The Problem With Clean Coal

We know that you voted for Earth on Saturday 28 March and turned off your lights. We enjoyed the hour playing cards by candle light and of course we happily survived, although there may be some candle wax on the cards.

Earth Hour was a great opportunity to show our concern over global warming and to get those billion votes that they are hoping to take to the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. Remember though that during that hour we also did not need much electricity in our homes or workplaces and therefore we were able to burn less fossil fuel and reduce our CO2 emissions.

Assuming the Earth Hour goal was reached and 1 billion people around the world turned off their lights for the full hour we can estimate that about 450 million pounds of carbon dioxide were kept out of the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of taking 350 million cars off the road for that hour. This is more than the total number of registered cars in the USA.

As we thought about these savings, we started talking about clean coal. We have heard a lot about it, particularly from the energy companies. They suggest that clean coal is as viable a solution to global warming as any other natural environmental energy such as solar and wind.

After doing some research here are 7 facts about clean coal.

1. We all know that coal is a fossil fuel that is used mostly by energy and electric companies in power plants and is burnt to create steam, which turns turbines and thereby creates electricity. Burning coal releases CO2 (carbon dioxide) into our atmosphere. You can see it pouring out of a power plant smoke stack.


2. One aspect of clean coal technology is to literally wash the coal with liquid prior to burning. This removes the unwanted impurities. Wet scrubbers are also used to remove sulfur dioxide (a major cause of acid rain) by spraying the coal with limestone and water.


3. Clean coal technologies also use low nitrogen oxide burners and gassification which convert the coal into a gas to burn. This is said to reduce the amount of coal burnt.


4. Any method used to clean coal will still result in CO2 emissions which will then need to be stored.


5. Carbon Dioxide capture and storage is the technology that proponents of clean coal seem to be most enthusiastic about. They suggest that CO2 emissions can be captured and kept out of the atmosphere . The captured CO2 needs to be collected in secure containers. The CO2 is then stored in 2 possible ways. Either under the ground by injecting the CO2 into depleted oil or gas fields and seams, or injecting liquid CO2 into the ocean 500 to 3000 meters deep.


6. Storage methods (underground or ocean) must be able to contain the CO2 until peak emissions subside. This will take hundreds of years.


7. The environmental effects of all the forms of storage are largely unknown. By injecting CO2 into the earth we may cause changes in the soil and pressure under the earth, and by injecting liquid CO2 into our Oceans we could damage marine life. Any form of storage will need to be carefully prepared and monitored.

Now that we have some facts, we are not convinced. With clean coal technology, we are taking the coal burning, CO2 emissions, problem and shoving it under the bed so that we can ignore it. Global warming is not "somebody elses problem" . We need to step up now and change the way we create and use energy. Drop the idea of clean coal technology and rather spend that research money on solar and wind power technology. Forget about capturing and storing CO2 and fund research into battery technology to store the natural energy sources that we have available.

Of course, you know that you can do your part too. Reduce your waste, Recycle whatever you can and Reuse as much as you can.

We still have a long way to go. I met with a friend to catch up on Thursday, at a local coffee shop. The coffee shop was full, with a line out the door, as it usually is, but unfortunately I was the only customer using my own mug. Everyone else was using a paper cup and all of them had plastic lids. There is an easy solution to this waste. If you do not have a mug then get one at http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and always remember to bring it with you to coffee shops.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Storing Solar, Wind and Wave Power

We have been hearing about the benefits and potential revolution that will come about when we commit to using Solar, Wind, Wave and other sustainable natural energies. We have heard how we will be able to give up on our fossil fuel habit, reduce our carbon emissions and hopefully slow down or reverse the effects of global warming.

We, of course, are big supporters of these sustainable energy sources and are excitedly anticipating some big changes now that President Obama has made environmental sources of energy an integral part of the 2009 Economic Stimulus Package and his federal budget. For now, although we know of a few homes and companies that use solar energy or wind turbines for power, we are not quite in a position that all of us can swear off those fossil fuels.

The problem is storage. Electricity cannot be stored, it can only be transformed into a different type of energy. Solar, wind, and other natural environmentally generated sources of energy are not consistent. The Sun does not always shine all day and never at night, the wind does not blow at a high enough speed all day or night either. This would mean that we may encounter electricity fluctuations as the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind dies down. Therefore, this type of energy needs to be stored before it is transformed into electricity that must be delivered. Fossil fuels such as coal and oil have that storage advantage. The coal or oil can be kept in its natural state before being burned to create the electricity.

There are a few costly ways in which Solar, Wind and other such energies can be stored - large batteries, fuel cells and heat storage. Batteries are familiar to all of us. We all know that the larger the battery, the more power it can store but this also makes it more expensive. In fact, battery technology really has not advanced much since it was invented, mostly because fossil fuels became much cheaper to use. Electric cars in particular have struggled because the cost of the battery is high and it takes a long time to charge and delivers limited mileage. This makes it almost impossible for the electric car to compete against a gas engine that can offer longer mileage and be filled up in minutes.

The other methods of energy storage may work out a lot better. Heat storage makes a lot of sense for Solar energy. The sun can heat a pipe full of water and create steam which is then much easier to store before it is converted into electricity.

President Obama's plans give encouragement to all forms of energy storage. He has even budgeted specifically for scientific research into battery technology. Once specific technologies become essential and funded, we have seen how quickly they can develop. Media (movies, photographs..) storage has encouraged hard drive manufacturers' to quickly increase hard disk storage space and retrieval speeds. Every year, larger and larger storage disks are built, while the size of the drive and the costs remain the same, or in some cases decrease.

Energy storage has also become an essential technology as we try to move away from using fossil fuels, and therefore we hope to see the same exponential technological developments and cost effectiveness here that we have seen in other technological fields.

Next weekend (Saturday) the Go Green Mug team http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and friends will be competing in the 2ND Annual Rockwater event hosted by Surfrider Newport Beach. The event is planned to raise awareness of the water shed. The water shed is the path water takes from our streets and gutters to the ocean outlet. Anything we throw out on the streets will therefore end up in the ocean. We will talk more about the Rockwater race in next week's blog. But if you want to come out and support us we will be running, walking, biking, and skateboarding from the Riverside/Orange county county line to the the Santa Ana river mouth at the border of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

We have not reported on any of our coffee shop visits for a few weeks now, because we think you may be bored hearing about our adventures. So why don't you let us know about your coffee shop visit and what discount they gave you for bringing in a mug. We will send a free GoGreenMug T-shirt for the best message, with a photograph, that we receive. We will publish the photograph and details in the next blog. Send your message to support@gogreenmug.com.

Have a great week and remember to reduce your waste and use your reusable mug.