Gasification: An old solution to new problems?
6:00-7:00pm, December 12, 2007
Thirsty Ear Pub, W1-30, 305 Memorial Drive
Leader(s): Rory Monaghan
The world shows no sign of moving away from environmentally-damaging fossil fuels. In fact, the opposite is true. Gasification, coupled with CO2 capture and storage, represents a potentially viable route to decouple fossil fuel use from CO2 emissions in the electricity, fuels and chemicals sectors. An overview of the technology, its applications, and possible pathways to widespread adoption are discussed here.
Key Questions
- What is gasification and how can it be used? (15 minutes)
- Why would we use gasification? (10 minutes)
- If gasification is such a great technology, why don’t we already use it? (20 minutes)
- How do we overcome the barriers to widespread adoption? (15 minutes)
Preparatory Readings
- U.S. DOE Office of Fossil Energy, “How Coal Gasification Power Plants Work."
- National Energy Technology Laboratory (2007), “Gasification World Database: Current Industry Status”, U.S. DOE.
- Reuters (Nov 27, 2007), “Washington recommends “clean coal” plant be rejected."
- Perlman, A., GreatPoint Energy (2007), “Coal to Substitute Natural Gas: The Next Generation of Coal Gasification”, Presentation to the 2007 Gasification Technologies Conference.
Other Useful References
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2005), “Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage” see the Summary for Policymakers and the Technical Summary.
