"Clean coal technologies being tested in Consol Energy Inc.'s research center in South Park have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while reducing stockpiles of waste coal, experts said Tuesday.
Monessen-based PFBC Environmental Energy Technology Inc. installed a pressurized fluidized bed combustion system recently in Consol's 1-megawatt demonstration power plant at its Research and Development Division off Route 88.
That process, combined with a carbon-capture system by Sargas Inc., has been trapping around 95 percent of the plant's carbon dioxide emissions during tests.
Carbon dioxide captured through the Sargas process can be stored underground, forced into wells to push oil to the surface or used in processes like the algae tests. Algae can be grown over five days and used as fertilizer or in products such as pharmaceuticals."
So, as we have documented, nearly all the CO2 emitted by a coal processor can be efficiently captured and recycled. Herein, the products of CO2 conversion will be directed to the production of fertilizers and pharmaceuticals. We have documented that, as NASA is doing now, and as the Navy is preparing to do, CO2, once harvested, can be converted, through Sabatier, Carnol and other technologies, into additional liquid and gaseous fuels. Using algae to convert CO2 offers other possibilities, again as we have documented. Appropriate strains of algae can directly produce ethanol, which can be used as a liquid fuel itself, or converted into gasoline or valuable plastics manufacturing feed stocks. Other strains of algae about which we've reported produce "biolipids", which can be harvested from the cultivation tanks and then readily converted into diesel-type fuel. Cellulose, as might be derived from excess algal biomass, can be added to coal as a raw material in a coal-to-liquid conversion processor of appropriate specification.
The enclosed report is just further confirmation that we already have in hand the solutions to our national liquid fuel shortages and manufacturing raw materials demands; and, to our needs for sustainability and environmental responsibility.
Once more: Those solutions start with Coal.