United States Patent: 5160539

We have by now made a number of reports documenting the value of Coal Ash as a "pozzolan", an additive for Portland Cement that serves to enhance the properties of Mortar and Concrete made with that Cement.

As we've also documented, various pollution control measures can negatively impact the combustion of Coal in power generator furnaces, often resulting in a certain amount of Carbon being left unburned in the Ash.

Such unburned Carbon, if present in the Ash in too high a quantity, has a negative impact on the performance and physical properties of Concrete made with that Ash, primarily through interference with the function of "air entrainment" agents blended into the Concrete mix, additives which enable the incorporation of microscopic bubbles of air in the Concrete and thus impart greater resistance to freeze-thaw damage.

United States Patent Application: 0120144887

A group of highly-experienced petroleum industry scientists says that Coal and Biomass can be combined and converted together into liquid hydrocarbon fuels, in a complete and integrated process that, in the final analysis, emits no, and maybe even consumes a little, Carbon Dioxide.

We have cited the lead named inventor of the very-recently published United States Patent Application we bring to your attention herein several times previously.

United States Patent Application: 0080314242

The concerns about the US EPA's misguided focus on the emission of Mercury in the flue gas of Coal-fired power plants continue to grow, as evidenced by a recent, and overdue, spate of expressions of public alarm about their exercises in regulatory excess, such as: 

Is Mercury Just Excuse For EPA? - News, Sports, Jobs - The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register; "Is Mercury Just Excuse For EPA; June 24; The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register; Environmental Protection Agency officials say we simply must do something about the growing problem of mercury being pumped into the environment. That's interesting in view of a study indicating mercury emitted into the air in the United States decreased by 58 percent from 1990-2005. Mercury is the primary pollutant targeted by the EPA's planned 'Utility MACT' regulations. Critics of the plan point out it will cost the economy billions of dollars a year and will kill tens of thousands of jobs".

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/p18.pdf

We submit herein what is, from our point of view, another of what has become for us an interesting collection of documents regarding the true nature of, and potentials for, Carbon Dioxide; just in case anyone does find themselves disposed to assuming some sort of leadership, or at least informational, role in the growing debate about utility MACT issues and that kind of thing.

And, we think it reflects even more of what we have come to perceive as the complete disconnect between the public pronouncements made by the political branches of our United States Government concerning Carbon Dioxide, and what the technical branches of our United States Government actually know to be true about Carbon Dioxide.