Gasification gets The Guardian treatment

Comments are invited on the two gasification articles found on the The Guardian website today. They seem to have been written on the basis of a Press Release, without much background checking. I don’t want a bad word said about the author, Alok Jha, who is lovely, but I really think we need to unpack the underlying problems of the waste gases from the gasification processes described :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/15/coal-into-clean-energy-gasification

“Scientists hope to turn coal into clean energy : Alok Jha, green technology correspondent, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 November 2009 : Millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be prevented from entering the atmosphere following the discovery of a way to turn coal, grass or municipal waste more efficiently into clean fuels. Scientists have adapted a process called “gasification” which is already used to clean up dirty materials before they are used to generate electricity or to make renewable fuels. The technique involves heating organic matter to produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, called syngas…”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/15/clean-coal-power-gasification

“Scientists find key to creating clean fuel from coal and waste”