Environmental irresponsibility comes in many guises. The $2 billion subsidy for cheap coal on a fixed-price 17 year contract offered by the New South Wales State Government in Australia to a coal power station buyer must be amongst the worst examples of irresponsible government action. See more in this press report of 8 Nov 2010:
Cheap coal for power 'subsidises polluters'
Brian Robins STATE POLITICS (Sydney Morning Herald)
November 8, 2010
"THE [New South Wales, Australia] state government's decision to sell coal cheaply to its power generators sends the wrong signal about the need to move to cleaner energy sources and cut greenhouse gas emissions, say critics. ...the government will supply coal from Cobbora for $1.47 a gigajoule, equal to about $32 a tonne, which is significantly less than present contract prices of about $44 a tonne. Bidders for the coal assets have estimated this subsidy would add as much as $2 billion in value to the power assets which are being sold. Bids close this month. The Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, said it is a 'reasonable price to minimise the risk to taxpayers' from the sale."
It presents an opportunity for innovators to acquire the cheap coal and use a fraction of it to demonstrate a business model in which profits are made by de-commissioning coal-fired power stations.
The following companies have developed the technologies that may be just what is needed to usher in a new era in which profits are generated by dramatically cutting the use of coal and selling coal-fired power stations to metal recyclers.
GeoSynFuels
GeoSynFuels, LLC is a Golden, Colorado based company that has developed a low cost innovative and proprietary technology to convert cellulosic biomass into advanced biofuels using renewable feedstocks. Our process is economic today and has no external commercialization barriers.
METHOD AND BIOREACTOR FOR PRODUCING SYNFUEL FROM CARBONACEOUS MATERIAL (WIPO Patent Application WO/2006/107696)
(
http://www.geosynfuels.com )
ARCTECH, Inc
"ARCTECH's MicGAS™ Coal Bioconversion Technology Converts Coal to Create Highest $ Value and will reduce greenhouse CO2 emissions and put carbon into soils and chemicals - Pre-Combustion Carbon Sequestration...
The MicGAS™ biotechnology converts coal into clean fuel gas (methane or natural gas) and organic humic matter.The primary strategy of the technology is to capitalize on the plant origin of coals to create highly useful carbon-rich humic products, while bio-converting coal into methane gas for production of affordable, clean energy. The humic matter derived from coal is the same as the natural humic component of organic soil matter, and is useful for replenishing soils for increased food production.
GreatPoint Energy
GreatPoint Energy is a technology-driven natural resources company and the developer of a proprietary, highly-efficient catalytic process, known as hydromethanation, by which coal, petroleum coke and biomass are converted directly into low-cost, clean, pipeline quality natural gas, while allowing for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The Company’s cost of production is expected to be significantly lower than current prices of new drilled natural gas and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Hydromethanation is an elegant and highly efficient process by which natural gas is produced through the reaction of steam and carbonaceous solids in the presence of a catalyst. The process enables the conversion of low-cost feedstock such as coal, petroleum coke and biomass (wood waste, municipal solid waste, and energy crops such as poplar and switchgrass) into clean, high-purity methane.
Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited
There is growing demand for energy across the globe. Demand for electricity is forecast to double from 2002 to 2025. Yet the existing supplies may not cope with this demand, and significant investment is needed in new generation systems that also meet higher efficiency and environmental standards.
BlueGen™ is the latest breakthrough in small scale electricity generation - a modular style fuel cell generator.
Utilising the Gennex™ fuel cell module; BlueGen™ is a grid-parallel SOFC system that operates on natural gas producing highly efficient electricity.
* Output: up to 2 kW power export
* Efficiency: up to 60% electrical efficiency (net AC export)
* Modular installation; can be configured as:
mono-generation (power only)
or
co-generation (power+heat)
BlueGen™ is fitted with an integrated heat exchanger to recover the heat from the fuel cell module. A separate water tank can be connected to the unit to increase the total system efficiency.
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