On Monday, Dec 22, 2008 one of the retaining walls in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s  (or “TVA”) 40 acre surface impoundment pond  failed structurally releasing over a billion gallons of toxin-laden coal ash.  Obeying the laws of gravity and taking paths of least resistance, that 40 acre pond transformed itself into a thinner 300+ acre layer of wet gray sludge that spread out all over the town of Harriman, TN.  TVA, the Kingston coal plant’s owner and operator,  is  a federal corporation and the nation’s largest public power company. We own it. We the people.  It’s our waste, our spill and our mess and I’m quite sure the fine folks of Harriman are pissed blind at what’s happened to their town, homes, and businesses.  

And like clockwork, the beating of drums on the evils of coal fired power plants are growing ever louder. “See!”, they beat, “There’s your clean coal. Enough with this dirty  coal!” 

Sure, TVA’s Kingston plant spill is awful and I agree that it’s a poster child for why the days of building more conventional coal plants are numbered. But it doesn’t have to be like this going forward.  If we build real clean coal plants, we won’t have coal ash as we’ve known it and what solid waste is produced won’t be a liquid sludge with water soluble toxins. 

Cost effective clean coal technology means gasification of coal.  Clean coal gasification (unlike combustion) transforms coal into a blend of mostly  hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The carbon gets stripped off, converted into CO2 and then pumped deep underground to be permanently sequestered in suitable geological formations (just like gas is naturally stored before we drill a hole and let it out).  The remaining hydrogen gas  gets combusted in low emissions gas turbines to make power.  Also, in gasification virtually all the mercury is stripped out not to mention the sulfur.

But unlike the nasty wet goop produced at TVA’s Kingston plant (and similar existing coal plants),  the high temperatures of a gasifier renders coal ash into a vitrified (glass like) dry solid.  This solid byproduct is inert, insoluble in water, and is a useful synthetic aggregate that has market value. 

So let’s recap. With real clean coal plants using gasification there’s no ash sludge, no “wet dump” containment ponds, no soluble toxins, and no risk of billions of gallon of ash spills in Harriman or other town.  

These unique and positive characteristics of clean coal gasification are part of what makes the recent campaigns against clean coal such a one sided distortion.  I can’t decide if  these campaigns are rooted in cynicism, ignorance or simple faith but they’re certainly not rooted in reality. 

I’m a big fan of renewable energy and the good news is there’s going to be a lot more renewable energy in our future. But I’m also a pragmatist rooted in the reality of how our electrical supply system works. To quote a leader in the energy business,  “If you do the math, you will learn that you cannot solve global warming through clean coal alone, but without clean coal, you simply cannot solve global warming.”

Tags: clean coal, coal ash, energy policy, gasification, Harriman, IGCC, Kingston, TVA