Comments on: FAQ: All about coal--a necessary evil

Coal is probably a fact of life. The problem is how to burn it. We answer some of questions surrounding the fuel and how scientists might make it more eco-friendly.
Photos: Coal addiction

[Lloyd Weaver]

airblown IGCC can now agressively go forward

Well, if this is true.......
"Clean coal is the biggest opportunity" in clean tech, said Stephan Dolezalek, a partner at VantagePoint Venture Partners earlier this year. "If you can solve that problem, it will be bigger than Google."
...............then I invite all people to my site generalgasifier.com to see how to do it, and to team up to make it happen on an ASAP basis. Since we will need a lot more electricity to power vehicles, we must focus on getting IGCC working with the least-cost air-blown approach (the Japanese are doing air-blown), which will enable 50% more power from the same coal used.

Due to the ?hot-gas-recirculation? feature of this breakthrough gasifier IP, the widest possible range of solid fuel quality, even wet fuels, can be used with little efficiency disadvantage. Plus, there?s better integration of the gasifier vessels within the IGCC steam system to further simplify the process, maximize efficiency and eliminate refractory from all vessels (a reliability issue).

Furthermore, CO2 sequestration is not an issue as I just hit upon some key data that shows temperature trends have not changed a bit since the 80% emissions increase starting about 1970 (see my gasification blog at energycentral.com and my blog that CO2 is not causing global warming (I?m not saying warming isn?t happening, just that CO2 isn?t causing it, and this issue has virtually stopped aggressive air-blown IGCC development in the US, now we an go forward with a clear conscience). With that much CO2 emissions increase and absolutely no change in temperature trends means CO2 is not a casual variable. And if we can?t believe real data trends, what can we believe in? It?s time to get to work and make air-blown IGCC pay the clean-coal dividends we know are there. To make it happen fast, that takes risk-taking private investment.

[chistletoe]

in my humble opinion

"clean coal" is only the latest boodoggle being manufactured and created by
the corporate/government power structure to soak the middle class.
Contrary to a barage of statements by govt. officials and repeated in the media,
there is no scientific proof that global warming was caused by human activity.
furthermore, current evidence strongly suggests that the "global warming" bubble has burst and the earth is coming into a cooling trend, perhaps dramatic, perhaps as frightening as a little ice age.

consider, for a parallel, those stupid neon lightbulbs which are being foist upon us
to replace incandescents: they cost us ten times as much money to purchase
and they contain all sorts of esoteric, dangerous, polluting, toxic metals
which will cost 10 times as much to dispose of properly or else will
further poison the environment.

In any case, Chinese and Indian officials are not likely to comply,
so the huge profit and cost will have no material impact on our atmosphere.

[Agavelez]

Why not use biocoal? It's got the same energy density as coal and can be handled and pulverized exactly the same. I am developing a project to produce it from agave biomass (35+ tonnes of biocoal per hectare per year) and will sell it at a lower price than coal, making it very attractive for electricity generating facilities and heavy industries. With the cap and trade system around the corner, it will be a great business (The US carbon market will reach 2T USD in the near future).

Biomass derived biofuels (syngas, biooil, biocoal) can substitute fossil fuels not only at electric generating facilities and industry, but also in transportation, at a lower cost (in all of them) and without polluting and warming our beloved planet.

Agave grows in marginal land (semiarid and Mediterranean climates), thrives with no watering nor agrochemicals, is easy to cultivate at a very low cost of prodf
uction. I am trying to start plantations in Texas and California, the 1st and 2nd largest GHG emission States in the USA. Then, I will go to China and India.

Agave produces 3X more sugars than sugarcane, 4X more cellulose than the fastest growing eucalyptus and captures 5X more CO2 than the GMO poplar tree or 15X more than pines.

Regards,
Arturo Velez
[e-mail]