Coal-Fired Power Plants Will Need Better Carbon Capture and Storage Technology

Maybe I am just being dense but what is the problem with removing the C element from the emissions?

Could someone be so kind as to explain the problem to me please...

Coal is a very good fuel because the chemical reaction between the C in coal and O from the atmosphere is very exothermic. You get a lot of energy when the coal burns. The problem with the emissions is that the product of the chemical reaction, CO2, is vented back into the atmosphere and is a greenhouse gas. If the CO2 is not vented, it must be somehow sequestered. It takes a lot of energy to sequester the CO2, either by compressing it and injecting it underground or by combining it with another chemical to convert it from a gas to a solid or liquid.

So the problem is energy budget. You get a lot of energy from burning coal. To sequester the CO2, you have to use a lot of that energy. You have to use so much energy to sequester the CO2 that the process becomes uneconomical.

Considering that heat causes the formation of the CO2 would not cooling the resultant gas make the byproduct easier to deal with?

I am thinking a water based heat exchanger, or water heat exchanger.

Seems like something that might work as part of a larger system to recapture the solid C.

The best methods of injecting or chemically combing the CO2 that I have heard of take about half the energy that the coal burning produced.

I will have to read up on CO2 scrubbing and see what it is all about.

I had the privilege of reviewing a design for a zero emission ( a misnomer but stick with me) coal fired plant out of University of New Mexico.

Not my field, but looked feasible

The practical difficulty being that it was a purpose built plant, not an add-on device.

So compared to the cost of hiring lobbyists, plant construction is kind of expensive for unproven technology in an environment whose regulations are constantly changing. And since the data is licensable, you can't recover your costs if regulation doesn't fall into place.

In the beginning there was only CO₂ isn't it ? But still the earth cooled sufficiently for the life to begin.

Then the plants came and ate (or smoked in) the CO₂

Now Humans are giving back the CO₂ where it belonged.

Where are we missing or messing it up ? I feel it is not the CO₂s that are critical. The other gases with GWP that are not being handled by the filters (ie the plants)

Any thoughts on it ?

I bet I made lot of greens see red.