According to Greenwire, it sure looks that way:
An unreleased Department of Energy analysis of carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants questions the viability of a highly touted technology that uses chilled ammonia to strip CO2 from flue gases.[...]
Details of the analysis -- "Chilled Ammonia-based Wet Scrubbing for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture" -- have leaked in recent weeks, generating a buzz among interest groups who believe NETL's work could have important policy and financial implications as coal-fired utilities search for CO2-elimination technologies.
A blog entry on the Web site of the trade magazine Gas Turbine World asks pointedly: "Could it be that the utility industry has inadvertently been putting its bets, and hopes, on a technology with little promise for improvement?"
So much for that idea, it appears. Time to get back to reality, which is cutting our consumption of fossil fuels and our emission of greenhouse gases through energy efficiency measures and a huge push for renewable power (wind, solar, etc.).
All these new plans to clean up coal are just the bullshit coal companies are selling along with all the other bullshit they've spread over the years. I've seen vinyards on strip mine site. Falcon Cascade, an undrinkable red wine produced for a year by the Falcon Coal Company to get a photo op.
They've been selling the idea that they're actually creating valuable flat land for farmers, industry, and housing. What they don't tell you is the land isn't good enough to graze cattle, that nobody wants to build factories in Appalachia when they can build them in China and building new housing in a area where no one can afford to buy a house is a dream that's never gonna come true.
Scrub the CO2 out of the emissions. Just one more pile on a long page of carefully prepared coal company bullshit.
So much for that idea [CO2 capture]but the actual text of the available summary report doesn't justify so negative a conclusion. The report says that the existing amine technology for CO2 capture was the other (apparently proven) candidate, and that the ammonia technology was being tried as a replacement. So, apparently, the amine technology is still a viable candidate for capturing CO2 from conventional power plants. Certainly no new coal-fired power plants should be built without a clear path to carbon capture and sequestration, because sequestration of CO2 is probably going to become (effectively) mandatory during the lifetime of any coal-fired power plants that we build today.