In the year 2010 the “Coal to Oil” (C2O) idea of Oliver Sullivan shall be brought to life by means of a computer screen and audio system. Rather than constructing a coal gasification plant, I will begin telling the C2O story somewhere among the myriad bio-mass and coal feeder systems, within the coal gasification process itself, or among the myriad local community enterprises utilizing every bit of material produced by the C2O Industry

I will be learning Flash and using the C2O animation of gas flowing in time over a temperature gradient and a gravity field. That will be the backdrop for some small slice of the overall process worth visualizing in an animation sequence…my first demonstration slice.

Perhaps I’ll begin in a animation perspective of coal gasification beginning with the Periodic Table of Elements? Perhaps I’ll begin in the ancient peat bogs where the lignite coal began to form.

I can see the overall idea in my mind’s eye. There’s a great distance to go, from where I am to where I must go to attain competency in the Adobe CS 4 product suite.

I decided that I would pursue Oliver’s vision and see where that got me. In Oliver’s vision every regional economy of the United States was to be self sufficient in terms of liquid fuel, based upon the steady arrival of the coal trains from eastern Montana. He computed that the entire liquid fuel needs of the United States could be met in this manner for the next four hundred years.

Through a friend Oliver contacted the Governor of Montana who took Oliver’s idea to the people of Montana. Oliver said the people of Montana voted it down because they did not understand the science, mathematics, technology, and economics of the Coal to Oil equation.

I could create an Adobe Flash interactive simulation model of a Coal to Oil Industry product flow based Economy, including the biological systems necessary to process the liquid fuel by-products into a form suitable for human use. Oliver had recommended simulating the system on the scale necessary to sustain 50,000 humans. That seems sensible to me and a whole lot easier to quantify the Economy.

I wrote the following article on this geeky topic.

I shall seek to raise grant funding to produce an Adobe Flash presentation of a Coal to Oil flow system (operating over a temperature gradient) designed to follow the physical chemical roadmap of science and mathematics.

It will follow the continuum of the physical chemical, bio-chemical, biological systems surrounding the flow system that turns coal into coal gas and flyash. The coal gas is the raw material of a traditional oil industry. Biological systems eat the waste products and convert it to a form safe for human life.

This “Coal to Oil” Adobe Flash animation is the highest fulfillment of the vision of Oliver that I am able to personally produce–and I’ll have fun learning the technology necessary to produce this product. Perhaps I’ll find a grant funding source for this project and perhaps I won’t. Who can tell such things beforehand?

The highest fulfillment of Oliver’s vision will be the construction in Billings, Montana or the surrounding area of a full-scale coal to oil plant optimized for the long-term needs of a community of humans sized fifty thousand or so in population.

The Adobe Flash presentation will be interactive in nature and will allow humans to attach notes, facts, anecdotes, and so forth at strategic points within the flow system.

The goal of the animated simulation is that the science be clearly laid out and verifiable in the laboratory. All humans desiring to play a part in the final GO decision will have ample places to participate in the discussion and vote on the individual parts of the overall system.

http://peaceengine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/12E3_Coal_to_Oil.jpg

http://peaceengine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/12E4_Coal_to_Oil.jpg

Dear Bill,

I will begin to take you on a whirlwind tour of places to visit on the Internet. First, I must do some experimentation concerning the blog tool I am using for this writing. Therefore, I shall begin by showing you a series of places to visit. You need merely read the few words I write and then click on the URL presented in the body of the text.

Let’s practice a bit by researching one of our favorite discourse topics: coal to liquid fuel and plastics. One aspect of the overall material and energy flow system of turning eastern Montana lignite coal into liquid fuel is the coal gasification and production of syngas. Please study the following diagram and take note of the syngas flow.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/IGCC_diagram.svg
Now take note of the picture in its true context. Be sure to explore a few URLs on the following page and use the back button to come back to here (http://blog.peaceengine.com/). If your browser is correctly setup you will notice that the URL links are changed as you click on them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Gasification_Combined_Cycle

Now study the following picture by clicking on the thumbnail image below.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

In the http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/IGCC_diagram.svg
flow diagram notice the system which removes oxygen from the air. That oxygen is fed into the gasifier ensuring clean combustion of the coal.

Nitrogen is a by product of the oxygen separation from air. Nitrogen has its uses, in fertilizer, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer

The primary goal is oxygen. Another alternative source of oxygen is the electrolysis of water, for example, by means of electricity from wind turbines and the direct current power grid.

Hydrogen is a far more useful by product because it can be bonded with carbon, forming polymers used in the plastics industry. Given recent concern about releasing carbon into the atmosphere, bonding the carbon with hydrogen in plastics makes more sense that bonding it with oxygen and releasing the carbon as carbon dioxide.

