WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

CO2 - Free CoalTL - Purdue


 
We have confirmed, via citation of multiple authoritative sources, that it is possible to utilize our abundant coal to manufacture the liquid fuels we need without adding to the environmental Carbon burden.
 
In fact, we have cited references wherein coal and botanicals conversion processes could be synergistically combined to provide a complete and integrated "system", wherein CO2 emissions could be, in essence, thoroughly "recycled", not only by the inclusion of biomass, but also by the direct capture of CO2, and it's subsequent conversion, through Sabatier or Carnol technology, back into valuable hydrocarbon compounds.
 
And, such a combined system could, as we have thoroughly documented, provide a productive channel through which organic, high-carbon wastes, such as scrapped auto tires, sawdust, used paper, crop residues and sewage sludge could be beneficially and productively disposed of. 
 
Herein, we introduce you to Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.
 
He, as we have previously documented to be feasible, promotes the use of environmental energy to effect the economical production of Hydrogen, from water, for the hydrogenation, into hydrocarbon fuel and chemical compounds, of abundant high-Carbon materials, such as coal and cellulose.
 
And, even better: Agrawal's process would itself emit no Carbon Dioxide, as some indirect coal and cellulose liquefaction processes might.
 
Some excerpts: 

"(Agrawal reports) ' Power for the electrolysis would be provided by carbon-free energy sources, such as solar, wind or nuclear power. And, unlike conventional methods of producing liquid fuels from plant matter and coal, H2CAR would not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The goal is to accomplish the complete transformation of every carbon atom in the feedstock to liquid fuel by supplementing the conversion process with hydrogen from a carbon-free energy source,' Agrawal said.

The process also offers potential advantages over producing liquid fuels from coal using conventional methods, which emit carbon dioxide. Because H2CAR would not emit this additional carbon dioxide, the process would eliminate the need for proposed carbon dioxide sequestering.

'The tremendous convenience provided by the existing infrastructure for delivering and storing today's fuels is a huge deterrent to introducing technologies that use only batteries or hydrogen alone,' Agrawal said. 'A major advantage of our process is that it would enable us to use the current infrastructure and internal combustion engine technology.' "

We'll emphasize one final point, which we have made before: As noted in the excerpt's final paragraph, converting coal and biomass into liquid fuels would vastly reduce the need for the hugely-expensive infrastructure and national vehicle fleet adaptations that would be necessary to accommodate more radical transportation concepts, such as electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles. That, of course, is in addition to recycling and forestalling the emission of CO2; and, to keeping the all the miners and farmers represented on West Virginia's state seal gainfully employed