NewNergy

HTC Purenergy announced a new CO2 Capture cost reduction breakthrough - the Thermal Kinetics Optimization process. TKO will be added to the existing base Purenergy CCS CO2 Capture System and will substantially reduce the energy requirements of capturing CO2 from post-combustion coal and natural gas power plants.

The TKO process improves the CO2 Capture System through heat recovery, thermal balancing and optimized process flow. The primary advantage of this newly patented system is that it directly reduces the largest single cost of CO2 capture - the use of power plant steam - to a ratio of below 1 unit steam required to 1 unit CO2 captured.

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Labels: co2, coal, costs, environment, fossil-fuels

A new combination of nano and solar technology has made it possible for solar electric generation to be cheaper than burning coal. Nanosolar, Inc. has developed a way to produce a type of ink that absorbs solar radiation and converts into electric current. Photovoltaic (PV) sheets are produced by a machine similar to a printing press, which rolls out the PV ink onto sheets approximately the width of aluminum foil. These PV sheets can be produced at a rate of hundreds of feet per minute.

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Labels: coal, costs, electricity, solar

Uncertainty about the future of coal power plants could prevent Arizonans from tapping the inexpensive and abundant resource to meet their growing electricity demands, and likely will mean higher energy bills.

But coal releases more carbon dioxide than other energy sources, and with growing agreement that those emissions must be capped, cut or taxed to address global warming, utility companies see coal as a low-hanging yet forbidden fruit. advertisement

Companies such as Arizona Public Service Co. and Salt River Project are wary of committing to new coal projects that might seem inexpensive now. New global-warming laws could make those plants much more expensive to operate down the road.

They predict they either will have to pay more for the emissions or pay more for yet-to-be-invented equipment to catch those emissions. Or they could rely on more expensive sources of electricity.

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Labels: coal

DOE releases feasability study for Illinois Coal to Liquid Plant

Via: Auto Blog Green

May 22nd 2007

The Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory has completed a feasibility study for a proposed Coal to Liquid fuel production facility in Illinois. The proposal would include a plant that would convert coal into fuel along with electrical power that would go back into the grid. The input would be high-sulfur bituminous coal which would be gasified and the gas converted to liquids by the Fischer-Tropsch method. The output would include diesel. This diesel will need to additional additives before it could be used. The other output products will be be naptha, which can be used as a chemical feedstock.

The study projected the $3.65 billion plant would have a 20% annual return on investment...

[Source: NETL]

Labels: coal, fossil-fuels, research

Turning Black Coal Green - Zero Emissions Coal Plants

February 02, 2007

Sooty coal hardly seem like the future of energy, but that’s exactly what the U.S. Department of Energy predicts. Coal’s growing dominance need not spell doom for the environment, according to an executive at American Electric Power (AEP), a large American utility company which is building the first near-zero-emission coal plant by 2012. The 275-megawatt facility will serve as the model for a new generation of high-tech coal facilities, it is hoped

Source of article: AltEng post

Labels: climate-change, coal, environment, fossil-fuels

Coal’s Future in Doubt - Could Peak in 15 Years?

May 2007

A recent newsletter article by GPM consisted of a summary of the conclusions of a recent study by the Energy Watch Group (EWG) on future global coal supplies. That study found that global coal production could peak in as few as 15 years. This rather surprising conclusion was based on a careful analysis of recent reserves revisions for several nations.

The EWG report has enormous implications for climate change, global energy, and particularly for future electricity supply and steel production in the US and China. Until now, virtually everyone in the fields of energy policy and energy analysis had assumed that the world’s coal endowment was so enormous that no limits would be encountered anytime this century. The EWG’s conclusions turn this assumption on its head.

Read more from this post by Richard Heinberg @ Global Public Media

Labels: coal, fossil-fuels

Interesting discussion at this Biodiesel America page on Cleaning Up Coal & The Future of Coal

"
Hi JohnO,
I plan to look back at coal ten years from now the way I look at my old IBM 286 – dead technology. After we transform America to green energy making trillions of dollars of new industries in the process, we will reverse climate change – probably by making some kind of carbon dense briquettes (similar to coal) and putting them back in the ground. Right where they belong. JT

JohnO Writes:
Joshua: my parents forwarded this to me. I especially like his statement
"we've run out of backyards".

This brings to mind the question - what is the most concentrated form of
carbon that we might be able to sequester? Too bad glycerol doesn't
contain any significant carbon - we could sequester it, solving the
disposal problem. I could see raw veg oil as a potential carbon trap,
squeezing it out of beans and seed (and palm nuts) only to be pumped
into the ground to make room in the atmosphere for coal smoke. I'm
afraid to run the figures to see if that makes economic sense. Yikes!
Luckily I don't have the figures readily available, so I'll keep my head
in the sand a little longer. Sigh.
Cheers,
JohnO
"

Read the full discussion and the rest of the opinions here @ Biodiesel America

Labels: coal, fossil-fuels