Posted on 05/27/2017 2:23:31 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Note the "overseas"...other countries are either not so blessed with shale oil and gas resources or are not as far along in developing it.
"Its still kind of hard to get a blast furnace to smelt iron oxide without coke."
I'm all for using coal where it makes sense, and certainly in producing it for export, but I doubt the US is likely to get back into the business of producing primary steel any time soon. I think nowadays, secondary steel uses electric furnaces.
Arcelor and US Steel still operate integrated plants.
All steel is not simply steel, and items like a deep drawing steel can have purity requirements that exceed what an arc furnace operating on scrap can produce.
And a portion of every sale to Goldman Sachs.
I suspect that nowadays, primary steel is kind of a niche market, precisely for the sort of application you describe below:
"All steel is not simply steel, and items like a deep drawing steel can have purity requirements that exceed what an arc furnace operating on scrap can produce.
Which is why I made the point....use coal where it makes economic sense. But the days of massive coal production in the US are done with for the foreseeable future. If the coal miners need jobs, it seems to me that the thing to do is put them to work developing the Marcellus and Utica shales, which are right under their feet.
We have been singing that same song since Reagan.
The transition from massive to not massive must have happened last year when U.S. coal production dropped to 740 million tons.
Lack of takeaway capacity in the Marcellus/Utica basin makes finding a job in that game quite an undertaking.
US BOF steel production was 1/3 of the total last year. Not sure if that counts as a niche or not. However, the book about Nucor from 25 years ago and the tendency for arc furnace plants to operate as open shops made them heroes in some circles.
Pilot plant located adjacent to Air Liquide Industries at 11426 West Fairmont Parkway, LaPorte, TX 77571. Draws upon their oxygen feed for operation, rather than adding a dedicated air separation unit as needed for commercial scale. In this instance the design for the full commercial 250 MWe design was scaled down to a 25 MWe pilot.
The Obama coal killing strategy doesn’t work against Exelon’s newest technology, which doesn’t emit CO2 or anything else into the atmosphere; but, allows placing the CO2 to use in oil formations, or transformed into carbonate rock within a basalt formation. Overall efficiency 61% on natural gas or 52% burning syn-gas from coal—while capturing all the CO2 at pipeline pressure, tapped directly off the turbine.
If so much is being produced why are all these guys out of work???
"Lack of takeaway capacity in the Marcellus/Utica basin makes finding a job in that game quite an undertaking."
And what, precisely, causes a "lack of takeaway capacity".
Here's some on Marcellus takeaway capacity: Courtesy of Range Resources
That’s a cool looking set of stuff.
Google map (Satellite View) for the address (old Landsat photo pre-construction?) shows a tan colored open area with large white rectangular structures on the northern end. The large white rectangular structures are still present near the new parking lot as seen from an aerial photo (left center of the sunrise shot) of the plant.
“[I]t seems the war on coal is being relaunched by his economic adviser Cohn, who now calls coal obsolete and unclean”
Time for Trump to brush off the old “you’re fired” line for Cohn. Throwing Kushner off the staff would be another welcome step.
“I’d fire this suit’s ass pronto or have him parachuted into Wise County, VA wearing an “I (heart) the carbon tax” button and a t-shirt emblazoned “Coal: obsolete and unclean.””
BTTT.
Or into Buchanan or Dickenson County, VA—likely never to be seen or heard from again.
Or the entire set of transactions would be handled by a division of Goldman Sachs. Or a division of Exxon.
We can only hope!
Now, why is that?? It is all well and good to blame it on Obama, but the simple reality is that, except for limited purposes, coal is simply not as desirable a feedstock OR fuel.
"Here's some on Marcellus takeaway capacity: Courtesy of Range Resources"
In other words, "takeaway capacity" means "not enough pipelines". I think "thackney" provided that more understandable explanation some months ago. And I think we can blame at least some of the pipeline shortage on Obama, also. I doubt that the only pipeline delayed was the one in the Dakotas.
1. Coal power plant improvements that could make them more competitive can't be done without triggering a New Source Review (regulatory issue).
2. Building new power plants based on coal gets Sierra Club types and regulators with political agendae involved, and the permitting process results in either a "No" answer or the thing drags out indefinitely while the meter is running on the project sponsor's development money. Financial closing doesn't happen until the permits are issued.
3. The Clean Power Plan added market-distorting requirements to new coal builds that made them prohibitive to even think about.
All that said, combined cycle plants are simpler to develop, build and operate.
Too bad about your company not being able to get a gasifier to work. There are people in developing countries that have been running them for decades. Perhaps H-1 visas could have solved the problem.
And also more energy efficient, up to 42% for coal and 60% for combined cycle.
"Too bad about your company not being able to get a gasifier to work."
Oh, they got it to work (in fact you referenced the technology yourself....which tells you who I worked for back then), it just was not economically viable in the face of burgeoning natural gas supplies. As you said, they sold it off, and it was eventually successful when it reached customers for whom said natural gas wasn't available.
Apologies for the delayed response...tied up with church activities this weekend, and then "holiday stuff".
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