Washington, Mar 1 : A coal-powered car that produces nearly no polluting emissions, including carbon dioxide, could be manufactured in the near future through new technological advances, experts have said.

Liang-Shih Fan, a chemical engineer and director of Ohio State University's Clean Coal Research Laboratory, said that researchers have found a way to release the heat from coal without burning it.

Fan told Fox news that the new method would use iron-oxide pellets as an oxygen source, and contain the reaction in a small chamber from which pollutants cannot escape.

The only waste product would be water and solid coal ash, no greenhouse gases, the report said.

As an added benefit, the metal from the iron-oxide is recyclable, it added.

According to auto industry experts and other researchers, if the technology can be successfully miniaturized enough to fit into cars, the fueling infrastructure needed to service them would not be all that difficult to develop.

The report pointed pout that there are several challenges for clean coal cars to overcome, similar to those that have been encountered by electric and hybrid cars.

Consumers may be initially cautious about such an innovation, the report added. (ANI)