The gas is 7,000 feet below the surface in the saline Mount Simon Sandstone Formation, which estimates the Department of Energy (DoE) has the capacity, all 250 million tons of CO2 produced per year by the industry in the Illinois Basin instead secrete.

To bring the Obama administration plans to use carbon capture, use and storage technologies within 10 years and wants five to 10 commercial demonstration projects online in 2016.

The DoE said yesterday the selection of 16 projects in 13 states to share $ 41m funding over three years, the target would continue.

Each project is the development of technologies to detect at least 90% of CO2 produced, and to focus the reduction of costs in power plants no more than a 35% increase in the cost of electricity.

"Charting a way to clean coal is essential for achieving our goals, clean energy and creates jobs in America, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. "It will also help position the United States as a global leader in the clean energy race."