Posted on 01/12/2010 6:30:25 AM PST by TonyfromOz
Part 2 of 2 parts. This post explains the real importance of coal fired power, and why it necessary for them to stay in operation. It also points to why liberal governments everywhere are seeking to impose a new, and quite huge tax on the emissions of carbon dioxide from them. If the news with respect to Climate Change/Global Warming is supposedly as dire as they keep telling us, then why don't they just shut them down. They can't and they won't, but the very first thing they do is to find a way to make money from those emissions, in the full knowledge that they have a captive target, one that has to stay in operation, ensuring that dedicated inflow of vast amounts of money for them. How does taxation lower emissions?
the total CO2 content of the whole Atmosphere is still only 0.0388%. CO2 is a very weak component. Coal is the largest dependable energy source the US has and politicians want to control, tax and legislate it to keep the populace under control. It’s all about money and control. Nothing else.
I think you misunderstand how a synchronous generator works.
Power output is not varied with speed. These are constant speed machines when utility sized. Power is essential varied by electrical load and resulting torque.
Lower power output results in lower efficiency.
Tax the air we breathe bump.
The technology was developed during WWII and today there are coal gasification plants producing the "stuff".
Unfortunately a plant that was planned for west Texas cancelled due to the cost of capital in these economic times. Why the Gov doesn't spend stimulus money on this alternative energy is unbelievable.
I’m not a big fan of sequestration. The costs are high and what have you done but concentrate a possibly lethal dose of gas in the ground. The possibility of asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen will always be present at the site for generations to come.
Additional CO2 is sold to Coca Cola and Pepsi with the Al Gorge proviso that the label says, "No burping or farting allowed without proper carbon credits being paid!
Sark Off for Gorge statement!
Geosequestration of Power Plant CO2 is a dream that will never be obtained. The Exhaust gas needs to be captured from the stacks, at the same rate it is being emitted. The CO2 then has to be separated from the exhaust at the same rate it is being emitted. The CO2 then needs to be liquified (somehow, an exceedingly difficult task for CO2) at the same rate it is being emitted. That now liquid CO2 has to be pumped down huge pipes to where it is to be injected into the ground, pumped at the same rate as it is being emitted, and then injected at a rate that totals all the plants emissions rates.
You will need to build pipelines from every coal fired plant to the ‘burial site’, huge pumps, and then a huge complex to inject the liquid into the ground, knowing that as you go down into the ground that liquid heats up and becomes a larger volume gas again.
The US currently burns almost one billion tons of coal each year just to produce electrical power. Each ton of coal burned produces 2.86 tons of CO2.
So, in effect you have to ‘bury’, almost 3 Billion tons of CO2 each and every year, and that’s just for the coal fired sector, with a further half billion tons of CO2 from Natural gas fired plants.
How long before the ‘hole in the ground’ becomes full, and you need a new hole, new pipelines, new plant etc.
This process consumes one third to one half of the power being produced by the power plant.
The task would be monumental, the cost astronomical, and even if it could be done, would be totally unviable.
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