Compared with combustion-based power generation facilities, industrial gasification plants have demonstrated significantly reduced solid waste and less potential to leach toxic substances into soil and groundwater. Mercury emissions at gasification-based facilities can also be far lower than their combustion-based counterparts.

Industrial gasification also has the potential to dramatically limit the amount of CO₂ its facilities emit into the atmosphere using carbon capture and sequestration technology. While sequestration is not in wide use at present, industrial gasification plants are inherently designed to capture CO₂ and readily enable its sequestration.