A ceremony at Dow Chemical's South Charleston facility officially kicked off the first carbon capture pilot plant of its kind in West Virginia on Thursday.

Alstom Power designed, constructed and operates the pilot plant. Dow provided the site and utilities for the project, as well as the chemicals and its amine technology expertise.

This carbon capture facility joins other projects around the world that are trying to figure out how to make it environmentally friendly to burn coal.

"We believe this goal, in conjunction with addressing environmental issues like climate change, is one of the most urgent challenges that our company and society faces." said Heinz Haller, Executive Vice-President of Performance Products & Systems at Dow Chemical Company.

The advanced-amine pilot plant will capture carbon dioxide, or CO2, from the flu gas of a coal-fired boiler at Dow's South Charleston plant.

But the challenge is how to reduce the cost to do it.

"Imagine, because of groundbreaking work that will be done right here, customers around the world will be better able to minimize carbon emissions from power plants and industrial facilities." said Timothy Curran with Alstom Power.

Coal companies and environmentalists are counting on a breakthrough in carbon capture and storage technology to siphon off harmful emissions from the world's coal plants that contribute to global warming.

And West Virginia's Governor says the state is on the front lines to help power the world's future energy needs.

"We're seizing the moment to basically say...we can burn coal that we need, that basically keeps this energy, gives us the energy that we need to compete and keep our economy vibrant." said Governor Joe Manchin.

The Governor says West Virginia is not trying to re-invent the wheel -- just trying to keep the wheels balanced.

Dow should know in about 12 to 18 months whether the pilot project will be successful enough to apply on a global basis.