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With oil prices rising, Asia turns to coal

Posted at 11:44 AM on 04 Jan 2008

You may have heard that oil prices are flirting with $100 a barrel; what's an oil-dependent, energy-hungry globe to do? In Asia, home to a third of the world's proven coal reserves, the answer seems obvious. Across the continent, billions of dollars are being poured into R&D of coal-to-liquid fuel and coal-bed methane extraction. Some tout the new technologies as clean 'n' green -- but coal by any other name is still coal. Period.

sources: The Wall Street Journal (access ain't free), BusinessWeek

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Comments: (3 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

From dirty energy source to eco-enabler.

Coal may still be coal, and that energy source has a history that cannot be changed, and a reputation that is well earned.

But none of that changes the fact that combining carbon capture and sequestration and biomass blending technologies to CTL processes can reduce the carbon footprint of those fuels down to the point of neutrality, and it can be done with existing off-the-shelf process technology that does not require ramp-up from lab scale.

Believe it or not, the combination of cheap coal and high oil may be the best catalyst we have to really press economical widespread implementation of super-clean second-generation biofuels production.

If development is done properly, you get the combined benefits of the low feedstock costs of coal, and the low (or no) carbon footprint of biomass, all in one development.

Once the coal is gone, the facilities can be converted over to 100% biomass feedstocks, and become BTL (Biomass to Liquids) plants, that can covert cellulosics or othe bio feedstocks to ultra-clean diesel.

by sfj4076 at 6:42 AM on 05 Jan 2008

Wow, at last!

Is this a miracle? At last someone who understands the smart way forward: using the coal industry's big money to develop ultra-clean synthetic biofuels and carbon negative bioenergy.

Sfj4076, I've been trying to say what you've just said for such a long time, but nobody seems to be listening. All people want to hear is 'corn ethanol is bad', 'CCS is evil', etc...

I'm with you on this: "everything the coal industry does, can and will be used against it"; let this industry develop the technologies to capture CO2, and then apply it to biomass.

That way we can take CO2 out of the atmosphere. Unlike wind or solar, which are all merely 'carbon neutral', bioenergy with carbon storage is carbon negative.

China and India will be the first to implement such radical energy concepts, and leapfrog into a green future.

Coal is not a threat, it's an opportunity to develop post-coal technologies.

by Jonas at 4:58 AM on 07 Jan 2008

You've Got To Be Kidding

The two commentors totally ignore the most environmentally destructive aspect of coal: MINING! Because it needs to be mined in order to produce energy, coal can never be clean, regardless of the emissions or lack thereof from its use.

by Wolverine at 3:28 PM on 08 Jan 2008

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