According to US representative for Virginia Rick Boucher, the school's Center for Coal and Energy Research will utilise the funding to evaluate the potential of carbon dioxide storage in unmineable coal seams.

Specifically, Virginia Tech will conduct a feasibility study for a large-scale test where 100,000 tons of CO2 will be injected into a coal seam in southwest Virginia.

“Coal has a great capacity to store CO2, and injecting CO2 into coal seams increases the production of methane while the coal captures the carbon dioxide," Boucher pointed out, adding that the ongoing research project will enhance the region's opportunities for economic development.

Boucher said he hopes it will also make the area attractive for those interested in carbon capture and storage technology such as coal-to-liquids and biofuels, and predicted a large research and development facility supporting the research would be on the cards for the region.

To date, $6.35 million in funding has been given to the carbon storage efforts at the school, which is host to one of the 13 remaining mining engineering programs in the US.

The DOE first gave VT money in 2004 for the first phase of the project, when the centre identified preliminary geological characterisations of potential CO2 storage areas in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.

The following year, when the project entered its second phase, the DOE provided $4.4 million for a site's small-scale test; a 1000t injection will begin in Russell County this summer and wrap in January 2009.

“The funding announced today will be used for the planning stages of the large-scale 100,000-ton test,” Boucher said.

“That test, which would occur between 2011 and 2017, would require a DOE investment of at least $60 million."

He added that many other organisations – such as Dominion Virginia Power and Eastman Chemical Company – have also provided financial assistance.

“When completed, this project will advance the research and development effort necessary to make carbon capture and storage technology widely commercially available, and I am pleased that the Department of Energy has provided this allocation of federal funding to further this goal," Boucher said.