Entering the building, Larry Shadle puts on his hard hat, adjusts his safety glasses, and grabs a wrench as large as his arm. He bends down next to a metal pipe and gives it a whack with the wrench. A sandy sludge oozes out of the pipe and lands in a bucket below. Shadle looks up at the massive simulator which his team uses to learn how to better capture the carbon dioxide (CO₂) that coal-fired power plants emit.

The mixture races through clear plastic tubes, climbing five stories to the very top of the building before being sent through a giant cyclone and then back to ground level. On one floor, technicians focus a laser beam on the mixture to understand the behavior of the particles as they rise and fall. On another floor, a scientist photographs the mixture with a high-speed video camera so sophisticated that you can actually see the patterns of the particles as they move through the tubes. Everywhere, the steady hum of machinery is heard.

For 20 years, Larry Shadle has dedicated himself to this lab, located at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown, West Virginia. The lab is an enormous simulation of cutting-edge technology that he hopes to implement in coal-fired power plants all over the world. Here, Larry and his colleagues develop carbon-control technology that will allow people to utilize coal resources far more cleanly and efficiently than ever thought possible. While some scientists work on other forms of energy, such as solar, wind, and nuclear, Larry is figuring out how we can use our available coal resources while preserving our planet’s environment.

Mission 3 Briefing Video Prepare for your mission by viewing this briefing on your objectives. Learn how scientists like Larry Shadle search for ways to reduce the impact fossil fuels have on the environment.