I'm talking about the Winter Olympics, of course. I knew this year was going to be an entertainment disaster after watching the opening ceremonies. I had a feeling that though the geezers in the International Olympic Committee are trying their damnedest to co-opt the "Xtreme" sports world, "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars" would destroy the snowboard-cross and even figure skating.
My predictions weren't proven wrong.
The ratings were so abysmal that there are rumors NBC might give back money to advertisers who bought commercial spots during the Torino Olympiad.
I'm not surprised. The Winter Olympics are comprised more and more of American athletes who, when they're not doing bong hits, are reinventing the English language with phrases like "Sick, twisted air," which of course is the evolution of previous phrases like "mad air" and "big air."
But there was an upside. Though it was difficult to tear myself away from the pure farce of Ricky Martin performing onstage during the closing festivities (this is 2006, right?), I snowboarded through the channels and hit the wicked air I wanted all along - "60 Minutes."
Clean Up Your Act
As has been the trend since the inception of Wealth Daily and Energy and Capital, we stay ahead of the curve when it comes to market developments. But it sure is nice to have confirmation from CBS, who ran a major story on the technology on everyone's lips around our Baltimore office. It's called Clean Coal.
When we discuss renewable energy, as I did last week, we generally refer to those power sources whose potential is eternal because of some basic element of nature. I mean elements in the Ancient Greek sense: Fire, Water, Earth, Air (and maybe Plasma).
But there is also renewability as recycling, where byproducts and end products of one process can be used as initial factors in another.
This kind of renewable energy is intrinsic to a system, and therefore can be self-perpetuating to a great degree. That is exactly what I foresee with clean coal, and "60 Minutes" tells me I'm not alone.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is bullish on gasification, a process that sequesters the harmful carbon dioxide emission that normally clouds skies for miles around coal-fired factories and power generators.
Schweitzer handed reporter Lesley Stahl a beaker of clean synthetic fuel, derived from coal, that looked like it could have come straight from a water bottle. Political sleight of hand? Not quite - scientists confirm that the extraction of coal's diesel-like properties yields a sweet potion that will burn cleaner as exhaust and even enhance engine performance.
The Fischer-Tropsch process, pioneered when Nazi Germany found itself in oil isolation, is what turns compressed coal gas into usable liquid fuel.
But this is no sinister blend, rather one that could contribute to the sustainable development of human industry and civilization. If we consider that 90% of the German Luftwaffe (air force) ran on clean-coal diesel, what does that spell for our military and civilian aviation? (Consider also that the Nazis pioneered the use of magnetic tape, which has been invaluable to all aspects of communication since the US copied German plans sixty years ago).
Cooking Sand
Now let's relate Fischer-Tropsch and the rest of the clean coal processes to something you've already profited from. This publication and its predecessor Energy Daily told you about Canada's blockbuster Oil Sands. Do you remember how gas-intensive the process of extraction is up in sub-arctic Alberta?
It takes a full oil barrel's worth of energy to extract 1.5 barrels of oil from the oil sands. Now Alberta hopes to use its own juice in the form of clean coal to jolt its oil sands into production without squandering masses of black gold in the process.
As home to 70% of Canada's coal, Alberta could integrate all-homegrown energy technology to create an energy infrastructure among the best and most advanced in the world.
Indeed, an $8.5-billion proposal is being billed as Canada's largest petrochemical complex. Located near Edmonton, it will include a refinery and coal gasification plant, and will produce 450,000 barrels of liquid fuel per day, in addition to byproducts like ammonia and a powerful 500 megawatts of clean-coal-generated electricity.
Oh and the oil sands themselves? A technique called Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) will soon harness coal liquefaction and gasification's CO2 byproducts to pressurize hard-to-get underground oil while coal-derived fuels cook the sand to pay-dirt.
All of this leaves questions and problems, of course. Is any form of coal the answer to a smog-free future? Likely not. But despite Greenpeace's protests and dumping of coal at Tony Blair's home at 10 Downing Street, a pragmatic approach to the world's fossil fuel dependency is better than no strategy at all.
Having smelled the sulfur skies of China, I can tell you that any clean coal future would be better than the belching smokestacks of the Industrial Age to this point. Plus, as new mines pop up all over the world and complete conversion away from coal presents a major financial burden to transitioning factories, clean coal will be the easiest sell.
After all, Brian Schweitzer motioned to the billowing smoke from a factory behind him, asking us to imagine less than 1% of the current emissions. He didn't say to imagine no factory at all.
Keep checking Energy and Capital for the latest and most exciting developments in the scrubbing of our skies through clean coal technology.
- Sam Hopkins
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