Tag Archives: coal

Will Trump retrain coal miners in Appalachia?

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Peter Spitz

President Trump has promised to restart  shuttered coal mines and bring coal back as an important fuel for power plants, a move that has been met with skepticism and disbelief by energy experts who point to the favorable economics of … Continue reading →

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Lifeline for “Clean Coal”?

Posted on January 15, 2017 by Peter Spitz

 This blog has covered the long history of technologies and approaches that would allow coal-fired power plants to keep operating while the carbon dioxide in flue gases can be captured and either used or stored in some manner. The most … Continue reading →

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Burning wood instead of coal?

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Peter Spitz

This blog has frequently commented on the now controversial use of coal as a source of energy for power plants and other industrial energy uses. Since this became a “front-and-center” issue, a lot of research and plant-scale experimentation has gone into how … Continue reading →

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Kemper power plant dooms “Clean coal” approach

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Peter Spitz

The concept of scrubbing carbon dioxide from power plant flue gases has been around ever since global warming and climate change became part of our vocabulary. When it quickly became evident that flowing the huge amounts of flue gases from coal-burning … Continue reading →

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GHG Reduction: Fiddling while China burns

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Peter Spitz

                                                                Source: Wall Street Journal The recent climate change talks … Continue reading →

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Powder River Coal: Strange Government Dichotomy

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Peter Spitz

To quote Shakespeare somewhat irreverently, “there is something rotten in the state of Wyoming”. Well, it depends on your viewpoint and your political affiliation. But the Obama administration can be said to not really be serious about world GHG reduction, … Continue reading →

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Making “Petrochemicals” without petroleum feedstocks: China successfully uses coal

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Peter Spitz

Ethylene has historically been the most important petrochemical building block: a highly reactive molecule made by the high temperature cracking of hydrocarbons ranging from ethane to heavy gas liquids. This is actually not a specific process in that it produces a number of other … Continue reading →

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Flue gas carbon removal: Skyonic’s approach

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Peter Spitz

A new EPA ruling, just validated by the U.S. Supreme Court, is aimed at substantially reducing carbon dioxide emission in the flue gas from coal-fired power plants and other large coal-burning plants. In previous posts on this blog I have discussed … Continue reading →

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Help for U.S. coal miners while Europe regresses

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Peter Spitz

Here is a good example of the law of unintended consequences. When the EPA decided to apply strict emission standards to coal-fired power plants (using the Clean Air Act), a number of heavy polluters, particularly in Appalachia, decided to shut … Continue reading →

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CAP and Trade: Can Congress be bypassed?

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Peter Spitz

In his State of the Union speech a few nights ago, President Obama, as expected, declared that it was time to confront “Climate Change”, citing Hurricane Sandy, record high temperatures, droughts, and other evidence. And he implied that he would … Continue reading →

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