New Process Takes Energy From Coal Without Burning It

rtoz writes "Ohio State students have come up with a scaled-down version of a power plant combustion system with a unique experimental design--one that chemically converts coal to heat while capturing 99 percent of the carbon dioxide produced in the reaction. Typical coal-fired power plants burn coal to heat water to make steam, which turns the turbines that produce electricity. In chemical looping, the coal isn't burned with fire, but instead chemically combusted in a sealed chamber so that it doesn't pollute the air. This new technology, called coal-direct chemical looping, was pioneered by Liang-Shih Fan, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and director of Ohio State's Clean Coal Research Laboratory."

Comments

Other factors to consider

[SketchOfNight]

How does the lack of pollution from the process compare against that generated from the acquisition of the coal?
  Is it possible/practical to convert an existing coal power plant?
  Is there an appreciable energy/pollution cost to produce the fine powder coal used in the process?
  How much energy is consumed or how much pollution is produced in transporting the coal to the reactor?
  Is the process itself efficient in regards to the energy output when compared against the total energy costs?

I'm sure there's a lot of other things that don't spring to mind instantly, but I'm certainly not an expert on any of this. Doubts notwithstanding, this is pretty cool.

Re:Scaling is the Key!

[Spy Handler]

just build it bigger!

Or if that can't be done economically, just build millions of little ones!

Oh that's not economically feasible either because each one requires a lot of labor to build? Hmm.... *thinks*

Ok let's just forget about the whole thing and go nuclear.

Re:Scaling is the Key!

[icebike]

Sequestering CO2 is not simple, and is currently done mostly by pumping it into used oil fields. It's not certain whether these costs were factored in.

Sequestering it is a lot simpler if you can simply draw if off the top of the CLOSED chamber rather than trying to scrub it out of the stack.
You've got half the battle won already.

What to do with it long term is another problem. But its a problem you would have anyway, so having the CO2 handed to you all
contained is better than where we are today.

Besides coal ash, it appears CO2 is the only by-produce that is not recycled back into the feed-stock.

But, hey, Clean Coal stories have to be knocked down immediately. We can't have it prove even partially successful under any
circumstance. /rollseyes.