A method of reducing pollutants exhausted into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels. The disclosed process removes nitrogen from air for combustion, separates the solid combustion products from the gases and vapors and can capture the entire vapor/gas stream for sequestration leaving near-zero emissions. The invention produces up to three captured material streams. The first stream is contaminant-laden water containing SOx, residual NOx particulates and particulate-bound Hg and other trace contaminants. The second stream can be a low-volume flue gas stream containing N2 and O2 if CO2 purification is needed. The final product stream is a mixture comprising predominantly CO2 with smaller amounts of H2O, Ar, N2, O2, SOX, NOX, Hg, and other trace gases.