A project for a coal-fuelled power station with carbon capture and storage (CSS) technology at Grangemouth has secured £4.2 million from the Scottish and UK governments.
The money has been awarded to the Seattle-based Summit Power Group for research and feasibility studies for its proposed Caledonia Clean Energy Project.
The 570 MW coal-gasification station would be fitted with CCS technology, which captures emissions from fossil fuel power plants and permanently stores them underground.
The scheme's backers said it was designed to capture 90% of CO2 emissions, which would then be carried along existing on-shore and sub-sea pipelines to be permanently stored 2km beneath the North Sea.
Detailed research and development work will now be carried out over an 18-month period to advance the engineering design of the project.
The Scottish Government is providing £2.5 million and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) £1.7 million.
Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing said: "Carbon capture and storage has the potential to be one of the most cost-effective technologies for decarbonisation of the UK's power and industrial sectors, as well as those of economies worldwide.
"CCS can remove carbon dioxide emissions created by the combustion of fossil fuels in power stations, and in a variety of industrial processes, and transport it for safe permanent storage deep underground.
"In the power sector, CCS can contribute significantly to the diversity and security of electricity supply, and also has a unique role to play in providing a continuing supply of flexible fossil fuel capacity that is able to respond to demand in the way that other low carbon technologies are not able to.
"The Scottish Government will work with the Summit Power Group with the aim to bring this cutting-edge, innovative project to Scotland."
UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey said: "Carbon capture and storage could be crucial in helping us meet our ambitious climate-change goals.
"The UK is one of the world's front-runners in this sector and the UK Government is leading Europe with its support of the two competition projects at Peterhead in Scotland and White Rose in Yorkshire.
"Developing CCS more widely is vital if it is to become cost-competitive technology and I'm excited at the prospect of Grangemouth contributing to the UK's low carbon future."
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