Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="Datafever"][quote user="greyhounds"][quote user="futuremodal"] Furthermore, because of steam's inherent fuel flexibility, you can now run on such things as synthetic coal or coal-water slurry, very cheap fuel compared to petroleum or biodiesel.  Advantage - Steam![/quote] Synthetic coal?[/quote]The Democracy Now website considers synthetic coal to be a taxpayer ripoff.  Here's what they say -Here’s how it works: A synthetic coal company buys raw coal. Under IRS rules, the chemical composition of the coal must be changed to qualify it as synthetic fuel. At the synthetic fuel plant that change often consists of spraying diesel fuel or pine tar onto the coal. The company then sells the coal to a user such as a power plant and then claims huge tax credits for manufacturing a synthetic fuel. The problem is that to qualify for the tax credits, the maker of this so-called “synfuel” don’t have to prove that they are making a better kind of coal, one that burns more efficiently or offers any other benefit. By IRS ruling, they need only to modify the chemical composition of coal. [/quote]Democracy Now?![(-D]Where do you find these wacko groups?The IRS does not allow simply cosmetic alterations of coal to permit the tax credit, and those that abused the credit are under scrutiny:<a href="http://www.cdfa.net/cdfa/press.nsf/pages/861">http://www.cdfa.net/cdfa/press.nsf/pages/861</a>Real synthetic coal has to be significantly altered from it's ROM state.  The synthetic coals to which I refer (Kfuel <a href="http://www.kfx.com/commdevelop.html">http://www.kfx.com/commdevelop.html</a> , Carbonxt <a href="http://www.carbonext.com/">http://www.carbonext.com/</a> ) have moisture content around 6% or less, have had most ash removed, and also have much of the metalic elements removed as well, leaving a product that is mostly volatile carbon.The point is, for steam locomotive applications, you'd be able to fit a lot more burnable product in the tender using real synthetic coals because you've removed most of the water content and ash, both of which would take up weight and space when using ROM coal.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag