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Page added on February 22, 2013
New Process Takes Energy From Coal Without Burning It
“Ohio State students have come up with a scaled-down version of a power plant combustion system with a unique experimental design–one that chemically converts coal to heat while capturing 99 percent of the carbon dioxide produced in the reaction. Typical coal-fired power plants burn coal to heat water to make steam, which turns the turbines that produce electricity. In chemical looping, the coal isn’t burned with fire, but instead chemically combusted in a sealed chamber so that it doesn’t pollute the air. This new technology, called coal-direct chemical looping, was pioneered by Liang-Shih Fan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and director of Ohio State’s Clean Coal Research Laboratory.”
10 Comments on "New Process Takes Energy From Coal Without Burning It"
BillT on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 3:22 am
“Clean Coal” is an oxymoron, like ‘Military intelligence”. More techie wet dreams that cannot be scaled up and will never leave the lab but will burn up a lot of taxpayer dollars trying.
Plantagenet on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 3:23 am
This sounds great! If we can burn coal without releasing CO2 it will be huge step towards reducing greenhouse warming.
Somebody should nominate Dr. Fan for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry!
SilentRunning on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 3:24 am
Thermodynamically, any process that captures CO2 from burning coal will have to yield far less energy than simply just burning the coal.
The inevitable result? Far MORE coal has to be mined to produce the same net energy. PLUS: You have to put the CO2 waste *somewhere* and there will be a lot of it – remember: You have to process more coal to produce the same energy.
And of course, all of this means that the costs will go up for the energy – at exactly the time when people are clamoring for *cheap* energy.
Therefore, I can predict with 99.99% confidence that businesses will opt for bad old simple burning the coal and using the atmosphere as a common sewer. Meaning: We all cook the planet.
DC on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 3:42 am
RoFL! Clean coal research laboratory. Ill take a side of Nuclear Fusion with that order of hopium too please.
Kenz300 on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 5:35 am
The coal industry is grasping at straws hoping to stay relevant in a Climate Changing world…….
Climate Change is real….. and coal is a big part of it.
The world needs to stop building any more coal fired power plants and begin to take the oldest and dirtiest one out of service.
Safe, clean alternative energy sources are now at cost parity with fossil fuels in many parts of the world.
The price of coal, oil and nuclear keeps rising and causing environmental damage.
The price of wind, solar, wave energy and geothermal keeps dropping.
It is time to speed up the transition to safe clean alternative energy sources.
BillT on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 9:43 am
Kenz, and anyone else who is curious about renewables:
http://www.countercurrents.org/alpert210912.htm
“How much degrowth is enough?”
mike on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 11:12 am
Anyone who promotes growth now is a ecocidal homicidal maniac. Whether it’s coal, solar, wind, nuclear, if they are promoting “growth” they are living in a dream state.
J-Gav on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 4:19 pm
I reckon it’s a good thing … keeping university students busy in their “scaled-down” labs, that is… As for so-called “renewable energy,” rare is the country that will ever get to 20% of their energy needs via that route. And those who try had better keep a very sharp eye on balancing their grid-loads.
So I’d have to go with BillT and Mike on this one, except that, being a kind-hearted sort of guy, I wouldn’t call them “homicidal maniacs,” just ecocidal, ego-bloated half-wits who, when their dream state turns nightmarish, might even wake up to understand they’ve been crapping in their own nest all these years.
rollin on Fri, 22nd Feb 2013 8:45 pm
So the coal must be processed further, then iron oxide must be obtained and processed. Next heat is added to the mixture and then iron-oxygen bonds must be broken to form carbon-oxygen bonds. So then where does the CO2 go, it can’t stay in the vessel forever.
Why even burn coal for power at all, we have much better ways to generate electricity?
Ken300 on Sat, 23rd Feb 2013 1:49 am
Renewables are the future…… The future is NOW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-grdspEWQ&ytsession=B0iWGQZgiFvupXjfJPZ8uC8Wadkp2_7XJyQhE4ggEn–jozpRPLAEZHMV-dq-7Ew0-8g-S80Td0ofFzJYirarxHWPqMibt1mRnw_zDU4_8yBQTJ1FDKGu3N7a3gIgP13fUxBS98ikoNY-rXFv67irmc0shYPXFPzO4LfhPLa3QpQ-b91htBr_TZKyPsRY_AEfuS5kpZ5taQtNSDn0a9k2rZXvDVwjb0vRWXgaggE0IQS8yPiqHiwvxcBk2ROg838wr6Ev5OT_V1jkAq16kv6AR73_E8Dz5Ra15jH9BVKzSPuSonNzV3dA5EOjdnswjbNGURKTPVMhS-YXw4piY3NBZixHQpNrbBs_ew279VPMgBIj-ta-Mu_usZwVrpT-fnPYKCOoNS9hFGIoXz-LWRRNdwtAqumt4uiincLy3Hy5HYyZKK1MyxGN4MU0RAO4Ze9fUxX2dDmKlbtpMtCiBppwtoEWX95h-_YWP16NYR6sYZghhaRujTk-EHpqfCDMcV6k702V9vfSZES-dn3-XmtkKSqGpQ8FgHVRx05eVw6nTwWOuvIEFnFD-5y1y6MJDrPRnNoAD-LnS5-ZtGZyzPpRIAgsdktjg35cx2W2B-SRWh5mNowD4KHOQC87UN9RAk0T1693MoORtvrPTID4I9qZ3D-tDDKgEGY_GKmmmLN5vn4beyxElNG3qknOM-9oVU9MZvcpyqrcV4