Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

State's 'dirty' coal is part of clean plan

As day one kicked-off for the

Clean Coal Technology

Conference at the University of

Arkansas Community College at

Hope, a common theme

emerged: There isn't a single

answer to the problem of

America's energy demands.

The majority of the conference's

first speakers addressed

the need for environmentallyfriendly

and efficient use of coal

as part of a larger, long-range

energy plan. The fact that a significant

coal deposit known as

lignite exists in South

Arkansas made the messages

more relevant to the attendees.

The audience was made of

local and regional economic

development, city, county and

state officials as well as representatives

of businesses, industries

and educational entities.

Dr. Claude Baker, representing

Southern Arkansas

University in Magnolia and the

Lignite Research Industry, presented

a talk on the

Underdeveloped Treasure.

Baker's message was fairly simple:

That there is a significant

coal deposit that stretches across

South Arkansas.

Baker said most people who

can remember the 1970s recall a

time of gas shortage when fuel

prices hit a (then) record high

and the government printed gas

ration cards, though they were

never put into use.

Companies began pouring

money into research to answer

the need for energy alternatives

and came up with what Baker

said were several workable solutions.

Those included floating

nuclear power supplies, alternative

and renewable resource

options including wind and tide

energy, and the use of oil shale

and tar sands.

And, of course, there were

plans for coal facilities.

We had all these bright

ideas, Baker said.

Then the price of gas dropped

back down and the plans were

abandoned. Baker said that was

a mistake on the part of industries

and urged those industrial

representatives present not to

allow the same thing to happen

if gas prices again fall.

But all these bright ideas

come with a price. One of the

main objections to the use of

coal as an energy source is the

amount of emissions. The greenhouse

gasses are not an impossible

problem to overcome but

there are some ways to address

them.

Several of the speakers gave

their best answers to the problem

of greenhouse gas emissions but

the bottom line, according to

most, is that it will take an

investment of time and money to

put these ideas into practical,

real-world use.

Nancy Mohn, representing

Alston Power, presented

Pathways for Fossil Fuel in a

Low Carbon World. Mohn said

that while the industry has an

obligation to search for the best

possible way to limit greenhouse

gases, there has to be a trend

moving to incorporate whatever

technologies are now available.

Mohn said that it's an American

tendency to improve on some

particular thing, make it better

and better until the best possible

version exists. She said that

coal-burning systems can now

put some of those better technologies

in place rather than

waiting for the best option to

be available. The major greenhouse

gas, carbon dioxide, can

be captured during the process.

That gas then has to be stored

somewhere but may not be

entirely useless, and there may

be a market for storage sites.

Bekki White, Arkansas State

Geologist, said the CO2 that was

produced at a plant in Louisiana

was piped for a period of time to

two mature oil fields in South

Arkansas, both in Union County.

White said the CO2 was piped

into the oil deposits, which

increased pressure on those

deposits and increased the yield

from oil wells in the two fields.

The process was working

well but the Louisiana company

providing the CO2 went out of

business, leaving the pipelines

unused, White said.

Rejuvenating the fields again

could be possible through the

use of CO2, but the expense of

piping the gas in is significant.