Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – According to BP, Indonesia’s coal consumption has doubled since 2010, promoting coal to be the largest source of Indonesian energy.
Indonesia’s coal consumption remains high: BP
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The BP Statistical Review 2016 revealed on Wednesday that Indonesia’s coal consumption had doubled since 2010. Last year, coal became the country’s dominant source of fuel, accounting for 41 percent of total energy consumption.
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“Last year, Indonesia’s exports for coal fell sharply. The reason was because the global demand decreased at that time, during which China, one of the country’s key markets for coal exports, cut its use of coal,” Dale said.
He added that over the past 10 years, growth in global coal demand had been driven by China. However, China’s economy has shifted away from coal to using cleaner, lower carbon fuel sources such as renewable energy and natural gas.
Studies show coal consumption remains popular in Indonesia despite its damaging environmental impacts. The government has committed to an ambitious 35,000 megawatt electricity program, in which coal-fueled power plants will still make up the majority of electricity generation, at around 50 percent. (win/ebf)
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Read more: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/05/indonesias-coal-consumption-remains-high-bp.html
Its worth noting that a lot of that “cleaner” Chinese fuel comes from coal gasification – a carbon intensive process which literally discards half the coal as waste CO2 before the generated gas gets anywhere near a power plant, using variations of the following reaction.
2H2O (water) + 2C (coal) -> CH4 (methane) + CO2
China to Build 50 Coal Gasification Facilities
China plans to build 50 coal gasification plants in less populated northwestern parts of the country, using the gas produced to generate electricity in the more populated areas, where smog is prevalent. Two coal gasification pilot plants have been built, three more are under construction, and 16 have been approved for construction, while the rest are in various planning stages. Eighty percent of the 50 plants are to be located in northwest China, in the provinces or regions of Xinjiang, western Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu. [i]
These plants are part of China’s plan to alleviate air pollution in its smoggiest cities by reducing coal use in these areas by 2017, instead using gas from coal produced miles away. According to the Chinese state-owned power companies, these plants are considered “clean energy” or “new energy.” To achieve cleaner air in the cities through gasification, net carbon dioxide emissions will increase, while water scarcity may result from a gasification process that uses a great deal of water.
Coal Gasification
In coal gasification, a technology that has been around for decades, coal is chemically transformed into synthetic natural gas (SNG). China, with its vast coal resources, is using SNG for power generation and to reduce its dependency on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). China’s National Energy Administration plans to produce 50 billion cubic meters of gas from coal by 2020, enough to satisfy more than 10 percent of China’s total gas demand. It not only makes economic sense – it also allows China to exploit its coal deposits that are located thousands of miles from the country’s main industrial centers and to solve local pollution problems.[ii] In addition, transporting the natural gas to demand centers is cheaper than transporting the coal and using it directly.
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Read more: http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/china-build-50-coal-gasification-facilities/
Of course China hasn’t given up on coal – as WUWT recently reported, on the first day of the Marrakesh COP22 Conference, the Chinese Government announced a three year programme to increase coal capacity by 20%, an entire Canada worth of coal output.
Click here to see the BP Statistical Review 2016 (page 33 details the rise of Indonesian coal consumption).
Lets not forget that China is now hailed as the moral leader of the climate movement.
As the world’s coal consumption rises the CO2 in the atmosphere stays on the same linear coarse and the global temperature remains statistically unchanged for the past 20 years. Why does anyone believe in CAGW? We need someone to expose the CAGW hoax 🙂
I think it is quite possible that Donald Trump may kill CAGW but the UN is ready.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q25YPvQuHKs
Listen when Obama says the the mousquito is the cause of death. Who was it who stopped the DDT program then?
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/HLPF/2016/8&Lang=E
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/299&Lang=E
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/HLPF/2016/8&Lang=E
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/HLS/2016/1&Lang=E
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/2016/75&Lang=E
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/10858SummaryPresident%202016%20HLPF%20FINAL.pdf
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/HLPF/2016/7&Lang=E
Maybe the UN will run out of cash when the US stops its funding:)
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
DDT has never been banned for fighting malaria, only in general agricultural use
http://www.malaria.org/DDTcosts.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ddt-use-to-combat-malaria/
“Griff November 17, 2016 at 1:59 am
DDT has never been banned for fighting malaria, only in general agricultural use
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ddt-use-to-combat-malaria/”
And Griff quotes SA! Too funny, too funny!
