Dr Thambimuthu is a leading international researcher and advocate on clean coal technologies, and has made distinguished contributions to the development of novel oxygen combustion (oxy-fuel) cycles for coal. The technologies he developed based on the oxy-fuel cycles produce efficiently energy and a pure CO2 stream suitable for pipelining and storage in geological formations. Since 1991, he has been instrumental as a founding member, and later Chairman of the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Program in setting up many highly successful research projects that led to innovative technologies for the abatement and control of greenhouse emissions from fossil energy use .