Clean coal: just add water?

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  1

  lgroskin

  03/09/10 | Report as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  Pretty clever idea... Is there run off into the ocean?

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  2

  Repeal

  03/10/10 | Reported as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  WHO BENEFITS FROM CAP & TRADE: STATUS QUO FOR OPEC
  
  Have you ever wondered how Dubai is able to afford creating man made islands off their coast? The largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world began after the 1973 oil embargo.
  
  The United States agreed to transfer jobs and technology to developing countries under INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT Algiers Declaration Algiers, March 1975.
  
  A major portion of the planned or new petrochemical complexes, oil refineries and fertilizer plants be built in the territories of OPEC Member Countries
  
  Yet America has natural gas and coal in abundance and can create good paying jobs, eliminate dependence on foreign oil and stop sending billions to countries that sponsor terrorism. Every billion in trade deficit equals 13000 jobs lost. Washington should keep money, technology and jobs in the US by reducing the trade imbalance.
  
  Global warming is not proven science. CO2 is plant food and there is no proof man is contributing in significant ways to global warming. There were ice ages and tropical periods before mankind!

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  3

  progan01@...

  03/10/10 | Report as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  Where's the calcium coming from? Burned oyster shells, perhaps?
  
  That makes as much sense as Glenn Beck telling the world he learned all about socialism from the PUBLIC library. Hello? Are you people even LOOKING at what's at the end of your fork before you eat it??

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  4

  Heimdall222

  03/10/10 | Report as spam

  Nope, not from burned oyster shells!

  Seawater contains around 400 ppm of calcium, which is no doubt why Calera is using seawater. (Google seawater+chemical+composition.) How much CaCO3 this contained calcium will produce is easily calculated.
  
  Seawater also contains sodium, magnesium, and potassium chlorides. Not so good for cement, but Calera's CMAP process should be controllable to minimize the salt content of the finished product.
  
  That loud whining sound you hear? That's the current cement manufacturers kvetching about being put out of business if Calera is really successful!

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  5

  Jkirk3279

  03/10/10 | Report as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  Hmmm.
  
  There isn't enough calcium in seawater to make this really
  easy.
  
  If the coal plant is inland, you'd have to pipe the flue gas
  miles to the ocean.
  
  But you add some calcium to ordinary brackish water, to
  speed things along, it could work anywhere.
  
  In the process you would capture that nasty mercury, the
  soot, and end up with a practical sequestration technique.

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  6

  zackers

  03/11/10 | Report as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  The limestone that was created by sea life long ago has been used to make concrete. Several small islands make a type of concrete using ground up coral. Making concrete using this material is a tried and true technology.

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  7

  ridsab

  03/11/10 | Report as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  The calcification process through which coral is created is as follows:
  
  2HCO3- + Ca2+ --> CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O
  (http://www.coral.noaa.gov/cleo/pdf/Carbon%20Dioxide%20background.pdf)
  
  In other words, coral and water do not turn CO2 into CaCO3--rather CO2 is produced when CaCO3 is produced. So is Calera really "taking a lesson from coral"? If that were the case, Calera would be producing CO2, not consuming it.

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  8

  ridsab

  03/11/10 | Report as spam

  RE: Clean coal: just add water?

  Looking into this further, I will answer my own question with two points:
  
  1) I suppose the original source of the CO3 in the bicarbonate ion (HCO3-) is dissolved carbon dioxide (one source states 93% of dissolved CO2 is in form of bicarbonate ion, other 7% in form of carbonate ion). In which case, the reaction as a whole DOES consume CO2--for ever 1 molecule of CO2 produced, 2 molecules of CO2 (in the form of bicarbonate) are consumed...with the other source CO2 molecule sequestered in the form of CaCO3
  
  2) According to Calera's patent app, they make mention of what I had talked about. But they state that under high pH conditions, dissolved CO2 is favored to exist as carbone rather than bicarbonate--in which case the precipitation reaction to form CaCO3 does NOT produce CO2.

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  9

  Dukhalion

  03/12/10 | Report as spam

  Why not produce carbon fibre

  I have no knowledge of chemistry at all, but I could imagine carbon
  fibre being used for lots of things. Maybe someone with better
  knowledge can point out the flaw in this idea.