Two of the world's largest engineering conglomerates, General Electric (GE) and Schlumberger, have today announced they are to team up to accelerate adoption of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and carbon capture technologies capable of curbing emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The partnership was signed by GE Energy and Schlumberger's Carbon Services division and will see Schlumberger offer its services for assessing, selecting and qualifying potential geological carbon storage sites alongside GE's IGCC technologies.

"This is a first-of-its-kind alliance between leaders in IGCC technology and CO2 storage to accelerate the commercial development and deployment of cleaner coal power and encourage the proper regulatory framework," said Ricardo Cordoba, president of GE Energy for Western Europe and North Africa.

He added that while GE could already provide IGCC systems capable of having carbon capture technologies retrofitted, the two companies would now work together to better "align the technical needs" of IGCC plants and carbon capture systems capable of capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground.

IGCC systems are being widely touted as a clean coal technology capable of curbing emissions sufficiently to continue to allow coal rich economies such as the US, China and Australia to continue to burn the fuel.

The IGCC process works by using a partial oxidation reaction to convert coal into synthesis gas (syngas) from which particulate matter, mercury and sulphur is removed. The syngas is then used to fuel a highly efficient gas turbine combined cycle system, whereby the gas is used to power a gas turbine generator before the waste heat is captured to power a second steam turbine system.

GE Energy claims the technology provides a cleaner alternative to conventional coal powered plants, slashing emissions of sulphur dioxides, mercury and particulate matter by more than half and also cutting carbon emissions even before carbon capture technology is fitted.

According to GE Energy calculations, the US could cut emissions by over 320 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and over 1.8 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide if all conventional coal plants operating in the US were fitted with IGCC technology.