Talk:Clean coal/Archive1
Impurities[edit]
I was about to edit this article some more when I noticed the line in the introduction:
CO2 is still released into the atmosphere so "clean" does not mean carbon neutral, but sulphurous impurities can be dramatically cut using "clean" coal.
I'm pretty sure that the idea of "clean coal" is to remove the CO2 - see this New Scientist article which I was about to reference: NS on Clean Coal--Bobbing up 22:01, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
What Clean Coal Really Is[edit]
Since this is something I am intimately familiar with (I do IGCC development and engineering for GE) I will tell you what clean coal, as a term, really stands for. "Clean coal" is actually a combination, solely for political purposes, of two different concepts: IGCC and sequestering.
- IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) is the less-controversial-but-far-more-complex process of producing cleaner energy from coal though converting it to syngas, which increases turbine fuel efficiency approximately 40% and produces approximately 50% less overall pollution and 20% overall less CO2 emission.
- Sequestering, however, is a bunch of bullshit, but is the one most promoted by utilities (as IGCC is 20% more expensive than regular old "filthy" coal). The idea with sequestering is that, if you pump all the CO2 underground into coarse rock, it will stay there. Sort of like a ostrich burying its head in the sand. However, in reality, it usually will seep back up to the surface. It will also fuse with any underground water and change it into carbonic acid.
That, folks, is "Clean Coal" in a nutshell.The Goonie 1 07:49, 6 June 2009 (UTC)