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The phasing out of coal as a polluting technology, in favor of a more clean, renewable approach.

Clean Coal

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Companies

• Biomass-based "Coal" Makes Coal Plants Renewable and Clean - NewEarth Renewable Energy, Inc. produces a "coal" equivalent from biomass sources. The pellets do not smoke, and produce virtually no pollution, yet have the same BTU content as coal, but at a lower price, ultimately. (PESWiki; Feb. 4, 2008)
  

• GRC Microwave Turns Carbon Items into Oil and Gas - Frank Pringle of Global Resource Corp (GRC) has invented and refined an efficient microwave energy process to turn plastics, discarded tires, and other carbon-based substances such as shale, coal, and tar sands into gas and oil.
  

• Clean Energy Systems (http://www.cleanenergysystems.com/) - Steam generator built on rocket principles economically eliminates pollutants via the use of clean fuels from natural gas, petroleum, coal, or biomass and a pure oxygen oxidizer. It offers on-demand, zero-pollution, low cost electricity.

• GreenShift's CO2 Bioreactor - Patented process uses algae to consume greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fueled power plants, giving off pure oxygen and water vapor. Light from concentrated solar panels is conducted into the algae chambers via fiber optics. Once the algae grows to maturity, it is harvested for conversion into ethanol and biodiesel fuels. (PESWiki; Feb. 28, 2008)
  

• Ramgen Power Systems (http://www.ramgen.com/compressor_co2_energy_independence.htm) - The Ramgen CO2 compressor based on supersonic shock wave principles reduces the capital costs of CO2 compression by 65% and produce a minimum of 25% operating cost savings. This reduces the carbon capture and storage cost which can be 30-40% of the total cost for a clean coal plant.

• Jupiter Oxygen (http://www.jupiteroxygen.com/) - Oxy-Fuel Combustion Technology is a method/process in which oxygen is used with fossil fuel [coal, oil, natural gas] while air is excluded, reducing fuel usage up to 73%. NOx emissions are greatly reduced without any back-end emissions control technology and CO2 becomes highly concentrated, making capture easier and more economical.

• HTC Purenergy (http://220.239.160.28:8080/upload/htc/build/index.html) - HTC delivers vast improvements in CO2 capture from coal and natural gas fired flu gases using advanced solvent based separation processes. Its post combustion CO2 capture provides enhanced efficiencies and cost reductions with chemical absorption, the only commercially proven and robust process for CO2 capture from flue gas.

• UCG Engineering Ltd's Undergroung Coal Gassification (http://coal-ucg.com/home.html) - Company is improving in-situ gasification of coal in underground seams by injecting oxidants, gasifying the coal and bringing the product gas to surface through boreholes drilled from the surface.
  

• To clean coal, GreatPoint makes gas (http://news.com.com/To+clean+coal%2C+start-up+GreatPoint+makes+gas/2100-11392_3-6204422.html?tag=cd.lede) - GreatPoint Energy (http://www.greatpointenergy.com/) is commercializing a technology to convert coal to natural gas--turning one of the dirtiest fuels into one of the cleanest. The company is resurrecting a technology--catalytic gasification--that was never fully commercialized, claiming it can produce natural gas at about $4 per million BTUs. (CNET News; Aug. 27, 2007)

• GreenFuel Technologies (http://www.greenfuelonline.com/index.htm) Emissions-to-Biofuels™ (E2B™) process harnesses photosynthesis to grow algae, capture CO2 and produce high-energy biomass. Retrofitting fossil-fired power plants and other anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide, the algae can be economically converted to solid fuel, methane, or liquid transportation fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.

• GreenShift (http://www.greenshift.com/news.php?id=97) has a license agreement with Ohio University for its patented bioreactor process based on a newly discovered iron-loving cyanobacterium (blue-green algae), through their subsidiary Veridium (http://www.veridium.com/), for the purpose of air pollution control of exhaust gas streams from electrical utility fossil-fueled power generation facilities.

• ZECA (http://www.zeca.org/) - The Zero-Emission coal power plant, using ZEC Technology, utilizes anaerobic hydrogen production to generate electricity. This process integrates coal gasification, hydrogen production via calcium oxide carbonation, and limestone calcination, while incorporating a fuel cell system.

• Thermal Energy (http://www.thermalenergy.com/) - Thermal's THERMALONOx Process technology economically reduces NOx emissions from combustion gas exhaust steams. Unlike commonly used selective catalytic reduction (or SCR) and selective non-catalytic reduction (or SNCR) technologies, the process uses direct phosphorus (P4) mixture injection into the stream of hot exhaust gases which causes the release of ozone (03) that oxidizes NO into NO2. In combination with FLU-ACE® technology it achieves 90% NOx removal at up to 50% lower cost.

• Zolo Technologies (http://www.zolotech.com/sub/power/) - Laser-based instruments help optimize combustion efficiency in electric utility coal-fired boilers by allowing operators to make better combustion tuning decisions. As the sensor consists of a beam of light, there are no sensor tips to wear out or replace. The most cost effective way to increase efficiency and reduce emissions is to optimize the combustion process.

