Last year the website This Is Reality launched a commercial by the Coen brothers, directors of films such as Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and The Big Lebowski, about clean coal. The commercial, which can be seen below, paints a satirical picture of so-called clean coal technology.

According to the IEA and cited on This Is Reality, “There are no homes in America powered by ‘clean’ coal.” However, this may change. EverGreen Energy Inc., located in downtown Denver, Colorado, has developed K-Fuel. This technology claims to make coal “cleaner, more heat-efficient, and affordable.” It is a “new generation of energy processes that can significantly reduce air emissions and other pollutants from coal-burning power plants.” The way it works is by increasing “the heating value of low-rank fuels while decreasing the environmental impact of coal energy production. This is accomplished by refining coal before it is burned to increase energy densities and combustion efficiencies which reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” The company claims that this is the “only commercially validated clean coal process that upgrades low-grade coal to improve efficiency of combustion, decrease contaminants, and reduce emissions.”

Whether or not the technology reaches the scale needed to reduce emissions, namely carbon dioxide, from coal combustion remains to be seen. According to online newsletter Oil and Energy Investor, EverGreen Energy has partnered with Beijing Gang Jing Hong Ren Technology in a joint venture  “intended to be a pilot test of Evergreen’s breakthrough new clean-coal technology.” China has vast deposits of coal, the burning of which causes their horrendous air quality. They have the greatest incentive for the success of this technology. However, this sets a disturbing precedent, namely the research and development of clean technology abroad. While EverGreen is an American company, this large scale test outside the United States indicates that other countries may move ahead in the competition for a cleaner source of energy.

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