New Research Produces Energy From Coal Without Burning

Promising new research at Ohio State is using chemical reactions to produce energy from coal without burning it, capturing 99 percent of the carbon dioxide produced in the process. The system ran for 203 continuous hours in the recent test, and according to the researchers could have run longer. The reaction uses coal that has been ground into powder and mixed with iron oxide beads and heated. Details from the link:

The coal and iron oxide are heated to high temperatures, where the materials react with each other. Carbon from the coal binds with the oxygen from the iron oxide and creates carbon dioxide, which rises into a chamber where it is captured. Hot iron and coal ash are left behind. Because the iron beads are so much bigger than the coal ash, they are easily separated out of the ash, and delivered to a chamber where the heat energy would normally be harnessed for electricity. The coal ash is removed from the system.
The carbon dioxide is separated and can be recycled or sequestered for storage. The iron beads are exposed to air inside the reactor, so that they become re-oxidized be used again. The beads can be re-used almost indefinitely, or recycled.

The US Department of Energy is helping to fund this research and is building a pilot scale reactor set to go online later this year. While there are still environmental concerns with coal mining this technology could possibly remove the air quality issues involved with using coal for energy.

Western Tribes Defend Sacred Sites Against Coal Export Plan

Photo: Paul Anderson for The New York Times

Chuck Boyer operated a skiff that brought people from their fishing boats to shore to watch speeches during a protest against the building of North America's largest coal terminal at Cherry Point, Wash.

Tribes in the Pacific Northwest have allied with environmental groups to oppose a plan to build six coal export terminals along the west coast. The coal would then be transported to the booming markets of Asia where industrial air pollution is far less regulated and air regularly reaches unhealthy levels of pollutants. The proposed plan would disrupt traditional fishing sites as well as disturbing numerous sacred sites according to tribal leaders and elders.

Why should this concern us thousands of miles away?

Because air pollution does not respect national boundaries and already pollution from China reaches the air above us where it can come back to earth in rain and snow to contaminate our lands and waters. This and the fact that coal is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions that are increasing global temperatures to ominous levels are enough reasons to oppose this new coal export capacity. Despite what some political ads say, the main reason coal production has fallen so drastically in the US is not overzealous government regulation but competition from suddenly cheap and abundant natural gas. Coal companies are just trying to shift their smoky product to another market so they can continue to remove mountaintops at their leisure. The world economy needs to transition away from the unsustainable dependence on fossil fuels and the sooner we realize that burning coal is nineteenth century technology unfit for a twenty-first world the sooner we can transition to more sustainable sources of energy. Coal is also a significant source of mercury which can find its way up the food chain through a process called bioaccumulation. This has led to alarmingly high mercury levels among First Nation people in arctic Canada.

Coal is a bad deal for all involved and the government needs to do more to assist families whose livelihoods depend on coal to transition away from it because eventually the government will realize that the price of coal energy is far higher for the planet than just the cost of a ton of coal.

Importance of the Clean Air Act

Remembering Donora, Pa., on the Anniversary of its Deadly Smog Incident

Why we need the Clean Air Act.

October 30, 2011 at 8:49AM by Jim DiPeso

The incident took place on Halloween weekend, 63 years ago.

Over time, we learned from the incident. Congress passed laws, the laws were enforced, business practices changed dramatically, and the chances of such an incident ever happening again in the U.S. became minuscule.

Still, it's worth retelling the story, especially now, when the laws that resulted from the incident are under ideological attack from political figures who might not know about the incident or, worse, might believe there is no role for government in making sure something like it never happens again.

The incident happened in Donora, Pa., a mill town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh. Donora's economy ran on coal. Donora made its living from a steel mill that burned coal to fire coke ovens, melt iron ore in blast furnaces, and produce finished steel in open hearths. Donora men also worked at a zinc plant that burned coal to smelt ore and produce zinc used for creating strong steel alloys. Day and night, the mills ran.

In those days, mill emissions were unregulated and uncontrolled. Smoky, smelly air that killed the grass and ruined the paint was thought to be an unavoidable part of living with industries that employed thousands of local men and put food on the tables of their families. Coal did more than fuel the local economy. Coal heated homes that Donora's men returned to after their work shifts. Coal powered the trains that chugged through town.

On Tuesday, October 26, 1948, an atmospheric inversion slammed a lid on Donora. Inversions prevent the air from mixing and dispersing pollution. The inversion that October week was unusually strong. All the airborne detritus from uncontrolled furnaces, ovens, stoves, and locomotives stayed put in the valley. The foul mixture–carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, metal dust, fluoride compounds–mixed with fog. The miasma built and thickened as the days passed.

