I just received a well intentioned email from Montana's Governor. He is announcing that a coal to deisel and coal gasification (for electricity) plant is to be constructed in Montana, for diesel fuel production and electricity production (300MW).
Anyway, he just bought another ticket on the Hellbound Train. He's not the only one doing this, and this may actually be less gross than most coal burners. And it will lower the imported fuel bill of our country by some miniscule amount (20,000 bbl/day diesel or so). Still, put another log on the fire - let's toast this earth! And so unnecessary. A solution is given below:
Anyway, here was my reply. I feel that he should know better, and not descend to this level. But maybe we as a country are already too far gone anyway. Besides, who needs those freakin' glaciers in Glacier National Park (they should be gone in a decade, anyway), or the ones in Greenland, either.
Besides, the Chinese are doing this like there is no tomorrow. Shouldn't we immitate the Chinese, too?
Oh well, gotta wrap this up. It's thundersnowing outside of my house - no need to fry the Airport with a lightning bolt!
Dear Gov,
I suppose you mean well, but you miss the main issue, which is the MAIN pollutant that this process will produce - CARBON DIOXIDE! Even if the CO2 produced in the gasification process is buried, the product of the combustion of the diesel made by the Sin-Fuel process is STILL A MAJOR AIR POLLUTANT.
This is 2006, when CO2 levels in the air are more than 380 ppm, not 1820, when CO2 levels were 280 ppm.
All this for pursuit of "cheap" energy, even if it destroys the climate control system that your children and grandchildren will depend on. And thus turn most of Montana into a desert. How pathetic a statement of fossil fuel addiction. And who said there are not many junkies in Montana? Not me.
You presumably are a smart person - why not show some intelligence? If liquid fuels must be made (and they must), there is a very simple way to do this. There are some other non-polluting (= no more CO2 dumping), but try this one on for size:
1. Use wind turbines/hydro to generate H2 from electricity and water.
2. Obtain CO2 from either the air or from an ethanol production facility.
3. React the CO2 and H2 to form Syn-Gas, (a mix of CO2, H2, CO and H2O) in the equilibrium shift reaction (stainless steel powder works as a catalyst). Then condense the water, and extract the unreacted CO2 with a suitable solvent, such as described in the Selexol process.
4. This is the Syn-Gas mix, minus a lot of the impurities that tend to trash this process, such as Arsenic and Sulfur compounds. This gets fed to the Fischer-Tropsch reactor. And the plant size for this is a fraction of that required for the coal based monstrosity that you are contaminating my email with.
Presumably, you know that Montana has awesome wind resources - probably about half of that of all of Europe. Trust me, you are not likely to run out of wind. And you will not be trashing the climate control system of the planet, and be turning Montana into a new version of the Saudia Arabian zone known as the Empty Quarter. And your descendants will not have this as an excuse to curse you for the next few centuries for the evil that you seem to be so proud of.
deb9
The Latest From the Governor
Friends:
Earlier this month I joined Bull Mountain Land Company in announcing an initial agreement with DKRW Advanced Fuels on one of the nation's first coal-to-liquids facilities. The proposed facility would be located on the site of the Bull Mountain Coal mine outside of Roundup, MT. I am excited about the plant because it would employ state-of-the-art technology to gasify, rather than ignite the coal.
This plant would convert a portion of the synthetic gas into as much as 22,000 barrels per day of diesel fuel, using the rest of the syn-gas to produce "clean" electricity. This type of project can bring thousands of jobs to the region and have a strong overall economic impact on the entire state. In the greater picture, it gives America hope for an alternative to imported oil.
The plant could also produce 300 megawatts of electricity using IGCC (Integrated Gas Combined Cycle) technology, the cleanest and most advanced form of power production from coal, and would be outfitted with technology to capture and store carbon dioxide underground, a process promoted by scientists as a way of dealing with global warming emissions from fossil fuel plants. Perhaps most importantly, the gasifier at the facility will remove virtually all mercury, sulfur and particulate matter from the coal.
News on this exciting announcement:
Coal-to-Liquids power plant proposed: <http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/10/03/news/state/20-power-plant.txt>http://www.billingsgazette.net/...
Major boost expected if projects are built: <http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/10/03/news/state/22-boost.txt>http://www.billingsgazette.net/...
Plant to squeeze gas out of coal: <http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5038741,00.html>http://www.rockymountainnews.com/...
New coal technology: Consider the possibilities: <http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/10/11/opinion/opinion1.txt>http://www.missoulian.com/...
Best personal regards,