In most discussions of systems for capturing CO2 coal fired power plants, three options are described. These are:

• Post-combustion capture;
• Oxyfuel combustion;
• Pre-combustions capture.

Briefly, post-combustion capture uses chemical solvent sorbents although solid sorbents and membranes have also been studied. Oxyfuel combustion is a process that eliminates nitrogen from the oxidant by burning the fuel in a mixture of oxygen and a CO2-rich recycled flue gas resulting in a product flue gas containing mainly CO2 and water.