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Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
Mon Nov 30, 2015, 05:08 AM Nov 2015

Costly "cleaner" coal fights for space in emissions debate

The global coal industry is trumpeting "cleaner coal" technology to fight bubbling competition from renewable energy, but the high costs of greener plants are proving a major obstacle in selling them to power-hungry countries such as India...

... With world leaders due to meet in Paris from Monday to try to agree a deal to tackle climate change, the World Coal Association (WCA) is touting the use of very hot steam under extreme pressure to raise a power plant's efficiency, which it says can cut the greenhouse gases emitted from burning coal by up to 30 percent...

... India should be one of the most promising markets - already the world's third-biggest consumer, it is ramping up domestic production as it plans to more than double coal output to an annual 1.5 billion tonnes by the end of this decade.

More efficient use of its coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, could help New Delhi address accusations the world's third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide is not doing enough to slow its greenhouse gas growth. "Expanding efficient coal consumption will help address India's energy trilemma of meeting demand, reducing energy poverty and actively participating in climate change commitments," WCA CEO Benjamin Sporton said...

/... http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/climatechange-summit-coal-idINKBN0TJ06I20151130


What of coal gasification?

Coal gasification is the process of producing syngas–a mixture consisting primarily of methane (CH4) carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O)–from coal and water, air and/or oxygen. Historically, coal was gasified using early technology to produce coal gas (also known as "town gas&quot , which is a combustible gas traditionally used for municipal lighting and heating before the advent of industrial-scale production of natural gas. In current practice, large-scale instances of coal gasification are primarily for electricity generation, such as in integrated gasification combined cycle power plants, for production of chemical feedstocks, or for production of synthetic natural gas. The hydrogen obtained from coal gasification can be used for various purposes such as making ammonia, powering a hydrogen economy, or upgrading fossil fuels. Alternatively, coal-derived syngas can be converted into transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel through additional treatment via the Fischer-Tropsch process or into methanol which itself can be used as transportation fuel or fuel additive, or which can be converted into gasoline by the methanol to gasoline process. Methane or natural gas extracted from coal gasification can be converted in to LNG for direct use as fuel in transport sector. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gasification
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