Greenhouse gas could be stored in coal seams 1000 metres under Scotland while at the same time helping extract natural gas. It is hoped that flue gas from power stations, which is heavy with carbon dioxide, could be pumped underground to coal seams where it could be stored and in the process methane trapped there would be flushed out to be used as fuel.

Greenhouse gas could be stored in coal seams 1000 metres under Scotland while at the same time helping extract natural gas.

It is hoped that flue gas from power stations, which is heavy with carbon dioxide, could be pumped underground to coal seams where it could be stored and in the process methane trapped there would be flushed out to be used as fuel.

Composite Energy, a Scottish company developing coal-bed methane production, announced yesterday that it is involved in a two-year study to evaluate carbon dioxide storage in coal-beds as a way of enhancing methane recovery.

The £300,000 study is being funded jointly by BG Group, ScottishPower and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Composite Energy will provide the horizontal drilling expertise for the study, adapting technology from the offshore oil industry which has been required for the extended-reach boreholes.

The coal, into which the CO2 will be pumped, is in seams as little as one metre wide, and at least 1000 metres under the surface - below the depth at which coal is mined in the UK.

Strathclyde University will assess the gas absorption and desorption properties of the coal under the supervision of Professor Peter Hall, while Professor Sevket Durucan of Imperial College London will assess the mechanical properties of the coal to model and predict the performance of a pilot scheme.

Stephen Jewell, chief operating officer of Composite Energy, said: "Whereas other CO2 storage projects store the gas in an underground void or rock-matrix, this project will evaluate the ability of CO2 to chemically bond to coal."

Coal can typically absorb CO2 at five times the rate at which it releases methane, he said.

The two-year programme will evaluate the direct injection of flue gas into unminable coal seams in the central belt of Scotland. A well-bore being drilled by Composite at Longannet Power in Fife, will provide coal samples for laboratory analysis.

Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "Globally, carbon capture and storage may well have a role to play in helping minimise emissions.

"However, it is no magic wand to allow the burning of even more fossil fuels."