UrbanX
| | Joined: 10/26/2006
Msg: 1 | |
| | Coal black is the new greenPage 1 of 1 | As is to be expected, clean coal energy solutions are starting to be found. The energy crunch fosters innovation and coal is cheap and readily available. Will this be the one that economically extracts energy from coal with low-to-zero emissions? Maybe, maybe not. But it's guaranteed it won't be the only solution that's tried.
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070511.wrreynolds11/BNStory/Business/home
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/es/etb/cetc/cetc01/htmldocs/Successstories/new_high_efficiency_alternative_clean_coal_power_generation_tech_e.htm
http://www.thermoenergy.com/clean.htm
Apparently it works on pretty much any fossil fuel or combustible biomass and produces useful and valuable liquid C02 and not much else through extremely high pressure combustion.
Anybody familiar with the science that could give a decent read on this?
Cheers,
Mike (coal: not just for stockings anymore) | |
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| Coal black is the new green
Posted: 5/11/2007 10:18:13 AM | | No not me. To bad my husband isn't home and into this site because the man is major smart about that kind of stuff. He watchs tapes after tapes of stuff like this, so he can build the stuff for him self. If he ever has to. | |
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| Coal black is the new green
Posted: 5/11/2007 1:38:51 PM | None of the sources provided indicated exactly what the technology is, but I'm guessing its a form of high pressure supercritical fluidized bed extraction of coal that discharges cleaned hydrocarbons to a second pressurized combustion chamber. Probably uses a side stream of CO2 that is reliquified, to clean the exhaust of residuals (residuals should be very small in this case). The liquid CO2 is then reprocessed to remove contaminants from the first stage extraction. Not having seen a patent, I can only take an educated guess. I think they might be using a mixed gas/liquid phase for energy catalysis, a method used in organic chemistry for continuous reaction/separation of reactants, products and contaminants.
For those who have worked in chemical engineering, this would be a process similar to a very old technology: manufactured gas process. Before oilfield technology was developed, manufactured gas plants used stepwise solvent extraction processes to produce hydrocarbons (propane and butane) from coal.
Many cities around the world are still reclaiming with old manufactured gas plant industrial sites - they're heavily contaminated with coaltars. I've done a little research in the past on enhanced biodegradation to clean up these facilities - and that is what drew me into the study of the manufactured gas process.
Fassbender and Thermo-energy have to build their pilot-scale facility first, to demonstrate this process.
SFE has been around for a couple decades. I used it in the mid-90s to flesh out an idea for cell lysate recovery technology - a tit for tat use of extensive company instruments in return for developing a new large scale fermentation product purification process. | |
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| Coal black is the new green
Posted: 5/11/2007 2:46:53 PM | Is it more credible than 'cold fusion'? Maybe yes, maybe no. No claims of results are actually being made, only that the
theory and technology are very promising.
A $12 million prototype plant is 'on the drawing board', but, has anyone got enough confidence to fund it? Once built, (in the
first link) mention's made of four years being needed to assess it's operation.
It sounds fantastic: "By using low-cost fuels, such as high-sulfur coal, waste oils, greases, coal fines, sour gas, etc.,
TIPS can realize significant cast savings over competing technologies that must rely on higher cost fuel sources."
(however, that's from your http://www.thermoenergy.com/clean.htm which had a plethora of dead links and
unloadable images (to my mind, it suggests someone's given up on the concept, let's hope not).
It seems to still be very much at the preliminary theory stage: "... to develop the basic design and optimize performance
of a new high efficiency cycle called the ThermoEnergy Integrated Power System (TIPS)" from your 2nd (humongous,
forum thread disabling link).
Your first link:
"OTTAWA — In mid-January, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, with Environment Minister John Baird at
his side, spoke - discreetly - of an imminent scientific breakthrough in clean-coal technology. "
All the research seems limited to chalkboard hypotheses and shoestring budgets:
"Piling into a car, the three men drove to Boston - taking eight hours but saving travel money - where they joined
Mr. Fassbender for a day-long "final exam" of their research conclusions."
"Mr. Clements is a native of Ottawa who used to play piano and sax in his own band. Mr. Fassbender is a chemical engineer
who began his career at a U.S. national research lab near Seattle. He is now executive vice-president of ThermoEnergy Corp.,
based in the Massachusetts town of Hudson.
The two men await Mr. Lunn's funding decision - whether to confirm TIPS as a Canadian-based technology or to let
"the magic," its potential to change the world now technically confirmed, slip away."
Well, intriguing enough to serve as fodder for Sunday morning supplement articles in the daily paper. Let's wish them well. | |
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