[alloysteel]

There is an excellent way to turn coal into relatively hot, clean-burning energy. As coal is virtually all carbon, with some volatiles, the first step is to drive out the volatiles by forcing superheated steam through a bed of finely crushed coal. The superheated steam is sent through a condensation tower, where the various fractions are recovered, and the steamed coal, now a very porous substance that resembles charcoal briquets, is sent into a retort, where, in the absence of air, it is heated to near incandescence. There is a very narrow range of temperature, which if the almost pure carbon is sprayed with water, the reaction goes completely to carbon mnoxide and free hydrogen, both excellent gaseous fuels. The product of combustion using this mixture is carbon dioxide and water, no nitrous oxides, no sulfur oxides, no particulates, just lots of clean hot energy.

These principles were well known over a century ago, and had been extensively developed by German chemists and used in heavy manufacture, of both steel and coal-tar products. The trick today is to make the process even more cost-effective than it now is, by engineering the various steps to limit or totally eliminate emmissions, and more efficient use of the energy expended.

[Willie Green]

the reaction goes completely to carbon mnoxide and free hydrogen, both excellent gaseous fuels. The product of combustion using this mixture is carbon dioxide and water,

As best I understand Dubya's H₂ fuel cell proposal, he wants to use vast amounts of energy (from an unamed source) to strip the H₂ from fossil fuels and only oxidize IT in the fuel cell to form water, leaving the C behind in some kind of solid form.

It seems awfully wasteful and inefficient to me to not utilize the exothermic energy that'd be released by also oxidizing the carbon.