The Role of Coal in a Renewable Economy – The Obstacle Becomes the Way

In a recent article, Dan Gearino commented that coal power is fading away but what is to replace it? Mr. Gearino’s statement is both a reality and a challenge for us to perhaps to re-think a potential role for coal. To some that may be anathema, but to many others, it is a compelling and important reality that needs to be addressed or, at the very least, re-visited.

The underlying assumptions and rationale are presumably that coal is an obstacle to having a sustainable economy and a healthy environment.

However, is coal an obstacle in and of itself?

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (shown in the picture above) famously said that, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” According to Marcus, when we utilize authentic and genuine intentions to act virtuously, the mind will respond and ultimately adapt and determine how to leverage and to utilize the hindrance as a creative fuel. The obstacle cultivates and generates creativity. In effect, the obstacle is responsible for generating new perspectives that blossom into unexpected breakthroughs that enables us to re-visit our underlying and, perhaps, misguided assumptions about the obstacle. In other words, boldly engage in contemplating and determining:

What we can do. And not focus and pathetically wallow on what we can’t do.

A philosophical discourse is all well and good. But what about the real world? What can be done about coal? How can we both continue to meet societal energy demands while protecting the environment? More on those topics below.

Coal 2.0

The Realities of the Coal Chemistry

Coal primarily began as ancient vegetation which is biomass that was transformed into coal biomass over eons so coal can be considered to be a form of biomass. It is not inherently toxic. Pollutants and their widespread dispersal are only created by burning the coal.

If energy can be harvested from coal without high-temperature burning (temperatures as high as 1700 degrees F), the creation and dispersal of pollutants is largely eliminated.

Bioconversion can make RNG (renewable natural gas) out of coal and other forms of biomass economically and dramatically reduce emissions because burning natural gas releases far less GHGs and avoids production of other problematic pollutants that are otherwise created when incinerating coal at high temperature. There are a number of other problematic emissions that are produced when coal is burnt at high temperature in addition to carbon dioxide:

• Sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illnesses
• Nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to smog and respiratory illnesses
• Particulates, which contribute to smog, haze, and respiratory illnesses and lung disease
• Mercury and other heavy metals, which have been linked to both neurological and developmental damage in humans and other animals
• Fly ash and bottom ash, which are residues created when power plants burn coal.

It is common knowledge that methane is naturally and biologically generated in coal beds. With the right technology architecture, one can accelerate the bioconversion of coal significantly. Furthermore, one can also ultimately leverage tens of thousands of anaerobic digestion (AD) systems that operating around the world. It is feasible to augment their feed with conditioned coal, and dramatically increase RNG (renewable natural gas) manufacturing and drop both energy emissions and footprints dramatically because of increased efficiencies. This technology architecture can be implemented quickly by retro-fitting existing operational anaerobic digester systems. Besides coal, there are a plethora of other biomass sources (Courtesy, https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/international/topic/biomass-energy) that can be utilized for making RNG using bioconversion that are shown below.

Other Biomass Sources That Can Be Used for Making RNG

A “plug ‘n’ play” deployment approach will save costs and time. Basically, the strategy is to leverage and utilize existing infrastructure assets as much as feasible. In addition to saving on project costs, more importantly, this strategy more importantly reduces the time when project revenue production begins. This is possible because most projects which also lowers capital needs. This makes technology ideal as a distributed resource technology like solar and wind energy but with faster installation times due to the fact existing infrastructure assets are being utilized. Projects seek to highly leverage facilities at existing treatment plants to save time and investment funds when deploying the technology. When coal is converted to methane using a bioconversion process, the inorganic constituents are solubilized and can be recovered.

Summary

It is clear that solar and wind platforms are egregiously underperforming and some are even calling for the resurrection of coal. The irony of that situation is palpable given that “evil coal” can now arguably play a heroic role as a sustainability savior. How is this possible? In hindsight, it proves to be a fortuitous circumstance. It is common knowledge that methane is naturally and biologically generated in coal beds. With the right technology architecture, we can accelerate the bioconversion of coal to natural gas significantly and make it commercially feasible. When that is done, the characteristics of coal created toxic emissions are largely eliminated. Furthermore, we can also ultimately leverage tens of thousands of anaerobic digestion (AD) systems, feed them conditioned coal, and dramatically increase RNG (renewable natural gas) manufacturing and drop both energy emissions and footprints dramatically with increased efficiencies. Furthermore, there are numerous other biomass sources that can also be employed to generate RNG en masse. These capabilities can lead to sustainability and renewable energy production Moonshot efforts in a number of areas that produce groundbreaking improvements on renewable energy production metrics while maintaining the veracity of societal functionality.