Thermoenergy Corp. and ITEA S.p.a announced that they will work together to promote, finance, design and construct a 50 Megawatt (MW) pilot plant and a 320 MW commercial facility in the United States using a clean coal technology called pressurized oxy-combustion. The goal is to accelerate the development of coal-fired emissions-free electricity generation. These clean coal power plants could enable utilities to continue burning inexpensive and abundant coal, while virtually eliminating both the traditional pollution (such as sulfur dioxide) from coal plants and the emissions of carbon dioxide that cause climate change. The clean coal technology will be developed and marketed by Unity Power Alliance LLC, a joint venture between ITEA and ThermoEnergy. Typical existing coal plants burn coal in air at normal atmospheric pressure. The key advance in the patented ThermoEnergy and ITEA technology is burning the fuel in high-pressure oxygen instead of in regular air. One advantage is that the coal burns more cleanly and efficiently, producing more electricity for a given amount of fuel. More important, the high pressure makes it possible to condense--or turn into liquid--the gasses that are normally emitted through the smokestack. As a result, nearly 100% of conventional pollutants such as NOx, SO2, SO3 and mercury, along with carbon dioxide, can be captured and then safely disposed of, sequestered or recycled. In addition, the extracted water can be recycled, dramatically lowering water consumption.