How does coal become "clean coal"?

Question

will the refinement process use a lot more energy and waste than using regular coal, hence cancelling out any benefit from making it "clean"?

Answer 1

they remove the sulfur dioxide which causes acid rain. also the plants use extensive scrubbers to remove all ash and some of the newest use carbon sequestering systems

Answer 2

Massive public relations propaganda.   Seems to be working, so I bought coal stock.

Answer 3

Through a series of processes..........much like Oil.........

Did you know diamonds come from coal..through a process in the earth ?........Anyway......

Coal is a vital fuel in most parts of the world.

Burning coal without adding to global carbon dioxide levels is a major technological challenge which is being addressed.

The most promising "clean coal" technology involves using the coal to make hydrogen from water, then burying the resultant carbon dioxide by-product and burning the hydrogen.

The greatest challenge is bringing the cost of this down sufficiently for "clean coal" to compete with nuclear power on the basis of near-zero emissions for base-load power.

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Coal is an extremely important fuel and will remain so. Some 23% of primary energy needs are met by coal and 39% of electricity is generated from coal. About 70% of world steel production depends on coal feedstock. Coal is the world's most abundant and widely distributed fossil fuel source. The International Energy Agency expects a 43% increase in its use from 2000 to 2020.

However, burning coal produces about 9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year which is released to the atmosphere, about 70% of this being from power generation. Other estimates put carbon dioxide emissions from power generation at one third of the world total of over 25 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions.

New "clean coal" technologies are addressing this problem so that the world's enormous resources of coal can be utilised for future generations without contributing to global warming. Much of the challenge is in commercialising the technology so that coal use remains economically competitive despite the cost of achieving "zero emissions".

As many coal-fired power stations approach retirement, their replacement gives much scope for 'cleaner' electricity. Alongside nuclear power and harnessing renewable energy sources, one hope for this is via "clean coal" technologies, such as are now starting to receive substantial R&D funding

Answer 4

Its basically like with potatos, you get a choice between dirty brown ones and clean white ones. The white ones have already been scrubbed clean its the same with clean coal. Hope that makes sense.

Answer 5

Coal is not without its problems.  Its exhaust needs to be scrubbed to remove pollutants.  Once this is done, it is "clean".  Of course, the CO2 and H2O vapor are harmless gasses that occur naturally in our environment.

Good job, Thor!

Answer 6

thats propaganda. all coal plants are dirty to some extent