[kach22i]

Originally Posted by 125shifter

Unfortunately a lot of our vast coal reserves (some estimate we have 500 years worth) are high in sulfur, so we import some that has lower sulfur.

What do you think of the gasification of coal?

Who is doing it?

http://www.zetatalk.com/energy/tengy11a.htm

Article by E. L. Clark.

Coal gasification is a process for converting coal partially or completely to combustible gases. After purification, these gases - carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, methane, and nitrogen - can be used as fuels or as raw materials for chemical or fertilizer manufacture. From the early 19th century until the 1940s almost all fuel gas distributed for residential or commercial use in the United States was produced by the gasification of coal or coke. In the 1940s the growing availability of low-cost natural gas led to its substitution for gases derived from coal. Interest in coal gasification has been renewed, however, with recent predictions that natural gas reserves in the United States will begin to diminish by 1980. At present, except for by-product gas from the manufacture of coke, no coal gasification plants of any appreciable output are in operation in the United States. Many plants, however, are in operation in other countries that have no reserves of natural gas or petroleum.