ClimateGate news

Friday, May 18, 2007

TIPS

By these calculations, the world's most abundant fossil fuel could supply clean, green electricity at the world's most economical prices.
Links: Paper (pdf) by Alex G. Fassbender, P.E. Thermoenergy.

h/t: SDA

3 comments:

Simon Filiatrault said...

Bill,

Interestingly enough, coal burning produce more radio-active material in the atmosphere than a nuclear power station.

ref:http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

This is one thing to manage in "clean" coal power plant of the future.

Other problems with coal are:
- Limited resource
- mortality rate extracting
- transport.

Some numbers of the numbers of dead in china related to coal mining:
http://www.clb.org.hk/public/contents/news?item_id=19316&revision_id=19324&print=1

We need to focus on a long term solution for 100+ years that will have a minimum of total impacts for mankind and the environment.

Nuclear energy with full recycling of "waste" seems to be a good solution. A solution that would permit 10 billions and more to live to a level of dignity comparable to France.

A Dog Named Kyoto said...

1. Coal plants don't produce huge amounts of radioactive nuclear waste (spent fuel) for which there is no alternative but to store it or bury it deep underground until it is safe (thousands of years),
2. Coal is plentiful, much more plentiful in North America that either oil or natural gas. It is also very price competitive,
3. The mortality rate of coal mining in China has little relevance here in NA, where safety standards are higher, and mortality rates lower,
4. Transportation is not a problem unique to coal. All fuels must be transported, including oil, gas and uranium.

Coal can be an affordable fuel, of which we have sufficient resources to last centuries. Technology can and should be used to make the burning of coal clean.

Simon said:
A solution that would permit 10 billions and more to live to a level of dignity comparable to France.

OK, now I get it - you were just joking!

Simon Filiatrault said...

Is it the goal of having 10 Billions people living at the same energy consumption then us, north American that you find a joke. What I mean to say is that we need to find a very long term solution that would fit all part of the world and concentrate on it. This way we could save a lot on mass production. I agree clean coal technology maybe a solution for some and sometime, but I am referring to a longer term approach. One also that could solve the clean water production problem at the same time.