Turn coal into 'green' fuel

Supplying 25% of the world's energy needs with abundant and extensive reserves while prices are relatively cheap, coal is considered a 'situational' fuel during the period when humanity is trying to break away. dependence on oil and gas and gradually shift to sustainable, environmentally friendly fuels such as solar and wind.

In the face of ever-changing oil and gas prices and unstable supply, coal is expected to play a key role in meeting the world's energy needs in the next 20 years. To ensure energy security, not only the leading energy consuming countries such as the US, China and India, but many other countries are also actively researching and developing coal transformation technologies - which are very polluting the environment - into clean energy forms to replace gasoline. Leading this trend is China - the world's largest coal producer and consumer.

Clean coal technologies limit environmental pollution in power plants.

According to China's national science and technology development plan announced in February this year, the world's fourth-largest economy will prioritize development of coal-turning technologies within the next 15 years. has the country's most abundant reserves - into a variety of clean fuels. One of these is the carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) technology that is produced during coal burning to achieve near zero carbon dioxide emissions.

Currently, China is stepping up the development of dimethyl ether (DME), a gas that is converted from coal, into a key fuel to replace diesel. Under normal temperature and pressure conditions, DME can be compressed into liquid form and can be used to replace diesel with relatively environmentally friendly CO2 emission. Chinese researchers have also built vehicles that operate on DME. However, the current problem is to find ways to reduce DME production costs and limit water use during the transition process (To produce 1 ton of DME, it takes 3 tons of water).

Experts predict that China can develop coal gasification technology within 5 years and the price of finished products will then be 50% cheaper than the world market. Chinese companies are also actively involved in clean coal technology research and pilot projects. It is worth noting that the coal liquefaction project to extract oil is being deployed by Shanxi Luan Group in Shanxi Province - one of China's 'granaries'. Meanwhile, China Huaneng Group, the largest producer of coal power in the mainland, is working with domestic and foreign partners to construct and operate a coal-fired power plant with no CO2 emissions. First in the world.

China has the world's third largest coal reserves and more than 60% of its energy is generated from coal. It is estimated that by 2020, world demand for coal will increase to 7.6 billion tons / year compared with 5.3 billion tons today. In particular, China's use will be approximately 3 billion tons.

With about 95% of energy reserves being coal while oil and gas accounts for only 2% and 3% respectively, the US has just launched the ' Vision 21 ' initiative - developing technology for energy plants. Coal mining in the direction of reducing CO2 release to near zero. Recently, scientists in the country announced that it has successfully improved the technology to convert coal into 'green diesel'. The technique of converting coal and other carbon sources into liquid fuel has been around since the 1920s. Today, most of the major transport means in South Africa - one of the countries with the largest coal reserves in the world gender - runs on diesel fuel produced by this technology. The Carolina North University expert team improved the process of converting diesel into a more "green" direction by using special catalysts to rearrange carbon atoms in coal to form feces. The element has a higher energy efficiency before being transformed into diesel.

Compared to oil and gas, coal is a resource with superior advantages, such as a wide range of countries around the world with recoverable reserves in about 70 countries. With the current level of exploitation, the estimated coal reserves in the world will be enough to meet the demand of mankind in about 200 years. Meanwhile, more than 68% of the world's oil reserves and 67% of the world's gas reserves are concentrated mainly in the Middle East and Russia. With the current trend of using no downward trend, the source of crude oil and gas is estimated to be exhausted within 45-65 years.

Coal is providing about 25% of the global basic energy demand and generating 40% of the world's electricity output. China is the largest coal producer and consumer in the world while the US is the largest coal reserves on the planet, followed by India, China, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Finland and South. Africa, Canada .

MAI