Well all I can do is to refer to the history. Beginning with this book. Read the summary by Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Spring-Rachel-Carson/dp/0618249060
It appears that the Chinese and Indonesians care about having a working electrical system.
“Synthetic natural gas”. Is that an oxymoron?
Maybe we need to use the term “natural natural gas” to differentiate? Or just stutter.
Or maybe,
Nana gas.
But then people would think your talking about your grandmother’s flatulence.
you’re (dang it)
It used to be called “city gas” or “coal gas” IIRC.
Synthetic natural gas was produced in the UK in the Gas Council’s recycle hydrogenator; n heptane is hydrogenated with a lean gas to produce methane. In the US powdered dried lignite was gasified in a fluidised bed hydrogenator again producing methane. In the first cracked distillate reacts with H2:
(-CH2-) +H2 -> CH4
Town gas.
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
Makes sense when you are a country who is running around 7% GDP growth, endeavouring and succeeding in pulling millions out of abject poverty into prosperity, wealth and health.
Good luck to them. I live amongst them and they are a wonderful people who deserve all the wealth and abundance that the little black rock of wonder – coal – delivers.
Indonesia showing the way! More sense than Germany, UK, Australia, etc.
Indonesia is of course one of the very few countries increasing coal use…
Chinese coal use has actually fallen and the new 5 year plan reduces the number of coal plants planned to be built, plus sets and earlier date for stopping coal plant growth.
China just boosted its coal imports griff, up 19% by 2020. Why do you feel the need to lie? And ‘reducing the number of coal plants to be built’ does NOT reduce the increasing amount of CO2 from the plants that are and will be built. Nothing you have claimed does anything to reduce the massive ongoing increase of CO2 by China over the next 4 years.
Griff,does it again,
From the post is this you glossed over:
“Of course China hasn’t given up on coal – as WUWT recently reported, on the first day of the Marrakesh COP22 Conference, the Chinese Government announced a three year programme to increase coal capacity by 20%, an entire Canada worth of coal output.”
Ha ha,it was right in front of you.You as usual behind the curve.
Also, using coal to make SNG (methane), emitting CO2 in the subjugated Western provinces, then using the SNG to produce electricity near population centers to reduce air pollution. China then takes credit for using “cleaner” SNG to replace older, “dirty” coal-fired plants.
Griffie believes everything the Chicoms and watermelon NGOs tell him.
Griff have a look at the price/qty of coal shipping from Oz to you know where this year
http://www.industry.gov.au/resource/Mining/AustralianMineralCommodities/Pages/Coal.aspx
Coal fired power stations should be promoted in Africa. Mountains of coal in Tanzania would generate economic prosperity on this continent. Mass migration to Europe would stop and potential migrants could make a future for themselves in their home countries. Follow Indonesia’s lead. Donald Trump will re-establish coal as the principle source of electrical power generation ridding the landscape of ugly wind farms and the need for land consuming solar panels.
Unfortunately, not too good on the scrubbers!
These power stations of course would include flue gas desulphurisation and electrostatic precipitation of fly ash.
Let’s take a look at Indonesia’s future coal power plans and its firm, post Trump election commitment to the Paris agreement and reducing emissions:
“As Indonesia, the world’s fifth-largest coal producer, continues to struggle in dealing with land and forest fires, it has expressed its commitment to reduce its dependence on coal in its first nationally defined contribution (NDC) reported to the COP21.
Aiming to cut emissions by 29 percent by 2030 through its own efforts and 41 percent with international cooperation, Indonesia has pledged in its action plan to reduce energy supply supported by coal to a minimum of 30 percent in 2025 and 25 percent in 2050.
About 55.7 percent of the country’s energy derived from coal in 2015, while renewable sources such as geothermal and hydropower made up only 9.9 percent.”
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/11/16/after-paris-uphill-battle-phase-out-coal.html
And also:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/11/17/indonesia-china-remain-committed-paris-agreement.html
“Griff November 17, 2016 at 4:09 am
“As Indonesia, the world’s fifth-largest coal producer, continues to struggle in dealing with land and forest fires,…”
Started how? We know people start these fires.
yes – palm oil producers quite often.
