Clean Coal Technologies -

Implementation difficulties

o   Cost – people don’t want cleaner air at higher cost

o   Not clean solution

o   Reduction of greenhouse emissions undeveloped and not cost efficient

Clean Coal Technologies -

Implementation requirements

o   Installation of capture equipment needed

o   Capture process needs to be powered;  additional fuel cost

o   Transport system need to be built

o   CO2  storage

Clean Coal Technologies -

Cost of Clean Coal

o   17-21 cents/kWh – 1^st gen w/90% carbon capture

o   2-5cents increase

o   Thermal efficiency decreases to 73%; causes more coal to be burned and therefore yields more CO2

Clean Coal Technologies -

Bixby Process

o   Energy conversion process that involves coal-heating, which dramatically reduces CO2, uses no water and is inexpensive to produce

§  Devolitization

·         Placing coal in an environment that replaces oxygen with natural gas and heating it a high temperature so that the volatile matter changes from a solid state to a gaseous state instead of burning to no create synthetic gas and semi-activated carbon. 30-50% of coal converts to syngas.

§  Liquefaction

·         Can be used to combine activated carbon solids with hydrogen using a special reactor to make oil. Remaining pollutants can be pulled out during this process

Fuel Cell Vehicles - Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate

o   “originally required that, starting in 1998, 2% of the in-state new light duty vehicle sales of major automakers had zero tailpipe emissions”- Institute of Transportation Studies

Nuclear Energy - Percentage of US Electricity Production

Nuclear Energy- PWR

·         Pressureized  Water Reactor (PWR)

o   Indirect contact with heated and radiated water and turbine

o   Two separate cycles connected via heat exchange

Nuclear Energy - BWR

·         Boiled Water Reactor (BWR)

o   Direct contact with heated water and turbine

o   Fewer components and piping (no steam generator)

o   Operates at much lower pressure and temperature

Carbon Capture - Oxyfuel

·         Consists of burning fuel in a mixture of pure oxygen and recirculated flue gas instead of air.

·          This is done to increase the CO2 concentration in the flue gas, making it more efficient to remove before processing for transport and storage.