Huge Good News on Energy
Fossil Fuel Generated Electric Power...
..... GUILT FREE!
[Have you noticed a bug/feature on this elderly blog? I'm frequently picking stories, usually science, that I think are Big Deals, way undercovered by the press - I'm talking MSM. Examples: Pain killers; Insect depletion; Youthiness pills; Dark matter, etc. I honestly believe the Big Media types have a blind spot for world shaking science news.]
"Clean Coal," is that technology so hard to do it makes the term an oxymoron.
But it was in pursuit of just such technology (unsuccessful) that led to what just may be the perfect bridge energy source between dirty fossil electricity generation and fully renewable generation. In fact, it might be so good it will be blessed as an "almost renewable" base-load generator, at least until we run out of natural gas.
Science Magazine - the mag with the most cred, IMHO - did a piece on this wonder. Read their article here. Reporter Robert F. Service knows his stuff.
Zero CO2 emissions, greenhouse fans! The carbon dioxide is all captured for resale to oil well drillers and other big users of the gas, or it can be stored forever-ish in deep geological structures.
It Seems to be Real
There is a 25 megawatt pilot plant, finished and in testing, just outside Houston.
When testing is finished, Net Power, the well-funded startup will scale this baby up to a 350 MW plant, and the world will watch, breath held. This could be a game changer.*
Old Power
As an old guy, I am heartened when my fellow oldies do great stuff. The moving force behind this breakthrough is a 76 year old engineer named Rodney Allam.
Rodney
Allam, a longtime member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says time for solving carbon pollution is running short—for both the world and himself. "I'm 76," he says. "I've got to do this quickly."
Way to go, Rodney!!
**Pix credit
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