China's Coal Future (Part 1: MIT Technology Review)

[jpak]

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17963/

Part I: China's Coal Future

To prevent massive pollution and slow its growing contribution to global warming, China will need to make advanced coal technology work on an unprecedented scale.

A visitor arriving in Shanghai immediately notices China's technological conundrum. Through the windows of the magnetically levitated train that covers the 30 kilometers from Pudong International Airport to Shanghai at up to 430 kilometers per hour, both the progress the country is making and the price it is paying for it are apparent. Most days, a yellow haze hangs over Shanghai's construction frenzy. Pollution is the leading cause of death in China, killing more than a million people a year. And the primary cause of pollution is also the source of the energy propelling the ultramodern train: coal.

To keep pace with the country's economic growth, ­China's local governments, utilities, and entrepreneurs are building, on average, one coal-fired power plant per week. The power plants emit a steady stream of soot, sulfur dioxide, and other toxic pollutants into the air; they also spew out millions of tons of carbon dioxide. In November, the International Energy Agency projected that China will become the world's largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in 2009, overtaking the United States nearly a decade earlier than previously anticipated. Coal is expected to be responsible for three-quarters of that carbon dioxide.

And the problem will get worse. Between now and 2020, China's energy consumption will more than double, according to expert estimates. Ratcheting up energy efficiency, tapping renewable resources with hydro dams and wind turbines, and building nuclear plants can help, but--at least in the coming two decades--only marginally. Since China has very little in the way of oil and gas reserves, its future depends on coal. With 13 percent of the world's proven reserves, China has enough coal to sustain its economic growth for a century or more. The good news is that ­China's leaders saw the coal rush coming in the 1990s and began exploring a range of advanced technologies. Chief among them is coal gasification. "It's the key for clean coal in China," says chemical engineer Li ­Wenhua, who directed advanced coal development for Beijing's national high-tech R&D program (better known in China as the "863" program) from 2001 through 2005.

Gasification transforms coal's complex mix of hydrocarbons into a hydrogen-rich gas known as synthesis gas, or "syngas." Power plants can burn syngas as cleanly as they can natural gas. In addition, with the right catalysts and under the right conditions, the basic chemical building blocks in syngas combine to form the hydrocarbon ingredients of gasoline and diesel fuel. As a result, coal gasification has the potential both to squelch power plants' emission of soot and smog and to decrease China's growing dependence on imported oil. It could even help control emissions of carbon dioxide, which is more easily captured from syngas plants than from conventional coal-fired plants.

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[Gregorian]

1. China is the world's manufacterer. They're the ones to watch.

The Yankse dam project generates enough electricity to be equivalent to something like 18 nuclear power plants.

They're consuming energy because the world is asking them to. And yes, they are increasing production. The world is still growing. And even if not in population so much, in modern consumptive lifestyles.

I honestly don't see how it's all going to work without killing the planet. But if any country is an indicator of where the world is going, it's China.

And remember, it takes energy to produce the coal to burn. And it takes energy to create dams. There is only so much to go around, with the present systems we use. And as one can see, combustion is still at the top of the list. It's a downward spiral. I only see one alternative. A smaller world population. The rest is pitter patter in the wind.


Edit- It's a very interesting article, by the way. One more thing to add to the list of problems is the water needed in order to accomplish this coal conversion method. Not good stuff.

[Gregorian]

4. That's "manufacturer" for those lurking freepers. :)

Oops, my spelling made it to the Greatest page. Doh!

[YankeyMCC]

2. Oh boy - Water

"Indeed, what may ultimately check China's coal-to-oil ambitions is water. China's Coal Research Institute estimates that Shenhua's plant will consume 10 tons of water for every ton of synthetic oil produced (360 gallons of water per barrel of oil),..."

Not good.

[rman]

3. Not good at all

In fact i think it qualifies as Very Bad.