Oil Prices have been at a premium for the past few years and have gone up significantly in the past 15 years. In turn, there has been an increased demand for other sources of liquid fuel to power our cars, boats, and planes. For years, scientists and engineers have been working hand in hand to develop new sources. There is an interesting process that is converting coal into liquid energy, which could solve the above problem. In the past thirty years there has been much research associated with converting coal into liquid energy. Using a patented Fischer-Tropsch method of liquefying coal, this fuel is totally interchangeable with other petroleum fuels. It has been estimated that the U.S. has 250 years of coal reserves. With that said, one still must be skeptical in how cost efficient, practical and safe this process is. There are a few questions that I plan on addressing in my project. Is this process practical in a cost-benefit type analysis? Could this potentially be one of our solutions to our shortage on oil? How efficient and is this going to be significantly cheaper than other fuels? How clean does coal-to-liquid fuel burn? Are there greenhouse gases that are emitted in the process, and how can they be managed to minimize the impact? If anyone has any further scepticisms about Coal-to-Liquids, let me know and I will do my best to research it and include it in my project.
Sources
Media Articles
Coal-to-Liquids Boondoggle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061700945.html
Coal to Oil: Same System Nothing Newby David DuByne
http://www.energybulletin.net/34988.html
Fill’er Up: With Planet Busting Liquid Coal
By: Jim Motavalli
http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/08/31/fill-er-up-with-planet-busting-liquid-coal/6079/
Scholarly Articles
Liquid Fuels from Coal: From R&D to Industry.
By: L.E. Swabb Jr.
Coal Research (III):Liquefication Has Far to Go
Allen L. Hammond
A New Route To Liquid Fuels With Coal
By: S.L. Meisel
http://www.jstor.org/view/00804614/ap000054/00a00220/0?currentResult=00804614%2bap000054%2b00a00220%2b0%2cFF3F&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26gw%3Djtx%26jtxsi%3D1%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3Dcoal%2Bto%2Bliquids%2Bfischer%2Btropsch%26wc%3Don
Website Sources:
http://www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=423
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_process
Max Penning
October 4, 2007 at 1:36 pm |
Hi, this is David DuByne I wrote the Coal to Liquids Nothing new piece you are using in your project. Can you include me on your mailing list when you get the results, this I am very interested in. If you have any questions about China’s energy situation I have several other articles about China and energy, especially ethanol.
Best Regards, David DuByne
October 17, 2007 at 8:59 pm |
A good start. Certainly touch on the controversies and make sure you set the whole thing in a broader context (our dependence on one particular carbon based resource).
Add a one page outline, make sure you have 10 scholarly sources, 10 digital, and 5 other. Interviews via email or whatever might be a good idea to get differing perspectives. Do add an annotation to each source, what it is about, why relevant, etc.