Coal May Be Our Most Important Future Energy Source

It’s interesting to watch the pop-environmental industry flail about regarding the issue of energy derived from coal.  Coal, according to the pop-enviros, is the big, bad devil monster hiding under the bed, waiting to leap out and devour us all with greenhouse gasses, sooty pollution and other noxious emissions likely to lead to the end of society as we know it.

Once America's Transportation Network Was Coal Powered.  Perhaps In The Future Coal Will Power The World's Industry

It’s equally interesting to watch the more or less ineffectual responses the coal industry mounts to the foamy mouthed invective hurled at it by the pop-enviro community.  If corporations were as powerful and skillful as they are reputed to be by the 99 percent crowd, one would think an industry like that centered on coal would do a better job of messaging.

In fact, regardless of the vociferous braying of the one side and the meek, “I’d better pull my head back in the shell” responses of the coal industry, coal may have the potential to bring about massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions along with many other social benefits.

Here’s some of what the U.S. Department of Energy has to say about its investigations into the coal issue:  “Hydrogen from coal research supports goals of increasing energy security, reducing environmental impact of energy use, promoting economic development, and encouraging scientific discovery and innovation by researching and developing novel technologies that convert the nation’s abundant coal resources into hydrogen. The use of coal — America’s largest domestic fossil energy resource — offers the potential to economically produce hydrogen and capture carbon dioxide emissions for the generation of low-carbon electricity.”

As has been pointed out in an earlier blog on this site, using hydrogen to power America’s vehicle fleet has been a dream for decades.  The primary emission from burning in an engine is good old water.  If the claim that much of the man made pollution leading to global warming… er… I mean climate change, and other damaging impacts is due to excess emissions from automobiles then, much of that pollution could be removed if we switch over to hydrogen as a primary power source.

Until now that’s been difficult because it takes too much energy to produce hydrogen but, again, from the Department of energy, “Hydrogen can be produced from coal by gasification (i.e., partial oxidation).  Coal gasification works by first reacting coal with oxygen and steam under high pressures and temperatures to form synthesis gas, a mixture consisting primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.  The synthesis gas is cleaned of impurities and the carbon monoxide in the gas mixture is reacted with steam via the water-gas shift reaction to produce additional hydrogen and carbon dioxide.  Hydrogen is removed by a separation system and the highly concentrated CO2 stream can subsequently be captured and sequestered.  The hydrogen can be used in a combustion turbine or solid oxide fuel cell to produce power, or utilized as a fuel or chemical feedstock.”

Further, “Gasification of coal is a promising technology for the co-production of electric power and hydrogen from integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) technology.  However, there currently are no commercial demonstrations of these joint power and hydrogen plants.  Conceptual plants have been simulated using computer models to estimate technical and economic performance of co-production facilities.”

Clean coal technologies based on producing hydrogen and other valuable materials from raw coal and then using the char, or remaining byproduct in materials like aggregates for making bricks or other useful materials may well be the wave of the future. 

Because coal may have the potential to so dramatically reduce climate change gasses and other emissions to the atmosphere one can only wonder at the knee jerk responses to the shipping and use of coal so evident today.  Surely something with so much potential for cleaning up the earth's evironment deserves serious consideration?

Between about 1861 and 1906 American satirist Ambrose Bierce published a series of satirical definitions skewering the conventions of his day.  Eventually published as The Devil’s Dictionary, Bierce’s work is still read today; albeit the definitions are dated by the passage of time.

I’ve been working for some time on a work titled,The Devil’s Dictionary Too.  Updating a few of Bierce's definitions and, creating some of my own.

I thought you might enjoy a few of the definitions I’ve come up with regarding political and environmental issues.

Hopefully the book will be published next year.

Enjoy.

 Abnormal, adj.  One who thinks before accepting the precepts of an activist organization; especially an organization dedicated to environmental causes.

Usage:  Ann’s insistence on proof that the red whales of Mars really are an endangered species was seen as abnormal by fundraisers for the Save The Red Whales Of Mars Society.  “Not a single red whale has ever been found in the oceans of Mars,” the society scientists put forward in answer to Ann’s inquiries.  “Proof that global warming has endangered an entire species and that Ann is not quite normal in questioning our ethics.”

Bush’s Fault, n.  A geological feature recently discovered beneath Washington D. C. with branches running beneath both the White House and the nation’s legislative chambers.  The feature is commonly considered to be the source of all social, political and geophysical disruption worldwide (See Climate Change). 

Usage:  The discussion surrounding the size of the national debt caused seismic disruptions  (attributable to Bush’s Fault) in the ability of Congress to do business as usual.

Checks and Balances, n.  The American system of assuring all citizens have a chance to participate in their government.  Congress writes the checks and taxpayers are expected to provide the balances. 

Climate Change, n.  1. A meteorological phenomena many attribute to Bush’s Fault.  2. A rainmaker for fundraisers raising money to support the efforts of political parties and pop-environmental groups. 

Usage:  The recent ice age ended as the result of climate change brought about by the invention of coal fired power plants and the subsequent shipment of coal from Wyoming to China by Cro-Magnon man. 

Global Cooling, n.  1. A meteorological phenomena many attribute to Bush’s Fault.  2. A rainmaker for fundraisers raising money to support the efforts of political parties and pop-environmental groups. 

Usage:  First identified in the 1950s (but still the result of Bush’s Fault) as the likely end to life as we know it in North America due to the mile deep sheet of ice predicted to cover the entire continental plate sometime near the end of the century.

