Clean Coal?

T

Techne

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Seems like a bit of a paradox doesn't it?
Coal makes CO2, too much CO2 makes the planet warm and we will all die if we make too much CO2 right...

Well, I found this concept quite interesting and think it might have some merit

link

Thoughts?
 
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Nuclear >>> clean coal IMO. And solar+wind+geothermal+wave power + smart grids is the best of all.
 
A picture perhaps?
attachment.php


Nothing earth shatteringly cutting edge I guess, just wonder if it is viable...
 
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zulgin said:
you are aware that plants absorb oxygen at night and not co2?:)
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Yes, during the day they also use oxygen. However, as far as I know, plants in general are net producers of oxygen and net users of carbon dioxide in a 24h cycle :).
 
The question re. "clean" coal is - what gets done with all the toxic and radioactive waste generated by the coal station? Also, what about the devastating effects of mining the coal itself?
 
BCO said:
The question re. "clean" coal is - what gets done with all the toxic and radioactive waste generated by the coal station? Also, what about the devastating effects of mining the coal itself?
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Of course that is worry, I think they are as much aware of this as proponents of nuclear power stations.

They propose to make use of syngas (produces from underground pockets of coal) which they argue as more environmentally friendly than coal mining.

Anyway, my biggest issue is that even if they manage to store the CO2 underground, how are they going to treat the plants at around 1000-1400ppm CO2 (apparently the optimal conditions for plant growth, the earth is currently at 390ppm) without it escaping into the atmosphere anyway? Build huge greenhouses? If so, that does not sound economically viable. So I am more interested in that solution.
 
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The amount of CO2 produced in power plants is in the order of tons, so you will require enormous green houses that will only utilize ~1500ppm saturated air. The earth as a massive greenhouse cannot even coupe with the load so how will a greenhouse?
CO2 capturing as indicated in the flow scheme is also quite expensive (but doable)! At this stage the only viable option for the CO2 seems to be sequestration (pumping the CO2 deep into the earth to be physically and chemically absorbed into the mineral deposits and rocks). South Africa does not seem to have perfectly suited locations for sequestration though...

I investigated a similar idea that is proposed in this thread some years ago. Using mutated algae or CO2 fixing bacteria, but the scale of things were just impractical...
 
werries2 said:
The amount of CO2 produced in power plants is in the order of tons, so you will require enormous green houses that will only utilize ~1500ppm saturated air. The earth as a massive greenhouse cannot even coupe with the load so how will a greenhouse?
CO2 capturing as indicated in the flow scheme is also quite expensive (but doable)! At this stage the only viable option for the CO2 seems to be sequestration (pumping the CO2 deep into the earth to be physically and chemically absorbed into the mineral deposits and rocks). South Africa does not seem to have perfectly suited locations for sequestration though...

I investigated a similar idea that is proposed in this thread some years ago. Using mutated algae or CO2 fixing bacteria, but the scale of things were just impractical...
Click to expand...

Well, if my high school science is correct, 1500 ppm would be equal to 0.15% of the air and we are currently at 0.039% CO2 right? below 200ppm and plants can't photosynthesise. Apparently there are some greenhouse horticulturists that want to increase the CO2 in their greenhouses. For example:
http://www.hydrofarm.com/articles/co2_enrichment.php
And here... for the potheads lol http://www.marijuanagrowing.eu/what-is-max-temp-to-run-with-co2-1500-ppm-t33477.html

So I don't think the load should be a problem? It is just the massive infrastructure problem that needs to be faced if this is going to be used for commercial scale farming.
 
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