3 ms·
There is an abundant body of evidence showing that coal is a highly polluting source of energy.
by arrosenberg 8y ago
There is an abundant body of evidence showing that coal is a highly polluting source of energy.
- maerF0x0 8y agoCan coal be a net zero emission fuel?
- dietdrb 8y agoCoal's carbon dioxide pollution can be limited through carbon capture technology. The U.S. government recently incentivized power producers to implement this technology with the expanded 45Q tax credit. We'll see if it pencils out well enough for broad adoption.
- philipkglass 8y agoTechnically, yes. But coal's main advantage over other electricity sources is that it's cheap. If you capture all the emissions it will no longer be cheap. Here's one disastrously-over-budget attempt at a coal plant with CO2 capture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemper_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemper_Project Had they forced the plan to completion, it would have generated more expensive electricity than a new nuclear plant. More expensive than battery-backed solar. More expensive than any other utility scale electricity source in the United States.
- bluGill 8y agoBio-coal is conceptually easy to make: just burn the hydrogen out of plants leaving just carbon. Generally called charcoal. The next step is to compress it into a rock. Of course it isn't cost effective when you can just dig the finished product out of the ground, but conceptually it is easy.