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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill on the Hill who wrote (1585)	8/10/2005 3:19:15 AM
From: Bill on the Hill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24213

Last one before bed..... From RunningOnEmpty2 thread on yahoo. Subject: Re: Magic Elixir The coal need not necessarily be burned. Steam reformation of coal which is an old and well understood technology. First the coal is pyrolized driving off the volatiles (producing coke)-- resulting in a very high value synthesis gas (from the 20% or so of coal which is not carbon) + coke. Then the concentrated carbon (coke) is steam reformed to produce synthesis gas. The overall process is similar for biomas with the important difference that biomass is 80% volatiles and only 20% carbon -- the opposite of coal which is 80% carbon and 20% volatiles. Steam reformation involves reacting a carbon-based fuel with oxygen and steam to produce a so-called "synthesis gas" that is composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (much of the latter comes from the water, rather than the fuel). That mixture can be separated quite easily, and the hydrogen burned in, for example, a gas turbine. Then, mixing the carbon monoxide with more steam in the presence of a suitable catalyst yields CO2 and still more hydrogen; again a mixture that can be separated quite easily. Some will cite the very high temperatures needed for unpressurized reformation however fortunately the steam reformation reaction is highly pressure variable. Increase pressure and temperatures required go down. With a little pressure and less than 1200 F one can steam reform any biomass to methane. Thus hydrogen could be made using steam reformation and the waste CO2 which has been seperated out in a very pure concentrated form can and currently is being used as a gas to repressurize old depleted oil and gas formations a swell as dumped into old underground coal mines. Interesting;y in the case of oil and gas reserves this would squeeze out a little more gas or oil and would sequester the CO2 for eaons (just as the reserve being used sequestered the oil and as in the first place). For example, EnCana, a Canadian oil company, pays the Dakota Gasification Company to pump CO2 produced at Dakota's coal gasification plant by pipeline to some of its wells. Carbon does not have to be burned it can be used to drive a reformation process that essentially in the case of coal at least, mines the hydrogen out of water and the waste CO2 can be sequestered as opposed to it entering the biosphere if that carbon where burned. Of course there are limits to what can be done with this and there is no magic bullet anywhere, but this may be a viable option when dealing with the vast coal deposits of North America and China for example. Chris, PA