The time's come to see how the modern world can benefit from a wide global deployment of Underground Coal Gasification. UCG is an energy-producing technology that can bring the value of underground coal seams to the consumer, without the pain and expense of actually mining the coal. There is none of the lunar-like craters of open-cast mining; none of the tailings of underground mines; no ash dams and coal crushing; no trains transporting coal; no lives lost to underground floods, methane explosions, fires, or deadly pneumoconiosis. The enormous energy that was previously locked up and lost in unmined and unminable coal deposits can now be released and delivered to the surface in the clean and convenient form of pure, rich combustible gas. It's a safe, clean, controlled operation with a great variety of industrial applications, and above all, a low, very competitive cost.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wisconson Public Services Commission, Clean Coal Study Group
As a part of Conserve Wisconsin, Governor Doyle asked the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to investigate Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology and its potential for the future of Wisconsin.
IGCC converts coal into gas. The gas is cleaned and then burned in a combined cycle gas turbine power plant. IGCC dramatically reduces air emissions, water use and industrial waste, but there are unanswered questions about the technology’s reliability and cost.
Underground Coal Gasification
An LLNL research program on Underground Coal Gasification. "Gasification is a process by which coal or other hydrocarbons are converted into a synthesis gas (syngas) at elevated pressures and temperatures, usually in a commercially purchased gasifier. Gasification can be used to create many products (electric power, liquid fuels, hydrogen, synthetic gas) and provides great opportunities for pollution control, especially sulfur, nitrous oxides, and mercury. Underground coal gasification (UCG) converts coal in-situ into a synthesis gas through the same chemical reactions. Because this process gasifies coal at depth under many different geological circumstances, UCG could increase the coal resource available for utilization enormously. A 300-400% increase in coal reserves and even greater increase of gasification is possible...."
Fire in the Hole: Underground Coal Gasification
"WORLDWIDE coal reserves are vast, over 10 trillion metric tons, but unless cleaner and cheaper ways can be found to convert coal to gas or liquid fuels, coal is unlikely to become an acceptable replacement for dwindling and uncertain supplies of oil and natural gas. Mining coal is dangerous work, coal is dirty to burn, and much of the coal in the ground is too deep or too low in quality to be mined economically. Today, less than one-sixth of the world’s coal is economically accessible. However, Livermore is helping to revive an old technology that offers promise to substantially increase usable coal reserves and make coal a clean and economic alternative fuel. Known as underground coal gasification (UCG), this technology converts coal to a combustible gas underground...."
BBC: Clean Coal, how it works
"When burned, coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels but a range of technologies are being used and developed to reduce the environmental impact of coal-fired power stations...."
Coal gasification: a cleaner option for power generation
Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) has been identified as the most efficient and environmentally friendly technology for producing low cost electricity from coal.
Sandia Labs: Coal Combustion and Gasification
Research @ Sandia National Labs on improved coal combustion, and on coal gasification.
Washington State Rejects Coal Gasification Power Plant
"Environmental groups are applauding Tuesday's decision by Washington state siting officials to halt consideration of a proposed coal gasification power plant at the Port of Kalama in southwest Washington state near the Oregon border. Members of the state's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, EFSEC, unanimously rejected the plan by public power agency Energy Northwest for permanently storing, or sequestering, some of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, CO2, emitted by the power plant as required by state law. ..."
World Coal Institute: Coal Gasification
The World Coal Institute seems to be an industry research consortium, and this is their page extolling coal gasification.
The Dirty Secret: Better technologies exist for extracting coal, a major source of carbon dioxide emissions. The challenge is ge
"Coal is the black sheep of the energy family. Uniquely abundant among the fossil fuels, it is also among the worst emitters of greenhouse gases. Mindful of coal's bad reputation, President Bush promised the world three and half years ago that the United States would develop a superclean coal plant in an initiative known as FutureGen. The plant would have zero emissions; even the carbon dioxide it released would be pumped underground...."
Coal Converts: When it comes to lining up new energy sources, a number of states see plain old coal as the cleanup hitter
"Gilberton Valley, in northeastern Pennsylvania, is so larded with mounds of black rock and dark pits of swampy ooze that it sometimes resembles a volcanic moonscape. The only thing that’s ever come bellowing out of the ground here, however, is hard and shiny anthracite coal. During mining’s heyday in the first half of the 20th century, mining companies hauled the purest anthracite out of the valley by the train load, leaving behind the waste coal — small hunks of anthracite mixed with other rock — in messy, acid-leaching piles everywhere...."
Coal gasification: "clean coal" or subsidy-hungry boondoggle?
"With oil and natural-gas prices rising and coal in plentiful supply, it's more or less inevitable that coal's going to get used, so it makes sense that (some) enviro organizations are biting the bullet and joining the push for the cleanest possible applications. Coal mining is destructive as hell, but in places like northeastern Pennsylvania..."
Gasification @ Wikipedia
Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal, petroleum, or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the raw material at high temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen. The resulting gas mixture is called synthesis gas or syngas and is itself a fuel. Gasification is a very efficient method for extracting energy from many different types of organic materials, and also has applications as a clean waste disposal technique
U.S. D.O.E. Database of Coal Gasification research projects
A listing of all DOE research projects related to coal gasification.
National Energy Technology Laboratory: Coal Gasification Reference Shelf - System Studies
Reports documenting system studies performed for gasification technologies.
National Energy Technology Laboratory: Reference Shelf - Gasification Database
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored the 2007 World Gasification Survey to accurately describe the current world gasification industry, identify near-term planned capacity additions, and keep the global gasification community apprised of current industry trends and drivers. Based on publicly available information, the survey includes owners/operators of gasification-based power and manufacturing plants, major gasification technology vendors, and suppliers of supporting technologies. Only commercial operating plants with a capacity exceeding 100 megawatts electric equivalent (MWe) were included in order to avoid listing pilot test and temporary facilities as contributors to the commercial experience database. However, all feedstocks—coal, petroleum residues, secondary materials, biomass, and other carbonaceous materials—were included if the facility in question met the minimum capacity requirement.
National Energy Technology Laboratory: Advanced Gasification Program Element
The gasifier is the main gasification system component. It is a robust pressure vessel where air (or oxygen), water, and a suitable fuel are brought together and heated, stimulating controlled thermal and chemical reactions that yield gaseous process flows made up of synthesis fuel (syngas) products, chiefly carbon monoxide and hydrogen, along with byproducts such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and slag (mineral residues from coal). The syngas stream – and extracted steam flow in combined cycle plants – is used to power turbine/generator sets to produce electricity, while the byproducts may be separated, captured, and stored for reuse or for sale as chemicals.
National Energy Technology Laboratory: Coal and Power Systems Gasification
NETL's Gasification Technologies Program supports Research & Development (R&D) in the area of gasification — a process for the conversion of carbon-based materials (feedstocks) such as coal into synthesis gas (syngas) that can be used to produce clean electrical energy, transportation fuels, and chemicals efficiently and cost-effectively using domestic fuel resources.
U.S. D.O.E. Gasification Technology R&D
Coal gasification offers one of the most versatile and clean ways to convert coal into electricity, hydrogen, and other valuable energy products....Rather than burning coal directly, gasification (a thermo-chemical process) breaks down coal - or virtually any carbon-based feedstock - into its basic chemical constituents. In a modern gasifier, coal is typically exposed to hot steam and carefully controlled amounts of air or oxygen under high temperatures and pressures.