The project, funded by the German Federal Environmental Agency, aims to identify the environmental impact from the adoption of CO₂ separation technologies in fossil-fuelled power stations implementing Carbon Capture and Storage.

 At first the current status of the knowledge and the R&D activities in research institutions and industry will be considered and summarised according to power station typology (“Oxyfuel“, “Pre-Combustion“ and “Post-Combustion“). For each one of these power station concepts the alternative process configurations between furnace and flue gas discharge as well as the technical solutions for the new power station components will be simulated. Emphasis will be placed on technologies which show short to medium term implementation potential. Though second-generation Carbon Capture and Storage concepts such as, for example, the "Oxycoal," the "Chemical-Looping" or the "Carbonate-Looping" processes will also be considered, the currently available technical knowledge does not enable the same detailed analysis as, for example, of processes like the "Oxyfuel," the chemical stripping ("Post-Combustion") or the "Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle" (IGCC) with physical stripping ("Pre-Combustion").

On the basis of the information to be collected, the current technological state-of-the-art in limiting environmental impact from the various power plant configurations and in the operative monitoring of their environmental impact will then be assessed and analysed, to culminate in the evaluation of:

• the relevant sources of environmental pollution to the atmosphere (fly-ash, NOx, SO₂, Hg, probably residual traces from the CO₂ separation process, …), water (liquid effluents from the various process stages) or soil (ashes, impurities in CO₂, …) arising from individual power plant components,
• the aims of the present R&D activities and the current knowledge on their limitations, considering also the anticipated technological progress in advancing the current best available technologies, insofar as environmental pollution is concerned,
• the consequences of the new power plant concepts for formulating environmental pollution limits and implementing their monitoring,
• the comparison between the power station concepts, process schemes and individual components in terms of emissions composition and quantity.

By compiling all this comprehensive information it will be possible to suggest a subsequent programme of field measurements at pilot and/or demonstration power stations, which are still to be identified.