In terms of balanced science, one must accept the truth that plants breathe in carbon-dioxide and breathe out oxygen, as part of photosynthesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis

Therefore, it makes sense that during times of global earth warmth, when more of the earth’s surface is covered with plants, a carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere is conducive to the quick expansion of plant life.

Gasification is a thermo-chemical process in which carbonaceous (carbon-rich) feedstocks such as coal, petro-coke or biomass are converted into a gas consisting of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (and lesser amounts of carbon dioxide and other trace gases) under oxygen depleted, high pressure, high-heat and/or steam conditions. The resulting gaseous compound is called Syngas. http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/gasification/howgasificationworks.html

In the case of eastern Montana lignite coal, its high water content means that the coal slurry supply needs less outside water coming into the rod mill. Raw sewage and agricultural bio-mass can be mixed with the coal feed stock. Such a system affords a community a full spectrum recycling solution for its carbon supply.

Syngas can be directly converted to DME using the Liquid Phase Dimethyl Ether Synthesis (LP-DME) process developed at the University of Akron in conjunction with Electric Power Research Institute. This direct one-step conversion of syngas-to-DME can then be an ideal front end for further conversion to diesel. http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/97/97cl/peng.pdf

As the U. S. Congress crafts its 1 trillion dollar vindication of capitalist greed, I wonder when greed became a higher priority than common human need. It seems that the culture, of campaign contribution bought payback, seeks to prevail over common human decency. I am deeply offended that the U. S. Congress seeks to reward USA greed and corruption, instead of letting that greed work its way through the normal fire-and-brimstone cleansing lake, of the post-Armageddon salvation solution of choice–a bastion of truth and honor which is a service of humanity unto itself–USA Bankruptcy Law.

I wish the collective humans and non-human beings of USA would buy from me all of my poorly performing assets. Please give me back the hundreds of thousands lost in the crash of the stock market bubble and the housing market bubble. If I could get it all back I would retire from the workforce, today, like I planned to have done by this time. Instead, I must stay in the work force an extra ten years, assuming God wills and fortune smiles.

I now live in a house that I would be lucky to sell for two thirds of the price paid. So long as my wife’s and my current work continues, all of our monthly debts will be paid. Were one of us to take ill or be otherwise unable to work, we would soon slip into bankruptcy ourselves. I say God forbid that we should take from the many to reward the wanton greed of any human or non-human being. Clearly, it doesn’t make sense to reward the wanton greed at the human level of existence. Why, therefore, should it make sense to reward any wanton greed at the non-human being level of existence?

Let every human and non-human being, each of their own accord and means, pray for the safe continuation of their seemingly fragile existence and, should it become necessary, let them individually walk the pathway of honor, as we witness the vultures descend upon their assets removed from the corpus of their life by a bankruptcy judge. Life goes on. We will survive. Meanwhile, let us contemplate the common human needs and seek each their own particular salvation solution. Let each seek understanding by tuning out the media noise and taking a long term perspective on the deep issues of USA’s little corner of civilization. Sometimes, an indirect way of solving some problems, does a better job than a frontal assault.

Crisis Solution Ideas

Instead of simply rewarding capitalist greed, let us decide to underwrite a $1 trillion dollar earmarked Public Good loan fund to be administered by means of loans to member banks from the Federal Reserve Bank Public Good Fund (hereafter named “Fund”). In order to prevent future mischief, let us decree that ALL money flows from and into the Public Good Fund shall become public information AND be posted by the Federal Reserve, immediately, upon the Internet.

Instead of giving money to the bankers, let us craft ways of lending the member banks money to lend to humans at a low interest rate. Suddenly, a lived in house and its owner take a big step back from the precipice of bankruptcy.

Housing–the Federal Reserve Bank shall fix the retail price of owner occupied primary housing at a 2% interest rate per year. As necessary, the Fed lends money to member banks sufficient to back these loans. Housing shall qualify for the fixed 2% interest rate providing that: a) the housing is lived in by all owners at least 90% of the year, and, b) the member banks MUST repay the loan as the borrower’s principal is recovered, and, c) the home shall be brought up to energy and livability standards prior to sale, and, d) all secondary loans against the home shall be forbidden excepting home improvement loans which shall be joined into the original loan at no additional cost to the borrower.

Education — the Federal Reserve Bank shall fix the retail price of adult education at a maximum 1% interest rate per year. As necessary, the Fed lends Public Good Fund money to member banks, sufficient to back these loans. Whenever Public Good Fund backed loan principal is repaid by the borrowers, the member banks MUST repay Public Good Fund principal.

Everything Else– the Federal Reserve Bank shall operate as before regarding interest rates of money lent to member banks.

Other Solution Ideas

Energy — build a 1 billion $USD replicatable prototype construction of a closed-cycle coal to liquid fuel and polymer production facility designed to fulfill the economic needs of a fifty thousand human regional economy.

Energy Supply — procure a source of Montana lignite coal to feed the facility at the rate of seven coal cars per fifty thousand humans per day.