents: Toward a low-cost multifunctional carbon filter for â greenâ energy producers†. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 47(10), 3783–3794.