Physicist Peter Eisenberger had expected colleagues to react to his idea with skepticism. He was claiming, after all, to have invented a machine that could clean the atmosphere of its excess carbon dioxide, making the gas into fuel or storing it underground. And the Columbia University scientist was aware that naming his two-year-old startup Global Thermostat hadn’t exactly been an exercise in humility.

(Reuters) - According to the popular narrative, coal is locked in a fight to the death with natural gas and renewables to supply clean electrical energy.

Promoters of gas, wind and solar often talk about coal as if it were not just a rival but an enemy. Environmental campaigners want to phase out coal-fired power plants and leave most of the world’s coal reserves below ground.

If human-caused climate change is to be slowed enough to avert the worst consequences of global warming, carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and other pollutants will have to be captured and injected deep into the ground to prevent them from being released into the atmosphere.

When a team of Ohio State students worked around the clock for nine days straight recently, they weren't pulling the typical college "all-nighters." Instead, they were reaching a milestone in clean coal technology.