NEW HAVEN — American Electric Power and French energy giant Alstom Power unveiled a $70 million technology partnership Friday in Mason County.

Company executives joined with federal and state leaders to formally commission the world’s first carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project, which is housed at AEP’s Mountaineer Plant in New Haven. CCS is designed to capture and store carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant.

“This truly is a historic moment,” AEP chairman Michael G. Morris said. “Commercialization of carbon capture and storage technology is an essential part of a successful strategy to address climate change, not only for the United States, which relies on coal-fired generation for about half its electricity supply, but also for coal-dependent nations around the world.”

According to AEP, the Mountaineer Plant was retrofitted with Alstom’s patented chilled ammonia carbon dioxide capture system earlier this year. The CCS demonstration project began capturing carbon dioxide on Sept. 1 and began storing it on Oct. 2.

The process involves cleaning carbon dioxide out of flue gas and then converting the captured gas into a liquid state. The liquid is then injected into geologic formations located about 1.5 miles below the surface of the New Haven plant. Geologic characterization studies conducted from 2002 to 2004 determined that two layers beneath the Mountaineer Plant were favorable for carbon dioxide storage.

The demonstration system is designed to capture and store about 100,000 metric tons of carbon dixoide each year. Alstom officals said the Mountaineer project is one of 10 carbon capture operations the company is developing in six countries.

Gov. Joe Manchin said the CCS facility is significant for the future of the West Virginia energy industry.

“We want to continue to be a leader in the energy market,” Manchin said. “We want to continue to be a leader in finding solutions for using the resources we have much cleaner. We believe all that can be done. We want to be able to mine our coal in a much cleaner and safer fashion. We’re working very hard to do that.

“Coal is going to continue to be a part of the energy equation, and everybody that you talk to around the world understands that,” added Manchin. “What we need to do is embrace the solutions that will be needed to use it much more wisely.”

Alstom Power president Phillipe Joubert told the crowd gathered in New Haven that he is confident about the future success of the CCS technology.

“Mountaineer, which is at the leading edge of all our demonstration projects worldwide, demonstrates the integration of all three stages of the process — capture, transport and storage,” Joubert said. “We reaffirm our commitment to making commercial carbon capture offerings by 2015.”

AEP has applied for federal stimulus money to scale up the Alstom technology for commercial use at Mountaineer. The proposed commercial-scale demonstration is designed to capture and store about 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

(On the Web: American Electric Power, www.aep.com; Alstom Power, www.alstom.com)