January 14th, 2007
That is just it! This morning, I was reading this article about legislation that aims to make coal usable as liquid fuel for cars in the US. You know about coal, of course. But not a lot of people know about Clean coal technology or the possibility of using coal as fuel for vehicles. Last January 4, Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning introduced the "Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007" which is a bill that would help and expand the possible development of Coal-to-Liquid (CTL) technology in the US. The question many skeptics are asking is, can this technology be reliable enough not to push us further back the environmental struggle? Because the economics may really be there, afterall coal is an abundant resource in several states, including Illinois.The technology surely is promising, as several private companies have started or are in advanced stages of experimentation in converting coal to diesel fuel or jet fuel for airplanes.
One thing is for sure, these law makers will get flak from the environmentalists and support from the energy independence advocates. What I want to know is if the technology is something we can bet on. How "clean" will this "clean technology" be?
Here is where you can learn more about clean coal technology.
January 15th, 2007 at 5:41 am
When I interviewed Lord Brown (of BP), his line was that coal to gasoline was less attractive than coal to electricity via hydrogen.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Note that the author failed to mention that this bill is a co-sponsored by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois as it was the first time the bill was introduced.
This technology is not ‘clean energy’. It is as dirty or dirtier than crude based fuel (not to mention what it takes to get it out of the ground). The only benefit to taking this dead end road is reduction in foreign oil.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Thanks Valdez for that info. I have updated the post.