The US Department of Energy said it will fund projects focusing on the decarbonisation of coal mining via university research.

The department's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management will administer these projects through its University Training and Research Program, which includes the University Coal Research program and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions program.

The projects would finance early-stage research and development of approaches to decarbonisation in the coal sector. These measures would include research into how blending biomass feedstocks with waste coal can decrease carbon emissions, as well as research into carbon capture and carbon storage projects.

Research projects will also include mitigation approaches and remediating legacy environmental impacts.

The second project with HBCUs will work with these institutions to identify research capacities in decarbonisation technologies, with the aim of providing marginalised students with more opportunities in the sector.