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Coal To Syngas - Def - Imp Essay
Coal To Syngas - Def - Imp Essay
The American coal council claims that for every 1% increase in combustion
efficiency there is a 2.5% reduction in CO2 emissions (quoted as 3% by IEA and
2.5% by ACC). Diluting the syngas, through the IGCC process, allows for NOx
emissions as low as 15 parts per million (DOE, 2011). However, each of the cleaning
processes require an extra 1/3 of the energy originally required for simply burning,
which requires more electricity and thus more water and coal; it is an endless cycle
(EARTH Magazine).
Carbon capture and storage (CSS) units can be built on existing plants, but they also
lower efficiency of the plant by 10%, making the option financially challenging (IEA).
Pacala and Socolow note that this technology could prevent 90% of carbon emission
from coal plants from entering the atmosphere, but also recognize that the future
will require much more energy, an amount that no current coal plant on Earth can
produce. The largest synfuel facility on the planet produces 165,000 barrels a day,
they claim that 200x that amount will be needed in 2054. Additionally, locations for
storage are politically difficult to attain and the success of such a program is
questionable (NRDC). IGCC plants are built from the ground up with efficiency as
their main function, allowing carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants to be
captured without sacrifice to the rest of the system. At the moment, nothing already
constructed can compete.
ASSESSMENT OF GLOBAL ADOPTION
At this point, it is not economically viable for a private or public entity to build IGCC
plants. The US had considered building one, but the recession forced the federal
government to move its funding into carbon capture retrofitting on current coal
plants (EARTH Magazine). The IEA predicts that as regulations on carbon capture
increase the incentive to build IGCC plants will grow (IEA. CBS News.). By making
CSS a requirement they predict that the embedded efficiency of an IGCC plant will
make it a better choice, when compared to current scrubbing operations. They
suggest that efforts must come from cooperation among energy producers and
innovators, clarity in policy and incentives from federal governments (IEA).