Coal Research Forum_Minerals and Coal Mining Concerns, Efforts and Progress Tackling Global Energy and GHG-CO2 Emissions Challenges

Today, I wish to take a couple of minutes of your time to bring to the fore the Advanced and Mature Minerals and Mining Communities concerns and efforts, pitting their wits to face the global energy and greenhouse gas emissions challenges represented here by the focus on CO2.

I shall largely base my enquiry upon the rich resource offered by the Coal Research Forum (CRF).

Such is the abundance of high quality freely available online CRF contributions, that, I can only trust many of you, globally will help me read, digest and bring the best "Options For the Future for a Global Future " to the fore.

In previous posts, I started to dress the Venn Diagramme presentation, whose focus is CO2-GHG reduction , posting briefly, too briefly on the green power field or universe, and on the planetary UN-blue metallurgical, materials science, industries and markets field_universe. Now we shall take a rapid look at things from the coal, minerals and mining perspective.

To help a reader new to the field come to grips rapidly with these issues, I find the divisional structure of the forum useful cf below.

Divisions

1. Advanced Power Generation.
2. Coal Characterisation.
3. Coal Conversion.
4. Coal Preparation.
5. Combustion.
6. Environment.
Divisions, Division Chairmen and contact details

Conference Meeting Titles and the freely available Online Papers are obviously of incredible assistance. Main Title Headings and full links to papers are given below.
-Coal Preparation Division Seminar.
- EU Conferences on Coal Research and its Applications
-Industrial perspective.
-Research Events
-Combustion/Coal Characterisation/Coal Conversion Divisional Meeting.
-Understanding the Low Carbon Economy.
-Zero Emissions Power Plant, with Annual Meetings of the Coal Research Forum and the Coal Utilisation Subject Group.
-Recent Developments in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
Link to all the conference papers listed under the above headings

More information and global links from The Minerals Engineering Society...

NB. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...!

As I post this a "new mining environmental theme" has been brought to my attention, namely, the project to pipe leaching residue-acid and heavy metals- waste from nickel mining and separation into a lagoon in New Caledonia-Nouvelle Caledonie by a large mining group (Brazilian) involved in Nickel mining in New Caledonia-Nouvelle Calédonie. ref the reputable Thalassa longest runing TV prog.(FR3) in France. All data highly appreciated. Follow-up all next week by Thalassa.

System/Synergy 4 Approaches - Announced

This post will be based upon an up-to-date extract from a current specially CO2 - CCS focused curriculum vitae which reads as follows:

"Expert in the many aspects of manufacturing special metals & alloys from R&D to Market.

Special Interests: Innovation(s) - Eco-Engineering – Smart Materials

. Metallurgy, Special Alloys, Materials & Manufacturing Processes.

. Advanced Processes-Products-Markets.

. Science-Technology-Engineering (EBE -Environmentally Benign Eng. Approaches).

Durable Development -Intl. Support -Technical & Cultural–Bilingual, fluent french.

NB. Currently studying-reviewing Opportunities for new concept(s) for CO2 absorption with simultaneous production of Hydrogen, industrially oriented; Steelmaking, mining and metallurgical extraction =>energy production, distribution & control of industrial gas emissions:

-Systems /Synergy 4 Approaches
1. Mining (Coal)– Motivation Coal reserves France(58)-Scotland, Ayrshire.
2. Coal Powered Electricity & Heat generation – unavoidable for certain countries.

3. Metallurgy/Materials/Advanced Processes -my profession
4. FOCUS: CCS-Carbon, Capture & Stockage-UN-G8 recommendation: Socolow "Wedge-a-War" theme.

Other on going work: structuring approaches to interdisciplinary applied science challenges. Examples are given cf. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE...(CV on request) .

I wish to focus for the moment on what I call the Systems/Synergy 4 Approaches outlined above, a Triumvirate with an Aim, a Focus. The focus chosen being CO2, no one who wishes to understand the issues involved in CCS can refuse to read the conference papers made available freely by the organisers Bureau Regional de Geologie et des Mines (BRGM) and The Insitute for Petroleum (IFP). From memory, all papers are in english. This post goes further & is especially concerned with the metallurgical and chemical aspects of CCS-Carbon, Capture & Stockage, listed above.

(If I left other aspects or unfinished phrases it is on purpose, to leave the wider system of materials science, technology and engineering open to questions, requests suggestions: no-holds-bard.)

In my first blog "Conversations" I made several entries under the label C02 absorption. These and all labelled subjects may be found via the Site Search, Top Left, not the more visible WWW Google Customised Search Tool. The reader is free to browse both of course. More to point of the current post, are my posts entitled: The Metallurgy of CO2 Absorption with Simultaneous Production of Hydrogen

There I set out to demystify the simple combination of common metals with humid CO2 (ie CO2 absorption by a metal) resulting in a metal carbonate with simultaneous production of Hydrogen.

The commonest natural process, known to all, is iron rust, Iron (Fe) in the presence of wet(H20) carbon dioxide (CO2) gives Iron Carbonate (FeCO3) giving off Hydrogen gas (H2).

Please read the full post: The Metallurgy of CO2 Absorption with Simultaneous Production of Hydrogen. To the best of my knowledge, this is a good review of the state of the art at the time (mid 2007) Naturally from a metallurgical science point of view or a metalurgical process and chemical engineering stance many finer point must addressed to obtain an economically viable process and value added products (mainly the much talked of H2 fuel vector & FeCO3) all contributions - colaborations welcomed to "Wedge-a-War"

To get involved it is best to arm ones-self with some sound statistics of main CO2 producers. For steel, CO2 goes hand-in-hand with steel production. These figures together with the CO2 correction factor are extensively given and well presented by country, region, "continents or uniform blockes", by company and company rank Top to bottom, tables and graphs notably by the International Iron & Steel Institute (IISI), based in London.