Clean renewable coal? Myth or potential fuel source for the future

[Denny Crane!]

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directo...l%22#Interview

Obviously I'm a science retard but I stumbled across this and found it intriguing.

Another company just riding on the hopes and fears for the future perhaps? Or a genuine breakthrough. WBK or Sim are probably the only people capable of offering a decent opinion.

[Juvenal]

Sorry, I don't seem to be Sim but... what the heck, I'll sound off anyway.

Clean Coal is a term usually applied to coal that has been treated to remove impurities so that it can be burnt without giving off harmeful emissions.

Coke is an example of clean coal.

The substance described in your article isn't coal as such, it is a treated form of compressed "biomass" - I presume that would be plant waste from agriculture.

We are already familiar with something similar, charcoal, made by heating wood in a sealed container so it gives up its volatiles without burning.

The problem with all these technologies is that you have to put a lot of energy into the treatment process, and you have to do something with the waste gasses that are being removed from your final product.

When they get down to costs on your web-site, they make ECO Clean "Coal" appear to be cheaper than real coal by including Carbon Offset subsidies and other unspecified offsets, even going so far as to suggest that the final cost might be less than zero! Well I think you can draw your own conclusions from that.

Of course the article is an advertisment, but I am sure that clean coal and treated biomass are going to be part of our future.

We only need such things to replace portable fuels (although you won't be able to run a car on them unless you are Casey Jones). I think the main future use for coal and biomass will be in power stations. The processes of scavaging greenhouse and toxic gasses might as well be combined with that of burning th fuel to provide electricity. This will make dealing with the waste more easier and we will get some economies of scale to offset the cost of the process.

[Denny Crane!]

Sorry, I don't seem to be Sim but... what the heck, I'll sound off anyway.

Clean Coal is a term usually applied to coal that has been treated to remove impurities so that it can be burnt without giving off harmeful emissions.

Coke is an example of clean coal.

The substance described in your article isn't coal as such, it is a treated form of compressed "biomass" - I presume that would be plant waste from agriculture.

We are already familiar with something similar, charcoal, made by heating wood in a sealed container so it gives up its volatiles without burning.

The problem with all these technologies is that you have to put a lot of energy into the treatment process, and you have to do something with the waste gasses that are being removed from your final product.

If this wasn't energy efficient I doubt they would be making articles about it.

When they get down to costs on your web-site, they make ECO Clean "Coal" appear to be cheaper than real coal by including Carbon Offset subsidies and other unspecified offsets, even going so far as to suggest that the final cost might be less than zero! Well I think you can draw your own conclusions from that.

In terms of the EU proposed carbon schemes if the cost was low enough in production combined with the carbon offsets or trading you could actually get the costs down to zero.

Of course the article is an advertisment, but I am sure that clean coal and treated biomass are going to be part of our future.

We only need such things to replace portable fuels (although you won't be able to run a car on them unless you are Casey Jones). I think the main future use for coal and biomass will be in power stations. The processes of scavaging greenhouse and toxic gasses might as well be combined with that of burning th fuel to provide electricity. This will make dealing with the waste more easier and we will get some economies of scale to offset the cost of the process.

Don't mind the above just attempting to play devils advocate.