In the chemical plant of Tuticorin in India, the company Carbon Clean Solutions has found a way to save over 66,000 tons of coal plant CO2 emission a year. Their project turns the carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals such as baking powder.
The process uses salt to bond with CO2 molecules from flow gases in the boiler chimney. The process is more efficient than standard methods of stripping the CO2, and it can capture more than 90 percent of the chemical’s emission.
The resulting soda ash can be used in a wide variety of ways, including the manufacture of such things as glass, sweetness, detergents, and paper products. Since the changeover, the plant has been operating with almost zero emissions.
This process could potentially help usher in a small rebirth of coal fired plants if it proves to be popular. The plant owner, Ramachadran Gopalan, sees the emissions savings as almost a by-product. According to him,
I am a businessman. I never thought about saving the planet. needed a reliable stream of CO2, and this was the best way of getting it.
Carbon Clean claims on their website that their carbon capture process could reduce the total global greenhouse emissions contributing to climate change by over 20 percent over the next four decades. This is a huge number, but if the process works as efficiently as the numbers indicate it could have a very solid impact.
There are places in the world that have had entire economies wiped out by the closure of coal plants. In particular I have had first hand experience of the impact it has brought in the Appalachians, in such places as Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia. This kind of technology could in theory help to restore the economy and bring back a lot of jobs if someone was willing to gamble on the investment. But the possibility of that actually happening is yet to be seen.
Abundant Energy Source
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel on the planet. It is a relatively cheap fuel, with some of the largest deposits in regions that are relatively stable politically, such as China, India and the United States.