What is "Clean coal" and Natural gas? Are they really better alternatives to oil for Energy production?

Question

How would they impact our environment and how do they work? Are they cheaper?

Answer 1

They are still fossil fuels and create pollution. If we have the technology to make coal clean, why aren't we converting all the plants. The way I see it, they are a different way of doing the same thing. They will only increase in price as we try to move toward cleaner energy and as the supply dwindles.

Answer 2

Natural gas is a conventional fuel, mostly consisting of methane (along with other thanes), and is derived pretty much the same way as oil. ie. Matter (animal, plant etc) decomposes over time resulting in a anaerobic (hope I spelled that right) decay of non-fossil organic material / gas (natural gas or methane).

The fallowing is a clip I cut out of a how to run your car on alternative energy guide I wrote a little while back. It may help as well...

Alternative Fuels, also known as non-conventional fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as a fuel, other than conventional fuels. Conventional fuels include: fossil fuels (petroleum (oil), coal, propane, & natural gas), & also in some instances nuclear materials such as uranium. Some well known alternative fuels include biodiesel, ethanol, butanol, chemically stored electricity (batteries & fuel cells), hydrogen, methane, natural gas, vegetable oil, biomass, & peanut oil.

Now alternative (or renewable) energy is a little different…

Renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides & geothermal heat. Each of these sources has unique characteristics which influence how & where they are used.

Short but sweet that’s the specifics of it. If you’re interested in using some form of alternative fuel or renewable energy in your vehicle or home, feel free to contact me. I live 100% off the grid on alternative energy and have converted many vehicles to run on biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen and EV.

In fact I currently run 2 trucks, my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen and one car is EV. I offer step by step DIY guides to walk anyone threw the process if you’re interested. You can find them at

www agua-luna com

There are basically 3 safe ways to make and use it... chemically, electrically and molecularly, the first 2 being easier so I'll only discuss them here. The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their vehicles or home on hydrogen safely. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com

    On demand h2 generators are a bit different from the Hollywood versions like seen Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves, that tend to explode violently every time a film is being made. However when used in an on-demand system there is no storage of hydrogen and oxygen in its gas form, only liquid (water) and is only transformed into gas “on-demand” in small cylinder size amounts. It’s actually safer then gasoline as it doesn’t evaporate, creating explosive fumes in the tank like gas. the following were actually taken out of my $5 guide available at www agua-luna com

    Chemically

    1. You’ll need a 6inch x 1ft schedule 40 pvc pipe. With pvc cement glue a cap on the bottom and use a s***w on cap for the top. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, s******g in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    2. Now crunch up a couple aluminum cans (beer cans, soda cans etc) and drop them into the pvc pipe, along with a couple cups of lye (Red Devil drain opener has lye in it, some Clorox and Drano’s do to).

    3. Then simply add water, s***w on the top and wait a few minutes.

    What happens in simplicity is that aluminum and lye don’t really get along so they battle, and as always the innocent civilians (water H2O) that the most casualties, by giving up its hydrogen and oxygen. This then builds up in the void of the pipe and is ready to be vented into your engine, by opening the valve. You may need to start your engine on gas then switch it off after the hydrogen starts burning.

    Electrical is a bit easier then Chemically.

    1. Simply take a small solar panel 1.5 amps is what I use ($9 at harborfreight.com), connect the 2 wires from the panel +- to 2 conductors (carbon cores of batteries work well, just be careful removing it from the jacket), but any conductive material will work ie. Copper, aluminum, steel, etc.

    2. Drop the wires into a water tank (I use 55gal drums), make sure they don’t touch each other.

    3. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, s******g in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    4. Then simply add water, s***w on the top cap and wait.

    After a few hours tiny bubbles will form and rise off one conductor (that’s hydrogen) and even smaller bubbles that just looks like foam will rise off the other (oxygen). I don’t remember which likes the positive and which likes the neg hydrogen or the oxygen.

    The third method is more complicated and is what I use for my vehicles. It’s just a modified Joe’s Cell, there’s a step by step DIY guide available to  

Answer 3

The answer is yes and no.. they are both alternatives to oil for energy production but are they better? That is up for debate.  Each have their own advantages and disadvantages for energy production.  It also depends upon what type of energy production you are talking about  electricity or transportation (e.g. stationary or moveable needs).

Oil is a very concentrated source of energy in terms of volume and weight. Until recently it was relatively inexpensive-- but still more expensive than both Natural gas or coal.  It is a great source of energy for moving vehicles because it is cheap, easy to transport, dispense,  and easy to use.   However, when it burns it creates pollution -- both carbon dioxide (CO2) and other types of pollution. (some of this other type of pollution is from impurities in the oil which are burned also).  Typically on a unit of energy basis (BTU) it is the most expensive.

Natural gas is one of the cleanest burning fuels.   However, it is not as easy to transport (requires pipelines, very low temperatures or high pressures to liquify (LNG))   On a unit of energy basis (BTU) it is the moderately expensive. but it still burns and produces carbon dioxide when it burns.

Most electric companies use either oil or natural gas fueled generators for "topping off" electrical production -- depending upon what type of fuel is available.  These are standby generators that are only turned on in high demand situations (e.g. during the day time and when you run your air conditioner, etc -- at night less electricity is needed because people are sleeping)  These generators are easy to start and stop but are expensive to run.

Coal is the least expensive per BTU but it is the most dirty to burn, produces lots of pollution and takes a large infrastructure to process into electricity.  Is not easy to start and stop a coal fired furnace so it is used by electric companies for "base loads"  e.g. to supply electricity 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Clean coal is actually still experimental.  It can be either a conventional coal fired boiler with pollution control equipment added on to reduce the pollutants. I understand that there are also different types of boilers and even additives to the coal that are being experimented with to make coal burn with less pollution.  However, it is expected that such pollution control equipment will double or triple the cost of a coal fired power plant.  Further, the cost of operation of a plant may go way up.. sometimes much more expensive-- double or triple the cost.

For years electric companies have been resisting the cost of air pollution control equipment for controlling minor pollutants -- like mercury, nitric oxides, sulfur oxides, etc.   The concept of trapping carbon dioxide and disposing it safely is almost mind boggling to me because it will require much larger investments in air pollution control equipment and electric companies have been resisting the little investments.

So.. for electricity production all three are converted into a moving shaft that powers a generator.   Oil and natural gas are typically burned in either diesel engines or turbine engines (think airplane engines), coal in a boiler that heats steam to high pressures that is used to turn the shaft, the steam is condensed and pumped back into the boiler as water.  (check out steam cycles for more information)

Nuclear is another option.  Its power source is relatively cheap on a BTU basis. but it uses the same steam cycle as coal for electricity production.  Its costs less to operate but it is expensive to build because of the regulations.  It also produces dangerous radioactive wastes (that last for thousands of years) and we do not have a great way to dispose (or even store) these radioactive wastes safely.

Remember that whenever you use energy, or transport it, your use degrades it.. i.e. you lose some energy so costs  also depends upon the "efficiency" of use.  

Finally, remember that oil, natural gas and coal are fossel fuels.  They are not renewable ... we have limited supplies of each (although for coal we allegedly have a lot so it seems almost unlimited).  Thus the interest in wind, wave, ethanol and other types of so called "renewable" energy sources.

So there are no easy answers.