Scientific American: Like all big coal-fired power plants, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity Schwarze Pumpe plant in Spremberg, Germany, is undeniably dirty. Yet a small addition to the facility–a tiny boiler that pipes 30 MW worth of steam to local industrial customers–represents a hope for salvation from the global climate-changing consequences of burning fossil fuel. To heat that boiler, the damp, crumbly brown coal known as lignite–which is even more polluting than the harder black anthracite …