Harnessing Underground Fires

The same thing crossed my mind when I saw the tv show. Looks like geothermal energy on a very usable scale to me. The big problem may be safe air for the builders of the energy plant. A source of water for cooling would increase efficiency.

Precisely the point I was going to make. GA

This is like asking why the thermal gradient created by human body heat is not used to power a Stirling engine to make electricity to power the grid. Once one looks at the real data and one does the mathematics, the answer is obvious.

This will give you some indication of the forces at work here...

http://everything2.com/node/762057?like_id=1340085&op=ilikeit

Oh, really?

So....

I wonder if you read the article you cited. Part of the article does mention that some presumably subterranean but unspecified locations did experience temperatures above 700°F. The article also mentioned that when simple trenches were dug to block a fire line the fire migrated faster than it took to dig a trench. Unlike the burning of coal in a firebox, the location where this heat will happen and for how long it will exist there is not under anyone's control or understanding. This is a slowly moving, but still moving wildfire.

From your answer, I don't think you get it....Follow the money....The town sits on 3000+ acre coal deposit worth many millions, the original individual owners had mineral rights, somebody offered to put out the fire for free, twice, when it required just a day's work, but neither was not allowed to do so, nobody seems to know how the fire started beyond rumor, the state now owns all the land, but for a few hold-outs, dangling by a legal thread....

That is a non sequiteur reply then. The expense of trying to extinguish this fire has nothing to do with harnessing the underground fire. Maybe we should consider the expense from Lyme disease born ticks invading the Centralia PA area, too.

Well I think that the State will allow some company to come in and extinguish the fire once they have total ownership...The entire area has been condemned, the people there now are considered illegal inhabitants....The idea that they will allow somebody to come in and take control of anything, is out of the question...

Wonderful article. It shows how poorly government and human nature can operate without good leadership. It should be a case study for public administration classes.

does anyone have an idea on how to put this fire out. some of the best minds in the dep "insert chuckle here" have been trying for years.

I don't know the terrain, but it sounds like you would have to put a lake on top of it!

Drew K

In my opinion, harnessing this undergroung coal fire appears to be something the Federal government should be involved in. Many ideas have been presented in the past, but they were only ideas. No one has enough expertise or resources to attempt risking a lot of money on such a project with so many unknowns. It was probably thought many years back, that the fire would burn itself out eventually and they are probably still thinking that will happen.

Coal fires are not that rare, the standard procedure is to dig out the burning coal with a backhoe, or build a firebreak trench...

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166516204000151

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3084/pdf/fs2009-3084.pdf

"Self-ignited, naturally occurring coal fires and fires resulting from human activities persist for decades in underground coal mines, coal waste piles, and unmined coal beds. These uncontrolled coal fires occur in all coal-bearing parts of the world (Stracher, 2007) and pose multiple threats to the global environment because they emit greenhouse gases-carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4)-as well as mercury (Hg), carbon monoxide (CO), and other toxic substances (fig. 1)."

Unfortunately the federal government is against burning coal now. If they wanted to put it out, it seems like they would consider this.

It should be worth noting that one of our bloggers recently wrote about this in the OH CR4P! blog section.