CLEAN COAL?

Clean coal is the name attributed to coal chemically washed of minerals and impurities, sometimes gasified, burned and the resulting flue gases treated with steam, with the purpose of almost completely eradicating sulphur dioxide and reburned so as to make the carbon dioxide in the flue gas economically recoverable. The carbon dioxide can then be captured and stored instead of being released into the atmosphere…

- The byproducts of clean coal are very hazardous to the environment if not properly contained. This is seen to be the technology's largest challenge…
- While it is possible to remove most of the sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate (PM) emissions from the coal burning process, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will be more difficult to address. Technology does exist to capture and store CO2 but they have not been made available on a large-scale commercial basis due to high economic costs…

- The primary example of clean coal is the proposed US FutureGen plant — a zero-emissions coal-fired power plant…
- [S]ome process similar to the natural gas fuel cell or microbial fuel cell (charged from biomass or sewage) may be practical using coal as fuel. Those technologies are used mostly for stationary fuel cells as charging is slow. A large power plant in a coal mine might be the most energy efficient approach and require the least transport of coal…
- [T]he return of the coal chute and use in homes may be possible in some places, especially if home sewage or natural gas lines can be tapped as well by an improved fuel reformer technology such as that used already to convert methanol…
- Clean Coal has been mentioned by United States President George W. Bush on several occasions…Bush's position is that clean coal technologies should be encouraged…Senator Hillary Clinton has also recently said that "we should strive to have new electricity generation come from other sources, such as clean coal and renewables."
- [T]he White House has only granted $18 million (USD) to develop zero-emission coal-fired power plants over the next decade out of a $388 billion omnibus spending bill…In addition, some prominent environmentalists…believe that the term clean coal is misleading…Complaints focus on the the environmental impacts of coal extraction, the prohibitively high costs to sequester carbon, and uncertain of how to store end result pollutants...

Also, see the post on FutureGen below.