Global Warming, n.  1. A meteorological phenomena many attribute to Bush’s Fault.  2. A rainmaker for fundraisers raising money to support the efforts of political parties and pop-environmental groups. 

Usage:  First identified when fundraising to fight global cooling became difficult, global warming is seen as the likely end to life as we know it in North America due to the one mile rise in ocean depth created as the result of Bush’s Fault and predicted to cover the entire continental plate sometime near the end of the century.

Hybrid, n.  An automobile powered by electricity created mostly by the burning of fossil fuel invented to replace automobiles powered mostly by the burning of fossil fuel.

Usage:  As Gwen plugged in to the publically subsidized battery charger she sneered at the common rabble across the street filling the gas tanks of their own automobiles at their own expense and, incidentally, paying an extra tax for the free energy Gwen was making use of. 

Snail’s Pace,   The speed at which a legislature considers a tax reduction.

Usage:  The snail’s pace at which the house and the senate had been considering the tax reduction bill was slowed even further by a lunch break featuring well seasoned escargot as the main course. 

Speed of Light, n.  The speed at which a legislature approves a tax hike.

Usage:  The House and the Senate approved the tax increase at just over the speed of light allowing the increase to be assessed retroactively.

Wheel, n.  A device invented by Cro-Magnon man to permit the shipment of coal from Wyoming to Pacific Rim nations.

Usage:  The shipment of coal from North America to nations of the Pacific Rim by trains of wagons resulted in increased emissions of methane to the atmosphere as the result of Mastodon’s passing gas as they toiled. According to atmospheric scientists the resulting warming of the biosphere accounts for the sinking of Atlantis and the destruction of its civilization.

Wind Energy, n.  An electric atmosphere created in a room full of environmental activists while discussing, at great length, the success of the latest fund raising letter.

Usage:  At two hours in length Mitch’s report regarding fund raising to allow the reestablishment of the banana slug in the Gobi Desert electrified the crowd when he reported $24 million had been raised.  A motion was made and passed to use the initial proceeds to fund a cruise/caravan for interested members of the Gobi Desert B.S. League to the site of the proposed reintroduction.

Environmental Analysis Should Include Examination Of Failing To Perform The Examined Action

Environmental hazard or engine for environmental enhancement?

Remember “acid rain?”

We were all going to die of it once but, only after all our buildings and art works had been eaten away by the nasty stuff.

So all kinds of things were done to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, especially in North America and Europe, with the result that the term “acid rain” is seldom heard anymore.

The reason all that is important is that sulfur dioxide plays a part in cooling the atmosphere.  The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines famously cooled the earth’s temperatures for at least a couple of years by, depending on the source, ½ to a full degree due to the massive releases of SO2 occasioned by the eruption.

Now, if SO2 releases result in global cooling, and we brought about massive decreases in SO2 emissions to the atmosphere in the latter decades of the 1900s, what should be expected?

Maybe, global warming!

Having lived through the acid rain controversy, one bearing remarkable similarities to the more recent discussions about global warming and climate change I can say that in the days when acid rain was going to pour down and dissolve all our faces no one much mentioned the probable result of SO2 reduction; warming of the atmosphere and, thus, the earth.

I’ve been thinking about this recently because locally, in Whatcom County, an incredibly angry discussion has been taking place regarding the permitting of a “coal” port in the county and the subsequent shipping of coal through the county to that port for export to Asian markets.

The discussion is now entering the scoping phase of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will, purportedly, examine the impacts likely if the port is built and coal shipments to the port result in the shipping of more coal through Whatcom County than is already being shipped.

As a note, coal has been transported by rail through the county for decades with no controversy at all.  The announcement of a new coal port has suddenly made the future shipping of coal the source of all future evils to be visited on residents.

So the thought occurs, if Environmental Impact Statements are science based, purportedly removing politics and emotion from the assessment, shouldn’t the EIS include analysis of what happens if the proposed action does not take place?

In the example of SO2 reductions I have to honestly say the potential for global warming inherent in the scrubbing of the gas from power plant and factory emissions was never discussed so far as I can remember, certainly not extensively.  Had it been talked about we would at least not be as “surprised” as we are about today’s temperature increases.

I wrote in an earlier post about the millions of deaths, mostly in developing countries, caused by the elimination of DDT some decades ago.  Had we discussed the probability of those deaths honestly at the time we may have still banned DDT but we would have also have had to take responsibility for deliberately allowing those deaths to occur.

News Bulletin:  This just in!  Environmental Impact Statement finds travel by air poses unacceptable risks to natural environment.  Air travel suspended - clipper ship futures rise on stock exchange.

In the case of coal, what is the balance between any environmental consequences seen when we ship coal and the environmental consequences both in my neck of the woods and overseas if we do not ship the coal?

These are serious questions.

For example, there are known, and to some extent, measurable consequences to human life and health when an economy goes sour.  Some years ago I researched the issue and, at the time, the best analysis available in the academic world resulted in a calculation that in North America, at least, a $8,000,000 reduction in economic activity resulted in one premature death.

We intuitively know that is the case.  A breadwinner loses a job, comes home and assaults his wife and family.  Recent news in the United States has featured several stories of gunmen recently fired from their jobs bursting into their former places of work and killing one, two or several people.  To the extent the layoff occurred as a result of the on-going depression in the United States, a reduction in economic activity helps account for the premature deaths.

Unfortunately, especially in the United States, the consequences to the environment of not performing an action are seldom discussed.  All the discussion goes to the issue of what is likely to happen if the action is undertaken.

Perhaps it is time to change that.  If we ever want to really enhance our environment, we must change that.