You are correct , the future of coal is downward. The international banks stopped funding coal fired power stations some years ago.
Printable View
You are correct , the future of coal is downward. The international banks stopped funding coal fired power stations some years ago.
Yes that is about it.
My interest is that I lost a lot of money in PIKE and have followed at a distance the world coal markets feelings.
Interesting that the PIKE accident happened at a time together with the insurance that matched the high value of hard coking coal. Had the accident not happened the fall in value of this coal would have wiped out PIKE anyways as a economic mine -- ask Solid Energy
Again do your own research.
Have no investment in BRL nor will I buy in--- just watching after Pike experence
I wish those of you that want to carry on with coal well---DYOR
Your post infers that no new coal stations are being built. http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/201...waiting-burst/ This article states that China is still commissioning one new power station per week, all be it at reduced generation ie no increase in coal consumption. Coal fired stations are still being built big time in China, India and many other countries in Africa. They are also running a lot cleaner.
As an aside when the process of Lanzatech, a NZ origined company, is given the green light coal's image will change.
http://www.lanzatech.com/china-steel...rcial-project/
Whilst this is still not carbon neutral it will reduce the amount of oil used.
http://www.lanzatech.com/wp-content/...t-1170x273.jpg Chicago, Illinois (April 22, 2015)Taiwan’s largest integrated steel maker, China Steel Corporation (CSC), has announced formal Board approval of a 1400M TWD ($46M USD) capital investment in a LanzaTech commercial ethanol facility. This follows the successful demonstration of the revolutionary carbon recycling platform at the White Biotech (WBT) Demonstration Plant in Kaohsiung using steel mill off gases for ethanol production.
This is, like most science in the media, mostly hype. The Lanzatech process uses carbon monoxide. Well that's good, better to use it than pump it into the air, I guess but efficient fuel combustion produces carbon dioxide which can't be used for anything without another energy source as it is fully oxidised. You can capture carbon dioxide if you can combine it with reduced molecules like methane or hydrogen sulphide but it is not going to significantly address carbon capture in most situations.
Better tell the NZ govt that its HPYE cause they have invested more than $60M of NZ super funds in this company.The genetically modified microbes that Lanza tech uses,consume CO, CO2 and H2S to form an algae which is used to make Ethanol first trialled I understand at Glenbrook steel mill.
Yeah - probably not too many people around who made at current SP a gain ... my average buy in was 4.85 cents - doesn't hurt that much, but still hurts.
Agree with your sentiments re coking coal price, though hoping that it will recover a bit earlier (but this is really pure speculation ...). This is not really about lack of demand - this is about the BHL's and RIO's of the world trying to play Saudi Arabia and flooding the IO and Coking Coal market with cheap coal and ore. I guess they will find out at some stage that they are only damaging themselves (even if mines close - the ore and coal is still there when the price goes up again) - and their shareholders as well as the countries housing their mines (deprived of tax revenue) are hurting as well ...
An algae is a microbe and they don't usually make ethanol. Not saying LanzaTech aren't a good investment, just that they cannot alter the basic chemistry that, at best, burning coal produces carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide cannot be converted into complex organics without additional energy consumption and it is fully oxidised so no more energy can be extracted from it. LanzaTech cannot change that fact or change the image of coal without the use of magic.
Well then please explain how Lanzatech without extra energy are continuously producing Ethanol at 5 plants here, China and Taiwan.
http://www.lanzatech.com/facilities/
Algae is used for producing fuels! Google it.
I don't think its far away that governments will legislate the requirement to treat coal effluents from power stations and mills by such a process when shown to be cost neutral. Coal is still cheaper than oil to generate energy.
There is no replacement for steel on the horizon and the cheapest method of adding carbon to iron ore is the use of coal.
Don't trees convert CO2 and ground nutrients into a fuel of sorts??
LanzaTech are capturing carbon monoxide (not fully oxidised).
Algae produce oil, you can also get them to make hydrogen by starving them of sulfur. Algae use photosynthesis (energy from the sun).
Trees also use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide to sugars. Again the energy comes from the sun.
Easy to convert coal into sugar if you use photosynthesis. You don't need LanzaTech for that. Photosynthesis is not that efficient though. If you want to capture energy from the sun, use photovoltaic system (is way more efficient) and you don't need coal.