Peter Fairley, MIT Technology Review, Jan. 30, 2007
Great Point says that its catalytic process could put coal back in your basement.
In the second half of the 20th century, oil- and natural gas-burning furnaces drove coal out of the home-heating business across North America. But if Great Point Energy--a Boston-area startup with a low-cost process for converting coal into pipeline-grade natural gas--has its way, coal may start keeping us toasty again before long. ...
The process [takes place] in one single, efficient reactor by moving the catalysts into the gasifier itself. The key is a proprietary, recyclable catalyst developed in house with help from gasification and catalysis experts at Southern Illinois University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Tennessee, among others. The catalyst lowers the amount of heat required to gasify coal and simultaneously transforms the gasified coal into methane. In fact, the heat released in the syngas-to-methane step is sufficient to sustain the gasification, eliminating the need to fire up the reactions with purified oxygen. "It's perfectly heat balanced," says CEO Andrew Perlman. ...
This story is an update on Great Point and familiarizes some of my newer readers with the technology. This technology in many ways is similar to the technology described in about USSEC to turn soybeans into biofuel, but from a much more credible source.
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