I enjoyed watching the debate on CNN the other night following the showing of the pro-nuclear film Pandora’s Promise.  The anti-nuclear voices argued consistently that wind, solar and efficiency are the answers to our energy and climate problems and we should reject nuclear and natural gas.  The argument is that wind is cheap, solar is…

Philosophical question about coal. Air pollution from coal burning kills, we all know it, and studies prove it. We can clean up coal such that all the pollutants are completely removed but it creates more CO2 causing more global warming. Considering the grave energy poverty throughout the world, which issue is more important to address:…

Gasification technologies enable us to manufacture ultra pure synthetic diesel and jet fuels from biomass, garbage, coal or natural gas.  The process is known as Fischer-Tropsch and it has been in steady use since the 1930’s.  Ethanol and biodiesel made from food crops such as corn or oil seed are limited in scale and cannot…

I received a response from the author of the paper, Chi-Jen Yang: —————- I looked up the Dakota Gasification Company’s website. According to the website: . Dakota Gas captures about 3 million tons of CO2 per year. . As of Dec. 31, 2012, Dakota Gas has captured more than 24.5 million metric tons of CO2….

A recent paper was published in the journal Nature Climate Change criticizing the Chinese push to produce SNG, synthetic natural gas, from coal and it received a fair amount of commentary describing the plans as an “environmental nightmare”.  While some of the criticisms are fair, the authors fail to mention any of the benefits of coal to…

Can Coal Really Be Clean? Published in The Green Economy, Dec. 2012    

Waste to Energy Published in The Green Economy, October, 2012  

Solyndra: Hype and Reality Published in The Green Economy, September, 2012