• EnviroScrub (http://www.enviroscrub.com/) - Proprietary process improves the environmental performance of both natural gas and coal as fuels for cleaner, more cost-effective power generation. The Pahlman Process Multi-Pollutant Control System limits NOx and SOx and removes mercury.

• ThermoEnergy (http://www.thermoenergy.com/) - Converting sewage sludge to a renewable high-energy fuel, and enabling the conversion of coal and other hydrocarbon fuels into energy with zero air emissions. The ThermoEnergy Integrated Power System combines the combustion of carbonaceous fuels with recovery of by-products by pressurizing the entire combustion system to enable the use of gas-to-liquid steam-hydroscrubbing.

• CO2 Solution (http://www.co2solution.com/a-index.html) - A bioreactor with the help of an enzyme accelerates the transformation of CO2 into bicarbonate in an aqueous environment. This natural reaction is at the basis of the CO2 transportation and removal in the human body and also occurs in nature. It is totally safe and environmentally sound.

• Fuel Tech (http://www.fueltechnv.com/) - FUEL CHEM® programs can improve the efficiency, reliability and environmental status of plants operating in the electric utility, industrial, pulp and paper, and waste-to-energy markets. Products include customized NOx control systems, which can reduce emissions from 30% – 85%, treating a wide variety of solid and liquid fuels, including coal, heavy oil, biomass and municipal waste.

R&D

• Coal-to-Liquids Algae Bioreactor (http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/11/coal-to-liquids.html) - Linc Energy (http://www.lincenergy.com.au/) has formed a joint venture with BioCleanCoal (http://biocleancoal.com/) to develop an algae bioreactor for the conversion of process CO2 into oxygen and biomass. It will allow Linc Energy to produce clean ‘green’ power and oil (diesel) from Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). (Green Car Congress; Nov. 21, 2007)

• Coal: The Fuel of the Future? (http://www.sandia.gov/news/publications/technology/coal.html) - Sandia National Laboratories believes that the most cost effective way to produce hydrogen presently is with coal, producing the most energy with the least pollution.

• Advanced Power Generation - Explores the latest in super-efficient coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear utility scale generating plants.
• DOE's Clean Coal Technology Program (http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/) - U.S. Department of Energy's joint efforts with industry to develop and demonstrate new generations of coal-based power systems and coal-to-clean fuel conversion processes.
• IEA Clean Coal Centre (http://www.iea-coal.org.uk/) - UK's R&D on efficient coal supply and use, including technologies for reducing the emissions from coal combustion.
• Illinois Clean Coal Institute (ICCI) (http://www.icci.org) - State of Illinois (US) coal research and development program with emphasis on continued utilization, environmentally clean burning, and new markets for...

In the News

• Clean coal technology for capture of CO2 (http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/885) - Babcock & Wilcox (http://www.babcock.com/) and American Electric Power are exploring bringing to market a new combustion technology to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants. Oxy-coal combustion uses pure oxygen by eliminating nitrogen from the air, assisting CO2 capture and sequestration. Inside Greentech; Mar. 15, 2007)

• Texas, Illinois Vie for Near-Zero-Emissions Coal Power Plant Project (http://enn.com/today.html?id=10939) - Texas and Illinois will compete for the world's first near-zero-emissions coal power plant, a $1 billion project headed by the U.S. Department of Energy and a consortium of 10 energy companies from the United States, China and Australia. The two sites from each state will vie for the project known as FutureGen, a plant designed to turn coal into a hydrogen-rich gas to produce electricity for about 275,000 single-family homes. (Environmental News Network; July 26, 2006)

• Experiments Examine Hydrogen-Production Benefits of Clean Coal Burning (http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/519372/?sc=dwhp) - Experiments are underway at Sandia to optimize the combustion of coal to produce the most energy and the least possible pollution, figuring in the possible benefits of sequestering carbon dioxide and generating both electricity and hydrogen in coal-fired power plants. (NewsWise; Apr. 4, 2006)

• Ultra-clean coal to power a greener future (http://www.physorg.com/news4098.html) - Engineers in Nottingham are developing ultra-clean coal that could make power generation 50% more efficient and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a third. (PhysOrg; May 13, 2005)

Trends Fostering Clean Coal

• Green Rules Could Shut up to 500 US Coal Plants - Study (http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/34814/story.htm) - New clean air rules could force up to 500 US coal plants to shut spurring billions of dollars in construction of cleaner plants to replace them, according to a study. (Reuters; Feb. 2, 2006)

Skeptical / Down Side

• Alternative Fuels Can Boost Pollution (http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/alternative-fuel-pollution/) - A recent US study warns that some alternative fuels can cause more harmful greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. Liquid coals is 80% more polluting. Ethanol can be more polluting, depending on how it is produced. Biofuels are usually cleaner. (Alternative Energy News; Nov. 22, 2007)
  

Related Sites

• Google > Clean Coal (http://tinyurl.com/9vhqk)

See also

• Oil (http://FreeEnergyNews.com/Directory/Oil) - its impact
• Coal to Liquids - Alternative fuel directory at PESWiki

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