john s. gordon

China May Be Eying Metallurgical Coal Acquisition

i believe british columbia also exports high grade coal to the pacific rim.
the coal mined in australia typically requires beneficiation before shipment, thereby generating large piles of rejects.
> jack

Coal Stocks Are on Fire

CCS is a wonderful concept if it works & if you can afford it. presently coal fired plants are sited all over the place, including mine-mouth and near population centers. to replace these will require siting studies to determine if (for example) a suitable saline aquifer exists @ that site than can absorb the product CO2. lot of work needs to be done here.
> jack

Cameco and Paladin: Buy on Strength of Uranium

'phantom profits on which to base outrageous bonuses.'

that says it all.
> jack

Four Coal Companies Suffering from Investor Caution

most PRB coal is sold on long term contracts (for example, to chicago area utilities) which dampens price volatility compared to east coast.
> jack

Alpha Natural Resources: My Favorite Coal Name

matty - quite a bit of met coal is used to boil water in teakettles, it's a misallocation of a scarce resource but due to low sulfur content does not require scrubbers which utilities loathe. state corporation commissions have approved fuel-cost adjustments, so that consumers (you & i) get soaked for the excess fuel cost in today's high-priced met-coal market. my local utility (D) is heavily nuclear but they hit me with a coal-price adjustment anyway. something needs to be fixed in denmark (my apologies to mr.shakespeare)
> jack

Alpha Natural Resources: My Favorite Coal Name

coal is used for baseload electric but is 30% efficient, and requires pollution controls.

NG in combined-cycle cogeneration baseload but is 80% efficient in that application, may or may not require NOx control depending on location & SIP constraints.

some fuel oil is used for peaking generation (low efficiency, no reheat).

it's hard to generalize on an overall national basis that electric from coal & electric from NG are cheaper or more expensive than each other.

uranium is stated to be cheaper than any other alternative for baseload, but that is because we haven't closed the fuel cycle yet & the cost of long-term storage of high-level waste will be paid by future generations of peoples.
> jack

Coal Stocks: Make Money in Picks and Shovels

geothermal is not actually very clean. you have to dispose of the brine (tends to be smelly & corrosive to metals) somewhere (hazardous waste).
one reason for coal shortages in china is their fuel utilization efficiency is rather low (think u.s.a in the 1920's with lots of stokers)
> jack

Following the Cleveland Cliffs / Alpha Natural Resources Deal

people have forgotten that the coal to liquid fuels program was killed by r.reagan in 1981. republican politicians like to have supply shortages.
> jack