In our last letter we spoke of replacing our old coal fired electric power generating plants with some new energy efficient plants. Obviously wind power will be of great importance, but sadly its deployment has been delayed simply because the wind does not blow 24/7. An exciting new technology is just now coming on the scene that can provide the instant back up power needed to support wind power when the wind quits.

This new oxygen controlled process randomly snips the long coal carbon chairs which forms new products with shorter carbon chairs. The lighter gases produced from this process such as propane are removed and stored on site ready to be fed into a combination turbine. This new power plant can give us jet engine-like power generating performance that is ready to fill in for these times when the wind is at rest.

Coal, the environmental scourge of thet past can now be looked upon in an exciting new way. Coal gasification can provide instant electric generating backup power for our windmills while at the same time providing valuable by-products such as fertilizer, natural gas and the new fuel of the future: hydrogen.

Increasing efficiency while turning what would have been pollution into good useable products is what the students of 3240 are all about.

Raymond Olson
Fundamentals of
Energy Sources
3240