Still, Donorans went about their business, even as the acrid gloom turned day into night. The town went ahead with its annual Halloween parade on Friday evening, October 29. The next day, Donorans filled the stands at Legion Field for high school football, as the hometown heroes, the Donora Dragons, went up against their big rivals, the Monongahela Wildcats, on a field clouded by the polluted air. The fans had a hard time seeing the action. The players had a hard time seeing the ball.

Back in town, a public health disaster was unfolding. In her 2002 book, When Smoke Ran Like Water, epidemiologist and Donora native Devra Davis spelled out the grim details:

"Doc Rongaus gave the same advice to anyone who would listen. Leave if you can. The firemen of Donora went from door to door delivering whiffs of oxygen from tanks to those who were stranded. One of the firemen, John Volk, remembered borrowing oxygen canisters from the Monongahela, Monesen, and Charleroi fire departments. 'There never was such a fog. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face, day or night. Hell, even inside the station, the air was blue. I drove on the left side of the street with my head out the window, steering by scraping the curb.'"

Years later, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted a local fireman who recalled, "If you could chew (the air) hard enough, you could swallow it."

Block after block in Donora, townspeople fell sick. Shortness of breath. Headaches. Vomiting. Bloody sputum. Local hospitals ran out of beds. Doctors were run ragged. A local mortuary ran out of coffins. Pets and farm animals keeled over in their tracks. Word got out. Phone lines jammed as frantic out-of-towners tried to call their Donora relatives. Yet all day Saturday, as the sickness and misery spread, the mills kept running. No one in authority had any power to order them off line. On Sunday morning, Halloween, the zinc mill manager grudgingly shut the smelter down for a day under orders from the front office.

On Monday, Nov. 1, the inversion lifted. Rains came and scrubbed the filth from the skies. By the time blue skies returned, 20 Donorans had died. Nearly half the town of 14,000 had fallen sick.

Donora was a trigger, one of several, that spurred research, debate, hearings, and finally, legislation. Twenty-two years after the Donora smog, Congress passed the Clean Air Act by strong bipartisan majorities, and President Richard Nixon signed it into law. America's air is much cleaner as a result. Technologies that didn't exist in 1948 were invented to clean up motor vehicles, mills, and factories. An urgent need sparked innovation.

Today, you can visit the Donora Smog Museum and learn about the incident. The museum's slogan is: Clean Air Started Here. Those in office who think the U.S. could do without the Clean Air Act ought to pay a visit.

Article from http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/republican/donora-pa-smog-1011

Picture from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Donora,_Pennsylvania

Coal Power

The Minnesota Legislature passed two bills that would lift the current regulation on carbon dioxide emissions at coal-fired plants. In Minnesota coal-fired plants are required to offset their carbon dioxide emissions. The plants must not contribute any additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The law regulating these emissions was passed four years ago as part of a package to increase alternative energy production in Minnesota. Some claim that the law is too restricting and that coal plant production cannot occur because the offset practices are too expensive. The House and Senate will vote on the bills in April.

The environmental impacts that occur from burning coal for energy are numerous, including more than emissions of carbon dioxide. We need to use alternative energy and clean up the current energy production. Coal is a fossil fuel, and there is only a limited amount of that coal in the earth. We are going to run out of these fossil fuels, and in the meantime, we are damaging the planet by burning them without the most effective clean burning methods. Americans use a great amount of energy and because we are unwilling to give up our current standard of living, we need to plan for the future and plan how to use our current resources in the most appropriate way.

If we are going to continue with burning coal, we need to use the best technology we have to produce the fewest emissions and cause the smallest environmental impact. We have only one planet and we are very dependent on that planet for survival.

Image from the Energy Bulletin.

EPA Files Objection To Coal Plant Air Permit

In a move that shows the that the new Obama administration wants to put the "EP" back in the EPA the agency has filed an objection to the Air Permit issued by South Dakota for the Big Stone II Coal fired power plant on Minnesota's western border. The state has 90 days to make changes to the air permit and the project still needs to have an environmental impact statement approved, so this is not the end for the proposed 580 megawatt plant, but even if it is eventually approved it will have more stringent air pollution controls than if the EPA had not stepped in.

Critics charge the plant will increase NOx and SO2 pollution which contribute to acid rain, increase mercury levels in the region, and add an unacceptable amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. If the price of carbon increases as part of a plan to fight climate change then the price of power from coal will skyrocket, leaving the electric customers footing the bill.

It would be better to think long term and invest in renewable energy sources and in improving the electric grid overall to make renewable sources more economical.