The attached flow diagram depicts the major sources and sinks of the “Coal to Oil” (CtoO or C2O) system.
Posts Tagged ‘coal’
Coal to Oil (C2O) Flow Diagram
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010Coal to Oil (C2O)
Monday, January 18th, 2010“Coal to Oil” is an idea whose time has come. Oliver knew it in his bones. He elicited a promise from his only son that he (the son) would carry the “Coal to Oil” banner when the father had passed on.
In the year 2010 the “Coal to Oil” (C2O) idea of Oliver Sullivan shall be brought to life by means of a computer screen and audio system. Rather than constructing a coal gasification plant, I will begin telling the C2O story somewhere among the myriad bio-mass and coal feeder systems, within the coal gasification process itself, or among the myriad local community enterprises utilizing every bit of material produced by the C2O Industry
I will be learning Flash and using the C2O animation of gas flowing in time over a temperature gradient and a gravity field. That will be the backdrop for some small slice of the overall process worth visualizing in an animation sequence…my first demonstration slice.
Perhaps I’ll begin in a animation perspective of coal gasification beginning with the Periodic Table of Elements? Perhaps I’ll begin in the ancient peat bogs where the lignite coal began to form.
I can see the overall idea in my mind’s eye. There’s a great distance to go, from where I am to where I must go to attain competency in the Adobe CS 4 product suite.
Coal to Oil (Plan B)
Sunday, January 10th, 2010I have been giving thought to what I will do when I am temporarily unemployed (beginning in February and lasting for a few weeks). It is always a little scary having no active contract but I am looking forward to this bench time as an opportunity to invest some free time in preparing a proposal, for what I would like to do with my available supply of time-for-money.
I decided that I would pursue Oliver’s vision and see where that got me. In Oliver’s vision every regional economy of the United States was to be self sufficient in terms of liquid fuel, based upon the steady arrival of the coal trains from eastern Montana. He computed that the entire liquid fuel needs of the United States could be met in this manner for the next four hundred years.
Through a friend Oliver contacted the Governor of Montana who took Oliver’s idea to the people of Montana. Oliver said the people of Montana voted it down because they did not understand the science, mathematics, technology, and economics of the Coal to Oil equation.
I could create an Adobe Flash interactive simulation model of a Coal to Oil Industry product flow based Economy, including the biological systems necessary to process the liquid fuel by-products into a form suitable for human use. Oliver had recommended simulating the system on the scale necessary to sustain 50,000 humans. That seems sensible to me and a whole lot easier to quantify the Economy.
I wrote the following article on this geeky topic.
I shall seek to raise grant funding to produce an Adobe Flash presentation of a Coal to Oil flow system (operating over a temperature gradient) designed to follow the physical chemical roadmap of science and mathematics.
It will follow the continuum of the physical chemical, bio-chemical, biological systems surrounding the flow system that turns coal into coal gas and flyash. The coal gas is the raw material of a traditional oil industry. Biological systems eat the waste products and convert it to a form safe for human life.
This “Coal to Oil” Adobe Flash animation is the highest fulfillment of the vision of Oliver that I am able to personally produce–and I’ll have fun learning the technology necessary to produce this product. Perhaps I’ll find a grant funding source for this project and perhaps I won’t. Who can tell such things beforehand?
The highest fulfillment of Oliver’s vision will be the construction in Billings, Montana or the surrounding area of a full-scale coal to oil plant optimized for the long-term needs of a community of humans sized fifty thousand or so in population.
The Adobe Flash presentation will be interactive in nature and will allow humans to attach notes, facts, anecdotes, and so forth at strategic points within the flow system.
The goal of the animated simulation is that the science be clearly laid out and verifiable in the laboratory. All humans desiring to play a part in the final GO decision will have ample places to participate in the discussion and vote on the individual parts of the overall system.
http://peaceengine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/12E3_Coal_to_Oil.jpg
http://peaceengine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/12E4_Coal_to_Oil.jpg
1115 Internet Journey: Coal to Liquid Fuel
Monday, November 10th, 2008November 11, 2008 (20081111_Internet_Journey)
Dear Bill,
I will begin to take you on a whirlwind tour of places to visit on the Internet. First, I must do some experimentation concerning the blog tool I am using for this writing. Therefore, I shall begin by showing you a series of places to visit. You need merely read the few words I write and then click on the URL presented in the body of the text.
Let’s practice a bit by researching one of our favorite discourse topics: coal to liquid fuel and plastics. One aspect of the overall material and energy flow system of turning eastern Montana lignite coal into liquid fuel is the coal gasification and production of syngas. Please study the following diagram and take note of the syngas flow.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/IGCC_diagram.svg
Now take note of the picture in its true context. Be sure to explore a few URLs on the following page and use the back button to come back to here (http://blog.peaceengine.com/). If your browser is correctly setup you will notice that the URL links are changed as you click on them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Gasification_Combined_Cycle
Now study the following picture by clicking on the thumbnail image below.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
In the http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/IGCC_diagram.svg
flow diagram notice the system which removes oxygen from the air. That oxygen is fed into the gasifier ensuring clean combustion of the coal.
Nitrogen is a by product of the oxygen separation from air. Nitrogen has its uses, in fertilizer, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer
The primary goal is oxygen. Another alternative source of oxygen is the electrolysis of water, for example, by means of electricity from wind turbines and the direct current power grid.
Hydrogen is a far more useful by product because it can be bonded with carbon, forming polymers used in the plastics industry. Given recent concern about releasing carbon into the atmosphere, bonding the carbon with hydrogen in plastics makes more sense that bonding it with oxygen and releasing the carbon as carbon dioxide.
In terms of balanced science, one must accept the truth that plants breathe in carbon-dioxide and breathe out oxygen, as part of photosynthesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
Therefore, it makes sense that during times of global earth warmth, when more of the earth’s surface is covered with plants, a carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere is conducive to the quick expansion of plant life.
Gasification is a thermo-chemical process in which carbonaceous (carbon-rich) feedstocks such as coal, petro-coke or biomass are converted into a gas consisting of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (and lesser amounts of carbon dioxide and other trace gases) under oxygen depleted, high pressure, high-heat and/or steam conditions. The resulting gaseous compound is called Syngas. http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/gasification/howgasificationworks.html
In the case of eastern Montana lignite coal, its high water content means that the coal slurry supply needs less outside water coming into the rod mill. Raw sewage and agricultural bio-mass can be mixed with the coal feed stock. Such a system affords a community a full spectrum recycling solution for its carbon supply.
Syngas can be directly converted to DME using the Liquid Phase Dimethyl Ether Synthesis (LP-DME) process developed at the University of Akron in conjunction with Electric Power Research Institute. This direct one-step conversion of syngas-to-DME can then be an ideal front end for further conversion to diesel. http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/97/97cl/peng.pdf