My colleagues in Singapore complain about the resulting smog which has drifted across to them…
Words are cheap.
and its firm, post Trump election commitment to…..still receiving money from the suckers
blah blah blah… local water shortage… blah
Wait, I thought that after burning you would get something like:
CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O giving the exact same amount of water needed for the gassification process. The bigger water issue is going to be the cooling tower.
Also, if you move from 30% efficient thermal coal to 60% efficient CCGT then who gives a flip if you threw away half the carbon? Your MWh/ton is exactly the same as it was before.
And when you convert coal to methane + CO2 you generate heat. I don’t know exactly how much heat, but it is likely enough to recover part of it in the steam cycle of a CCGT plant.
The process is (granted) more expensive than traditional thermal coal, but the whole point of the project is to reduce the amount of garbage in Chinese air. This can be accomplished through scrubbers, Nat Gas, Coal Gas, renewables, or likely other ways too. Given that they are moving the plants anyway I am not convinced by this article that a gasification process is a bad option.
In other words – If you think the gasification process is less than optimal then pitch your own and demonstrate how it is better.
I think I’ve misunderstood your comment about the waste heat. I think that you are suggesting recovering the waste produced at the gasification plant (in Inner Mongolia, for example), at the CCGT plant in Beijing? How do you propose to do that?
Yes, that is a misunderstanding. A CCGT plant has a first pass where the NatGas is fired and the combustion turns a turbine. In a second stage the waste heat is used to run a more conventional thermal turbine (water to steam, steam turns turbine, generates electricity, steam is cooled back into water and repeats). Again, I am not entirely sure of the temperature of the gasification process, but I suspect it generates enough heat so that the condensed water collects heat from the gasifier and then from the exhaust gas. Basically change from:
water -> collect heat from exhaust gas -> steam -> turn turbine -> condense
to
water -> collect heat from gasifier -> collect heat from exhaust gas -> steam -> turn turbine -> condense
Then you are looking at Btu to MWh similar to conventional coal, if not better. Perhaps at a higher price, but keep in mind this project is not pitched to lower cost but to remove all the toxins in the air. When compared to other proposals aimed at that end I don’t see this one as particularly flawed.
I think he meant recovering it at the gasification site, not remotely. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.
“About 55.7 percent” Don’t you just love the imprescision?
This is the logical path for similar poor developing countries who are not subject to making cuts in “carbon”.
The boost fossil fuel usage to max, then apply for money from the Green Slush Fund to stop doing it. The more you are currently doing , the more you can get by stopping to do it.
WIN WIN situation.
In the near to mid term, China’s plans (which WILL be changed, I predict) involve more CO2
emissions and coal plants, fewer wind turbines, and LOTs more nuclear, as China is virtually self-sufficient in nuclear technology. Mainland China has 35 nuclear power reactors in operation, 20 under construction, and more about to start construction. Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world’s most advanced, to give a doubling of nuclear capacity to at least 58 GWe by 2020-21, then up to 150 GWe by 2030, and much more by 2050 (in excess of 600 reactors) and more than 1500 reactors by the turn of the century. HOWEVER, as usual, those predictions do
not include the devlopment of molten salt reactors, which not only will be, by far, the safest and cheapest (at least three times cheaper than wind or solar, my estimate being probably four times cheaper) but can be built faster and online as quickly as any power plant technology. I note that
articles that quote power capacities of the various technologies, either knowingly (if written by renewable yokems) or unwittingly (if written by the typpical energy-challenged journalist) are
misleading the unknowing reader – they quote “capacities” ,which have little resemblance to actual
power output possible from the plants. For example, solar capacity of say 1000 MW (nameplate
capacity) cannot be compared to nuclear capacities of the same magnitude, since the solar capacity is achieved generally 4 to 5 hours per day, as opposed to nuclear’s 24 hours a day, since nuclear plants always operate at 100% or greater. Quoted wind capacity of 1000 MW would generally mean, depending upon how windy the site is, on average, an actual output from 200 MW
to 280MW. Be aware that “capacity” of a power plant simply states the max output that the plant is capable of producing, at a given instant (highest wind velocity, brightest solar irradiation) not
necessarily what it can produce during a day’s operation.
Personally, I consider all plans concerning power plants to be obsolete at this point, with the advent of molten salt nuclear reactors close at hand. Even the Chinese have been rushing to develop this most revolutionary power technology. If nothing else , sheer economcs will force the adoption of these plants globally. Political leaders can talk all they want about an energy future that will not and cannot possibly exist. Silly, pompous, ignorant folk.
