Gas

I have always thought that we must make the transition away from fossil fuels but we must do so in a common sense way. The obvious plan is to move from coal to oil to natural gas while developing the technology to use hydrogen. Here are some comparisons. One pound BTU’s per Pounds of CO2 Sulfur Nitrogen Of pound per Kilowatt dioxide dioxide Coal 12,000 2,200 13 6 Diesel 20,000 1,600 12 4 Natural gas 21,000 1,100 0.1 1.7 Hydrogen 55,000 0 0 0 Another advantage of moving from coal and oil to natural gas is the elimination of almost all sulfur and nitrogen compound. These are the cause of acid rain. In addition natural gas and hydrogen both have zero heavy metals, things like mercury and lead. Recent developments in the coal industry have produced what is called clean coal. While this requires extensive plant improvements the concept is to capture the gases released and keep them from getting into the atmosphere. This will keep even the CO2 from escaping. At this time the cost is prohibited and most companies are just changing the coal plants to natural gas. Currently 1.5% of our energy comes from solar and 4% from wind. These are only functional because we have the electric grid which is supported by other sources of energy mainly fossil fuels and nuclear. These two sources are currently unreliable since they are dependent on sun and wind.