By Alex Tinker. Cross-posted from ItsGettingHotInHere.org
We’ve been dealing with the “clean coal” mythology for some time now, and you’re probably all very well-versed in de-bunking pro-coal propaganda. I just came across this ad (see page 12) in CitiesGoGreen’s January edition and it got me thinking. Ever heard of E-Coal? The product’s inventors have a whole new way of approaching the coal industry.
“Don’t be fooled by the name, there is no fossil coal in E-Coal. It is only called E-Coal to help the electric power industry executives make the needed mental paradigm shift” says NewEarth Renewable Energy, the promoter of E-Coal and E-Oil.
To me this posits some interesting questions: Could we kick coal by firing traditional coal generators with biomass? Could we save mountaintops from coal miners without shutting down the whole coal power industry? Might there be a place for combustion in the clean energy economy? I don’t know the answers, but I know that if you’re an energy wonk, you might find this interesting.
8 comments:
any relation to e coli?
As you may remember, in June 2007 I moved to the Netherlands to work for ECN on torrefaction.
http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2008/m08036.pdf
My personal opinion is that New Earth is likely to be a scam.
Hello Heiko! It's been a while. Glad to see you still blogging. Thanks for the comment. I hope the research is going well. If you'd like to post a summary of what you're finding here at WattHead (and maybe a discussion of different biomass-to-energy methods), my readers and I would love it I'm sure. I'm taking a look at the pdf you linked to. All the best,
Jesse
This claim from New Earth would indeed seem pretty far fetched: "E-Coal is a pound for pound replacement for fossil coal because it has exactly the same energy content as fossil coal."
A ton of coal has about 30 GJ of energy, while a ton of biomass has only around 10-17 GJ/ton (depending on moisture content), right?
So to be true, New Earth's pre-treatment method must concentrate the energy content of biomass by a factor of about three. That seems far higher than any other method I've heard of.
Well, I guess poorer quality coals, like lignite have lower energy contents, of more like 10-20 GJ/ton, so perhaps that's what they are comparing E-Coal too...
As I read farther I see this: "NewEarth offers E-Coal in the 4 BTU classes of coal: 1) lignite 2) sub bituminous 3) bituminous 4) anthracite." So I guess they say they can get a 3x concentration of energy content... I'm out of my field here though, so I'm not sure how to evaluate these claims. Heiko, care to comment?
Achieving 3X energy densification with the same energy losses as for minor energy densification is a very tall claim.
In a leaflet they've now taken off their site (I can email you a pdf, if you are interested), they had a picture of the Batelle gasifier giving the impression it was their torrefaction plant.
How was the process developed, by whom? Who's financing it now? Why aren't they inviting people to their plant? Where is that plant even???
I'd love them to be real, but if they are, they are doing a pretty good job of making it appear to be a marketing exercise aimed at cheating people out of their investment Dollars.
And thanks for the offer, I'll have a think about what I could post that would be enjoyable for your readers.
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