Do you consider yourself as a person that cares about the environment? Are you concerned about climate change? Are you concerned about oil pipelines traversing our lakes and rivers threatening our fresh water resources? Then you understand energy production from High Efficiency Low Emissions (HELE) coal is an important part of the plan for a better environment, right? No?
If we ignore the fact that new coal powered capacity will continue to come online over the next twenty years, we bury our heads in the sand when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other atmospheric pollution. We need to change the way we use coal and start using thermolysis for gasification rather than combustion for burning. By choosing thermolysis instead of combustion, we can produce energy without producing pollution that harms our air and water. In order to foster renewable energy sources like solar and wind, we need to find a common denominator fuel to let renewables compete on a wide scale. That common denominator fuel is hydrogen. We can make hydrogen from coal with significantly reduced pollution while we wean ourselves off of fossil fuels. We can also make hydrogen from water and create zero pollution. We can increase our capacity to make hydrogen from water while we decrease our use of coal over the long term. We can phase coal out of our energy mix, but it will take time and we must have a pragmatic approach.
RMP draws contrast between the common misunderstanding between what is combustion and what is a non–combustion chemical reaction. Burning coal is not the same thing as thermolysis or the thermal decomposition of matter without releasing particulate matter to atmosphere. The byproducts of thermolysis are inert and saleable for road making material and other construction material.
Be it known to all within the sound of my voice, whosoever shall be found guilty of burning coal shall suffer the loss of his head.
-King Edward II of England, 1276
Coal has generally had three major knocks against it with regard to pollution and its negative effects on the environment: 1) CO2 emissions, 2) Sulfur Dioxide emissions, & 3) Mercury emissions. Other complaints about coal involve NOx’s and other particulate matter released to atmosphere. So if we could produce cleaner energy from our abundance of US coal without releasing those types of Continue reading “Coal Use Forecasted To Rise – How We Can Mitigate Coal Pollution”
