Posted on 12/26/2016 8:31:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As part of his energy plan, President-elect Donald Trump is promising to develop clean coal. It’s a goal shared by Ohio University and the state of Ohio but viewed by many to be impossible to achieve.
The Ohio Coal Research Center at OU has been working for years to “develop clean and economic technology for the conversion of coal… into electric power (and) fuels.”
The Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (ISEE) at OU is also conducting coal research, but with a different focus: the development of materials from coal.
The term “clean coal” refers to a variety of different methods that have been advanced to allow for the burning of the fossil fuel in an environmentally acceptable manner, but researchers have been only partly successful.
“Many technologies that are workable have come from the nation’s effort in clean coal,” said David Bayless, director of the Ohio Coal Research Center. But “clean coal efforts have yet to produce technology that is cost-competitive with natural gas, especially natural gas-combined cycle power generation.”
Carbon dioxide warms the planet and coal burning produces a lot of the greenhouse gas. Getting CO2 out of coal is very expensive and so is capturing the CO2 before it goes into the atmosphere.
The Ohio Coal Research Center’s experiments on clean coal have been supported, in part, by the Ohio Coal Development Office, which was created in 1984 to promote the state’s coal industry.
The agency has invested millions of dollars on coal research, development and deployment projects – an effort that is ongoing.
“There is no brass ring in clean coal,” said Bayless. “If coal is to be used in the future of power generation, ‘clean coal’ will entail a lot of separate technologies and look very differently depending on what type of coal is being used. We just try to do our part in developing technologies that might be used in some embodiments of more efficient and less environmentally impactful coal-fired power generation.”
Projects underway today at OU that could help the United States attain greater energy independence involve electrostatic precipitation, fuel cells, carbon mitigation, biofuels and gasification.
“Reducing (carbon dioxide) emissions is a key aspect of future clean-coal technology,” said Bayless. “Funding (has come) from USDOE (U.S. Department of Energy) and the Ohio Department of Development.”
The Ohio Coal Research Center also has received research contracts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and industrial sources. The Center has completed or been awarded more than $6 million since 2001 from these contracts.
Meanwhile, projects at OU’s ISEE involve not only coal but also natural gas, oil and biomass. They’re aimed at producing environmentally acceptable chemicals.
In recent years, the ISEE, led by Jason Trembly, has received OCDO funding for four projects that focus on a range of important coal topics.
“His work is truly innovative and offers a real chance for a revival in coal, albeit less than the peak coal usage days of the ’90s,” Bayless said.
One of the ISEE projects seeks to develop new coal plastic composites to replace similar materials used in both the housing and automotive industries. In addition, the coal-based materials may provide better recyclability at end-of-life use, compared to current available materials.
“This project is exciting, as the team has developed coal-based materials with properties equal to existing composite materials,” said Trembly. “Cost projections from our work indicate the coal-based composite will provide lower manufacturing costs, and our goal over the next 18 months is to provide pilot-scale batches of the material to demonstrate these advantages.”
Currently, OCDO is offering researchers up to $8 million to find “cleaner, economical and ultimately greater use of Ohio coal and/or its combustion products.” Reportedly, OCDO expects to make eight to 10 awards for projects lasting up to two years.
“Carbon dioxide warms the planet ....”
Uh, no.
What a stupid article. Whoever wrote it has no idea what they are talking about, they’re just throwing around buzzwords in random order.
Is it as bad. As bovine methane admissions?
Is it as bad. As bovine methane admissions?
Is it as bad. As bovine methane admissions?
I guess it’s 3 times as bad!
Humans like steak, it is food.
Plants like CO2, it is plant food.
Next Question?
Like “Getting CO2 out of coal is very expensive” — you could spend $1 billion and still find coal doesn’t contain any CO2.
Trump can start by reversing Mr Bill’s designation of Escalante National Monument in Utah, the sole reason for which was to allow his Indonesian friend (who had paid him a lot of money) to have a monopoly on naturally occurring clean coal.
Let’s see. Ohio University, the State of Ohio, and years of clean coal projects. Sounds like a group of professors and bureaucrats have made a career off of tax dollars with nothing to show for it. Trump justs needs to level the playing fields on energy regulatory then stand back and let market forces get to work.
I was going to read the article but decided not to after first
searching the material for the phrase “fossil fuel”.
IMHO, the use of that phrase destroys credibility of the author.
You’re right
Going to mars is way more important but I’m not sure why.
The ‘Oxygen Fueled Directly Heated SCO2 Cycle’ burns coal derived fuel in the working fluid stream (Super-critical CO2), extracts the combustion produced water, and delivers already compressed Co2 for removal from the system. Thermal efficiency is better than 60%, so will be competitive with combined cycle gas fired turbine systems for efficiency.
https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/coal/energy-systems/turbines/supercritical-co2-turbomachinery
https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/coal/energy-systems/turbines/project-information#sco2
A more detailed description of a pilot plant being built in Texas.
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