The DOE is at work on one of our suggestions (unsurprisingly, as usual, a lot of people are way ahead of us on all of this):
Bubbling the flue gases from coal-fired power and CoalTL plants through bio reactors to grow algae as additional feedstock for liquid fuel factories.
The complete title of the project is:
"Recovery & Sequestration of CO2 From Stationary Combustion Systems by Photosynthesis of Microalgae".
An excerpt from the Project Description:
| The overall objective of this project is to address the following issues: 1. CO2 supply from fuel combustion systems.(a) characterize representative types of industrial flue gas, (b) determine, based on typical gas composition, what separation and clean-up technologies may be necessary, and (c) determine the best techniques to assure maximal dissolution of CO2 in the flue gas into algal growth medium. 2. Selection of microalgae. The participants shall select microalgal species best suited for CO2 sequestration based on (a) their growth rates and rates of carbon fixation, (b) ability to mineralize CO2 into inorganic forms such as carbonates, (c) content of high value products, (Hmm - wonder what that means? - JTM) and (d) ability to withstand noxious components in flue gas mixtures. As we've already noted for you multiple times, you can make suitable diesel and jet fuel from algae, and a number of airlines have already made demonstration flights with it. And, if the right coal conversion process is selected, the algae, with minimal pre-treatment, can be dumped right into the in-box of a CTL plant, along with the coal and some previously-discarded coal mine waste, and forestry and agricultural products/by-products. |