Coal-fired power plants are a major source of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. But they continue to be built because coal remains an abundant and cheap fuel source. Still, a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that carbon dioxide emissions could be drastically cut, even with increased coal burning. The trick: Future power plants would have to capture the carbon and then sequester, or bury, it underground. The MIT report calls for the construction of large-scale demonstration plants to help engineers develop the best carbon capture-and-storage technologies. Meanwhile, MIT civil engineer Ruben Juanes determined that carbon dioxide could be injected into saline aquifers. Safely trapped as tiny bubbles within briny, porous rock, the carbon dioxide won’t leak back into the atmosphere, even centuries later.

Watch a video about Carbon Sequestration here:

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