The carbon-eating fuel cell [Blueprints for a Miracle]

AT THE 2.7 - GIGAWAT James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant, in Bucks, Ala., an experiment is under way that could one day usher in a new era of nearly emissionsfree fossil-fuel-powered electricity. This year, technicians and engineers will begin installing a pair of boxy white containers in the shadow of the main power plant. The containers house a novel type of fuel cell, designed not only to generate power but also to capture and concentrate up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide coming from the main plant, which burns coal as well as natural gas. If implemented at scale, that level of carbon capture would give the Barry plant an emissions profile more like a geothermal plant's and without the intermittency of wind and solar power.