MIT scientists have proposed a new concept that could make it possible to generate electricity from coal with much greater efficiency – possibly reaching as much as twice the fuel-to-electricity efficiency of today's conventional coal plants.
This would mean a 50 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions for a given amount of power produced, researchers said.
The key is combining into a single system two well-known technologies – coal gasification and fuel cells, they said.
Coal gasification is a way of extracting burnable gaseous fuel from pulverised coal, rather than burning the coal itself..
Fuel cells produce electricity from a gaseous fuel by passing it through a battery-like system where the fuel reacts electrochemically with oxygen from the air, they said.
The attraction of combining these two systems is that both processes operate at similarly high temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius or more.
Combining them in a single plant would thus allow the two components to exchange heat with minimal energy losses, researchers said.
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