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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Tulyar15 I think it would take a big recession to bring oil prices crashing like they did in the 1980's. (At that time in Britain unemployment was at a 50 year high; so were interest rates; at the present time they're both at a 40 year low). Coal can be a cleaner fuel if newer plants are built. In South Wales the miners who bought their own pit have built a new state of the art coal fired generating plant which is both clean and efficient - almost matching the gas fired combined cycle plants. During WW2 a lot of vehicles in Britain were converted to run on coal gas. I'd have thought this could be developed by countries like GB and the US who have lots of coal so as to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil. [/quote] Actually, what coal gasification people are discovering is that the best way to utilize coal gasification is to methanize the coal gas into synthetic natural gas. They convert the coal gas (which is mostly CO and Hydrogen) into methane by running the coal gas over a nickel catalyst. This way, you can run the synthetic natural gas through a combined-cycle power plant by day (when electricity demand is peaking), and then pump the synthetic natural gas into the natural gas pipelines by night (when natural gas demand is peaking). The Great Plains lignite gasification plant in North Dakota is doing just that, and is making money hand over fist in the process. It's ironic that this same plant was basically subsidized by the DOE when natural gas was going for under $3.00/mmBtu, then when natural gas prices shot up to $6.00/mmBtu+ they found out they didn't need the subsidy anymore (although I doubt they have endeavored to pay back the original subsidy!) Is that Welsh gasification plant using the methanization process, or are they running the coal gas directly into the combined-cycle turbines? As for using coal to run cars and locomotives, it is looking now like the best way to do so is to gasify the coal, then methanize it into synthetic natural gas, then liquefiy the synthetic natural gas into LNG (LSNG?) and run your vehicles on that. LNG made from coal is the most cost efficient transportation fuel out there, more so then gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, ethanol, methanol, or the higher chain alcohols. All it's lacking is the infrastructure, but specialize vehicles could take advantage of it. BTW, aren't there still some LNG locomotives running out there?
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