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Renewable coal

Essential
  (+5)
(+5)
  [vote for,
against]

Due to the march of the eco-fascsts, coal production is being scaled down.

This creates problems for heritage railways who need the correct grade of coal for their steam locomotives.

Thus BorgCo are developing an engineered fuel with all the properties of steam coal, but made from sustainably produced charcoal.

An admixture of processed kaftans, thong sandals, vegan sausage rolls and bamboo bicycles is used to add colour, texture, odour, and delicious irony to the sacks of black, dusty carbon fuel (supplied in non-biodegradable heavy-guage plastic sacks suitable for ocean surface disposal)

8th of 7, Jan 27 2021

Why would anybody ever support nuclear power or fly on an airplane? https://www.wired.c...st-us-air-fatality/
It's time we rid the world of dangerous technology. [doctorremulac3, Jan 28 2021]

Renewable oil from eco-fascists https://www.changingworldtech.com/
Should be doable with this existing tech, [scad mientist, Jan 28 2021]

[link]






       Coal is already renewable. Just takes a long time.
pocmloc, Jan 27 2021
  

       We are already engaged in a parallel research project to produce renewable oil, by burying eco-fascists under billions of tons of sedimentary rock, then subjecting them to intense heat.
8th of 7, Jan 27 2021
  

       I want the pork sausage variant, will this reduce product quality?
Voice, Jan 27 2021
  

       Ask again in two hundred million years and we'll have the test results.
8th of 7, Jan 27 2021
  

       The extreme wait time for results on your second project is somewhat disheartening. Isn't there any way to speed things up? Perhaps the eco-fascists can be merely squoze under millions of tons of pressure in real time and then heated. Would this produce anything useful?
whatrock, Jan 27 2021
  

       [+]   

       When asking an "eco" hero why they're against nuclear power and they cite Chernobyl, ask them if they fly airliners, then ask why they would do such a thing after showing them the picture in the link.   

       Aircraft are rickety, dangerous deathtraps. The airplane shown killed one passenger and seriously injured the pilot, yet, to this day, people still get on these disasters waiting to happen.   

       By there way, I like the part in the attached article where the Wright Brothers approached the military with their invention. The brilliant military brass said they didn't see how the airplane could be used in warfare in any practical way. Probably cited the fact that it would take away from the cavalry budget.
doctorremulac3, Jan 28 2021
  

       It is possible to produce artificial diamond through the use of explosives.   

       Perhaps a suitable explosive could be used to efficiently turn eco-fascists into coal.
mitxela, Jan 28 2021
  

       Thst seems unlikely, chemically speaking. I think you need an anaerobic environment to isolate amorphous carbon, but you need the presence of oxygen to propagate an explosive reaction through an explosive.   

       Anyway, thermal coal is on its way out for economic reasons, fascists or no fascists. That being so, you shouldn't have any trouble just buying some for a heritage railway.
pertinax, Jan 28 2021
  

       // We are already engaged in a parallel research project to produce renewable oil, by burying eco-fascists under billions of tons of sedimentary rock, then subjecting them to intense heat. //   

       See link for how this can be accomplished.
scad mientist, Jan 28 2021
  

       I don't understand. A proper burn in a retort produces extremely little carbon release and the waste heat can be used in so many ways.   

       Anybody know the relative scale of price vs payoff for scrubbing coal exhaust?   

       I can tell you at one end of the scale I can clean the exhaust from a coal fire plant so it comes out 100% clean and the air around the plant is cleaner than before the coal was burned. Call it the 110% clean coal system. Cost might be a couple of thousand bucks a kilowatt hour but I could do it. So at the other end of the chart there's just burning the coal and putting the exhaust into the air with no scrubbing, low cost to the consumer but high cost to the atmosphere.   

       My question is, what's the scale in between? Is there a practical area where the electricity is a bit more expensive but better than nothing and the pollution is minimal? Somewhere to the right of my 110% clean air scrubbing machine? A risk to reward scale I guess you'd call it?   

       Asking for a friend.
doctorremulac3, Jan 28 2021
  

       Santa Claus is Ready to buy stocks in your company! All these people will be getting so much coal next year that he is definitely going to need to mass produce it. +
xandram, Jan 28 2021
  

       "Renewable" coal is all very well in theory, but the trouble is once you run out of your current stock, you need to find (or make, in your case) more.
That's the main advantage of real renewable energy generation (solar, wind, hydro, whatever): once it's built, it just keeps on creating electricity (everything has on- going management, control, maintenance; so that can be ignored in comparisons...). No further resources required.
The only benefit for oil etc is the energy density, for mobile energy needs. If your plant sits still, non- renewable is a waste of time (unless your fuel IS waste, such as wood-waste boilers).
neutrinos_shadow, Jan 28 2021
  

       Note, [neut], that the use case here is for a plant that does not sit still, but rides around in the locomotive of a little steam train.   

       Apart from that, of course, you're quite right.
pertinax, Jan 28 2021
  

       // rides around in the locomotive of a little steam train. //   

       Not exactly little; we have in mind something in the way of a Gresley A4 Pacific, or maybe on of the Baldwin 4 - 8 - 8 - 4 heavy freight locos ...   

       // The extreme wait time for results on your second project is somewhat disheartening. Isn't there any way to speed things up? //   

       We will enquire.   

       // Perhaps the eco-fascists can be merely squoze under millions of tons of pressure in real time and then heated. Would this produce anything useful? //   

       Well, it would kill them. So, yes - definitely.   

       // Perhaps a suitable explosive could be used to efficiently turn eco-fascists into coal //   

       Extensive experimentation will be needed. Thankfully.   

       // I think you need an anaerobic environment to isolate amorphous carbon, //   

       Yes.   

       // but you need the presence of oxygen to propagate an explosive reaction through an explosive. //   

       Yes, but most explosive reactions aren't stoic; they actually have a surplus of carbon. Look at a molecule of RDX or PETN and do the math - there are fewer oxygens than carbons and hydrogens to mop them up.   

       Isolating the carbon source from the explosive by interposing a sheet of impervious material, similar to the pusher plate in a fission warhead, would be an approach to try.   

       // That being so, you shouldn't have any trouble just buying some for a heritage railway. //   

       You need a coal mine of some sort, which is quite a large operation to run if it's going to be commercially viable. However, it's possible that volunteers could do the mining - there are still totally unreasonable on-costs imposed by legislation though.   

       // Asking for a friend. //   

       You have one at last ? Well done.
8th of 7, Jan 28 2021
  

       "Renewable" solar is all very well in theory, but the trouble is once you run out of your current stock, you need to find more. Stars don't grow on trees, you know.
Voice, Jan 28 2021
  

       Just find a nebula and cruise round with a Bussard ramscoop until you've got enough gas to achieve fusion; and there are plenty of brown dwarf stars that could be lit up properly with a bit of tinkering.   

       Or you could push a couple of existing gas giants together - you've got two or three going spare in your own system, ready to go.
8th of 7, Jan 28 2021
  
      
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