This details china’s molten salt reactor programme progress – and gives 2030 as date of first commercial model. (address by director of the programme)
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542526/china-details-next-gen-nuclear-reactor-program/
The Chinese 5 year plan on energy was published this week and differs from your forecast, with no let up on renewables.
After 58 years (1958 to 2016) one can neither see, find or detect a “human signature” in the Mauna Loa CO2 record.
And even though the outgassing of CO2 as a result of microbial decomposition of dead biomass is far greater than the human caused outgassing of CO2, …… after 58 years (1958 to 2016) one can neither see, find or detect a “microbial signature” in the Mauna Loa CO2 record.
Mr Cogar – can you provide some citations to reputable, peer-reviewed documents that support your claims? I’m most assuredly NOT disagreeing with you – I’d like the objective evidence to present to some PhDs in another discussion group who are positively, 100% assured (not a mere 97%) that the human signature is proven by the increasing ratio of C12 to C13/C14.
R-E Jim, here is “link” to NOAA’s Mauna Loa CO2 record, all 58 years or all 696 months of it …… which supports my claim that there is no “human signature” in the Mauna Loa Record, to wit:
NOAA’s complete monthly average Mona Loa CO2 ppm data
ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/co2/co2_mm_mlo.txt
And R-E Jim, as far as I am concerned, …… your PhD friends in another discussion group are “stuck on stupid” …… and whether it is nurtured or intentional, ……. being “stupid” is probably in their best interest iffen they want to continue receiving a “paycheck”.
R-E Jim, your friendly PhDs claim that the ….. “increasing ratio of atmospheric 12CO2 to 13CO2” …… is proof of a CO2 “human signature” emission …… is little more than pure BS or “junk science” and is no more based in actual, factual science than is their “junk science” claim that the October to mid-May average 6 ppm increase in atmospheric CO2 is DIRECTLY the result of microbial decomposition of dead biomass in the Northern Hemisphere. “DUH”, dead biomass does not easily decompose when kept in your “home” refrigerator/freezer.
Anyway, R-E Jim, the following is commentary I posted on WUWT on 01-09-2014 in response to the “12C/13C claim” ……. but with the intended recipient’s name omitted, to wit:
So there you have it, R-E Jim, the re-growth of the forests are sequestering the C13 in the soils and their respiration is emitting the C12 back into the atmosphere ….. and that is potentially where your declining δ13C level is coming from. But what do I know, I’m not a PHD degreed expert like your PhDs friends in another discussion group.
Yours Truly,
Samuel C Cogar, …. AB Degrees in the Biological and Physical Sciences, …. GSC 1963
……………………. and computer logician, designer, programmer extraordinaire.
This covers in detail (in fact a little too much?) how isotopic signatures are used to identify human produced CO2 in the atmosphere
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/outreach/isotopes/index.html
there’s a human signature in there alright: no doubt about it
So sayith: Griff ….. at 8:36 am
Shur nuff Griff, there is human signature in that reference you cited …… and it’s a pee poor one …… and it belongs to a sorely miseducated female with the name of Lauren Shoemaker, to wit:
Lauren Shoemaker would have been more believable iffen she had cited the Flying Spaghetti Monster as her source of factual science.
In the second article, it states that “China, with its vast coal resources, …”. If the PRC has “vast coal resources”, why does it import coal from the US and, according to our antipodean correspondents, from Oz?
China imports “coking” coal for steel making because their coal is only suitable for power generation. They take most of the coal from New Zealand for this purpose as well.
RE Jim@10:56
China is aggressively importing minerals and coal from mines it controls around the world. A very smart policy. This way they can save their (not inconsiderable) domestic resources for future use…maybe when geopolitical tensions are higher and sea lane access for China is restricted. The Chinese are not stupid!
Why shouldn’t China be the moral leader? In the world of progressives, what you SAY is all that counts. You can DO anything. Just SAY the right things and you’re the most moral of all. It’s how these things work. Not in the real world, of course, but we are not talking the real world here.
Well, that’s the thing – there’s no power source as effective as fossil fuels – not remotely. And if we hamstring ourselves by forsaking them out of some misplaced piety, we’re just simply handing off the economic advantage to countries that will… and they WILL. And then they will be the new world power.
Just that simple. It’s Darwin.