The race is on for developing countries to lower their carbon footprint emissions, and the technology to do that is located in East Mississippi​ at the Kemper Coal Project.​ Thanks to its carbon capture technology, the Kemper County Coal Plant continues to garner international attention. The 50 delegates from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation who recently visited Meridian, have a keen interest in the technology that is being utilized at the plant.

“It’s amazing, it’s an engineering beauty,” Global CCS Institute Policy and Regulatory Adviser Pamela Tomski stated.” Everyone is looking at the Kemper Plant, it’s the first power plant in the world that’s a new build, that has carbon capture and storage technology integrated with it.”

This carbon capture technology is captivating the eyes of hundreds from across the globe. For example, China, who is well known for being the number one in carbon emissions, are working to lower their carbon footprint. “We are doing various efforts to cut down the CO2 emissions,” China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation Director Pang Guanglian said.

“It is so important for China. Actually as you have noticed, Chinas has so many coal chem products. We have so many big chemical products in progress.”

The Kemper County Coal Plant’s technology will use lignite, a coal that is readily available in Mississippi as well as in China and will help the country in oil recovery, a major economic factor for them.

“Many of these countries are seeing a decline in their oil production,” Renmin University of China Associate Professor Craig Hart said. “Some of their economies are heavily dependent on oil as a revenue producer or in China’s case, just for economic development and growth.”

The technology used by the Kemper County Coal Plant is continually putting Mississippi on the world map.

Read the full story at WTOK.