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Re: Global Energy etc.



Many years ago I saw no alternative to nuclear power not only because
nuclear has almost zero air emissions, but also because fossil fuels will
eventually run out, especially natural gas and pertroleum. It seemed (and
still seems) unwise to burn natural gas and/or oil for electricity
generation. We need to save natural gas for residential heating, and we
need to save petroleum for petrochemicals.

I was opposed to coal because there just didn't seem any clean way to use
it. However, there has been considerable improvement in coal-burning
technology since then. The process of "fluidized bed" combustion works
really well. Rather than providing direct heat for steam generation, a
fluidized-bed reaction chamber can also convert coal (and some percentage of
garbage mixed in) to syn-gas which can be burned in a gas turbine to
generate electricity. The gas-turbine waste heat can make steam to run a
secondary steam turbine. This is essentially the same design as a natural
gas plant, except the fuel for the gas turbine is syn-gas (mostly H2 and CO)
as opposed to natural gas (CH4). The air emissions from natural-gas-fired
turbines and syn-gas-fired turbines are roughly the same. If the syn-gas
comes from coal/garbage there is a "slag" that is not present in natural gas
power plants, but this slag is not a major problem. It is like cinders, and
one use is as aggregate for paving highways.

With a fluidized-bed reaction chamber producing syn-gas from coal and
garbage, I no longer oppose coal-based electricity generation because of
hazardous air emissions... except for the CO2 emissions leading to global
warming. If we decide that global warming is not an issue, or if we find
other ways to solve global warming, then I could see the "postponement" of
building nuclear power plants by building these coal plants I have
described. However, although none of us on this list has to worry about
running out of coal, someday someone will have to worry about that.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817