DOE clean coal project a success

We are thoroughly enthused about news from the DOE, revealing the successful close of an advanced clean coal project which reduced emissions, increased plant efficiency, lowered generation costs and improved reliability.

The demonstration project—which was selected in 2003 by the US Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI)—included developing software products to optimize combustion and improve plant-wide availability.

The results, from the DOE statement:

• Nitrogen oxide emissions dropped by 12–14 percent

• Fuel efficiency improved by .7 percent

• Available megawatt hours increased by 1.5 percent.

• Ammonia consumption was reduced by 15–20 percent.

• Reductions in greenhouse gases, mercury, and particulates—as well as lower costs, improved reliability, and greater commercial availability—also resulted.

The DOE reported that the project proved to be a cost-effective mechanism to improve the environmental footprint of coal-based electricity generation, helping “to ensure that the United States has clean, reliable and affordable electricity well into the future.”

What’s more, the technologies commercialized during the project are expected to pay for themselves within one year when installed in average-sized units across all unit types and fuel categories in the U.S. fossil power industry.

This is just more proof of the evolutionary progress of clean coal in providing affordable, reliable, and increasingly clean energy to meet America’s energy needs.

See what clean coal projects are developing in your neck of the woods.

Comments

[L. Puett]

The process may have improved the emmissions, but coal will never be a clean fuel. I'm offended that articles are bent to support a cause. Are we still in the "Bush" era that quoted words out of text and completely eliminated the real science? It isn't an America I belong to. I have a science degree. Please.

[jane nepp]

Can you turn coal in to fuel oil? I hope you understand us old folks cannot afford to buy new furnaces to use coal to heat your homes. Fuel oil this year costs so much that it was necessary to cut back on everything else in order to heat home to keep from freezing. thanks jk

[Kelly Beninga]

How much was CO2 reduced? Not much, huh? Once again, you continue your bait and switch campaign, where you report reductions in other pollutants while talking about greenhouse gases in the same report as if you are reducing CO2 too. Very misleading.

[Megan from ACCCE]

L. Puett:

Could you be more specific? You accuse us of quoting an article out of context, but have given no support for the claim.

[Megan from ACCCE]

Thanks for your comment, Jane.

To answer your question, coal can be converted into oil substitutes with coal to liquids processes. In fact, the Army is investing in a huge coal to liquids program in order to ensure fuel security and promote energy security.

Kelly, while we appreciate you taking the time to leave comments, it doesn't appear that you fully digest the context of our posts before doing so. And while we acknowledge that you're entitled to the opinion that we don't need coal in this country, the overwhelming majority of folks understand that coal will continue to play a role in our energy future and the world's energy future. So, the way I see it, people who are truly concerned about the environment are looking for solutions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and investing themselves in the next generation of clean coal technologies that will safely capture and store CO2.

[J Hutchinson]

This post is only in support of coal in general. It can be cleaned up and burned efficiently. I live and ranch in the very rural Southwest. I heat my home and shop with coal and it is a very efficient heat. For any of you that have never experienced coal "heat", it is a superior "heat" over gas or electric. The quality of the "heat" is unsurpassed. I wonder every fall if the coal mine will still be open. I dread the day that regulations will eventually close these mines and I will be forced to use other means of heat. That will be a sad time, when the few of us that depend on coal for our heat will no longer be able to buy coal due to big government regulations, bans and radical environmentalist actions.