scientists find way to make cheap gas from coal

[HHO BLASTER]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/gasoline-84801677.html

[IMG][/IMG]

[HHO BLASTER]

What, no feed back???

[RustyLugNut]

It will have to be seen if they can do this economically to compete with sweet crude at it's current price of 75 dollars per barrel.

These ideas are built on old technology that was used only in dire situations when cost wasn't an issue ( Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa, etc.).

However, these new techniques will give us bridging technology for the transition after Peak Oil occurs. All these new techniques to provide oil, though at a higher price, can be coupled with higher efficiency engines to balance out the bottom line - cost per mile traveled or cost per ton delivered.

[H2OPWR]

Gary, Nice find but do you really think that it will do anything but benefit the oil company's bottom line. It will take someone to find something that the common man can do to benefit humanity.

Larry

[RustyLugNut]

I have no problem funding an oil companies profits, if there is a competitor involved. The problem is funding countries through these oil companies - countries which are unfriendly to us. If the oil company is using American resources, it will be Americans who benefit the most. I like Texas anyways, and don't mind my monies going there to make oil out of low grade coal.

Until we have fusion reactors in every home, we will need utilities and energy company's distribution capabilities to bring us the concentrated energies Americans desire. If we are willing to live with much less, then we can rely on the more diffuse solar and wind energies to power us.

[Philldpapill]

Ha! This happened at MY school! Awesome to hear they are still doing good research.

[oicu812]

wow!! scientists call this a breakthrough? you've got to be kidding me! rural America used this back in the 1900's they called it town gas. Injecting steam through a bed of white hot coal produces a feedstock of hydrogen rich gas along with tons of Co2.

[RustyLugNut]

This research is based on old principles, but let us not belittle the work before we understand more fully.

The partial oxidation and water shift reaction to get town gas was used over a hundred years ago.

Fischer-Tropsch has been used since around WW2, to take the aforementioned town gas (synthesis gas) and - with the use of catalysts and the manipulation of pressure, temperature and residence time - produce hydrocarbon liquids. Varying yield and high emission of pollutants are some of the short comings of this process.

From what I can gather, this "new technology" seems to produce the synthesis gas in an insulated enclosure, with relatively low temperature catalytic reactions. The catalyst conversion must be much more selective than previous methods as a simple cooling column serves as a distillation tower. This selectivity seems to be the strength of this approach and would give the technology greater yield and thus greater economic viability.

I hope they can scale this up to industrial size. Going up in scale from Lab table to industrial complex has many pitfalls that are often unseen until you approach them. So, I take their extrapolated costs per barrel with a great deal of skepticism.

[HHO BLASTER]

this research is based on old principles, but let us not belittle the work before we understand more fully.

The partial oxidation and water shift reaction to get town gas was used over a hundred years ago.

Fischer-tropsch has been used since around ww2, to take the aforementioned town gas (synthesis gas) and - with the use of catalysts and the manipulation of pressure, temperature and residence time - produce hydrocarbon liquids. Varying yield and high emission of pollutants are some of the short comings of this process.

From what i can gather, this "new technology" seems to produce the synthesis gas in an insulated enclosure, with relatively low temperature catalytic reactions. The catalyst conversion must be much more selective than previous methods as a simple cooling column serves as a distillation tower. This selectivity seems to be the strength of this approach and would give the technology greater yield and thus greater economic viability.

I hope they can scale this up to industrial size. Going up in scale from lab table to industrial complex has many pitfalls that are often unseen until you approach them. So, i take their extrapolated costs per barrel with a great deal of skepticism.

please read it again, then again, they did up scale it.

[HHO BLASTER]

Gary, Nice find but do you really think that it will do anything but benefit the oil company's bottom line. It will take someone to find something that the common man can do to benefit humanity.

Larry

If it's cheap Larry, NO