An environment group has claimed that Longannet power station in Fife is the best option for trials to capture carbon emissions.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Scotland has warned that the other sites that have been considered for the scheme would result in higher carbon emissions.
A report by the organisation analysed the three semi-finalists in the UK Government's Carbon Capture and Storage competition and concluded that doing the trial at Longannet would be the only choice that actually reduced emissions overall.
The report suggested that a trial at a new coal-fired power station at Tilbury in Essex or Kingsnorth in Kent would increase emissions.
Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said in a statement: "The power sector is responsible for more than a third of Scotland's CO2 emissions, most of it from burning coal.
"Lord Turner's Committee on Climate Change has said that the power sector should be almost completely carbon-free by 2030. Along with renewables and energy efficiency carbon capture and storage is likely to be a vital part of delivering low-carbon electricity, both here and abroad."
He added: "The difference between choosing Longannet and any of the other sites could be as much as 55million tonnes of CO2 over the lifetime of the project, more than all of Scotland's emissions for a year.
"Choosing Longannet as the site for this carbon-capture demonstration project is a no brainer. The UK Government should stop wasting time and give the go ahead for the trial at Longannet."
The WWF claims that their report shows that if the technology is tested on a purpose built new coal power station as proposed at Kingsnorth in Kent, or Tilbury in Essex overall emissions from the power sector could increase by 32 million tonnes CO2 between 2014 and 2025.
The organisation said that fitting carbon capture to the existing power station at Longannet in Fife would reduce emissions by 14.5 million tonnes of CO2 over the same period.
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Last updated: 23 May 2009, 18:06
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