The Pursuit of a Dream
Almost eight billion tons of coal are used each year. Most of this coal is burned in steam plants at thermal efficiency of twenty-five to thirty percent. The quest for burning coal in diesel engines began as far back as Rudolf Diesel over one hundred years ago. During the 1940’s German scientists experimented with coal diesel process. In 1980s the US Department of Energy began a coal water fuel development program that lasted almost two decades. Many great scientists in US were dedicated to making strides in coal diesel process. It was discovered that coal could burn at speeds three times faster than # 2 diesel fuel. The efficiency of coal diesel was similar to petroleum diesel ranging theoretically from thirty to fifty percent. Petroleum dominates the energy supply for transportation with ninety seven percent of transportation fuel being derived from petroleum.
United States Department
of Energy
CASE STUDIES
The Nightmare of Ash
All coals contain ash. Part of the ash component is aluminum oxide which is used as commercial abrasive and has hardness of 9 on Moh’s scale. No engines could long endure the wear caused by injecting ash particles into the cylinders. Although efficiency of coal diesel engines was similar to efficiency of petroleum diesel engines, the engine’s life expectancy was very short. Unfortunately, after running engines for hundreds of hours on coal water fuel and reaching major breakthroughs the US Department of Energy cut funding. The links in this website document the amazing steps made by the US Department of Energy in pursuit of coal diesel dream. In the past few years clean coal process has developed coal particles with much less ash content… sometimes less than one percent.
The Solution of the International Coal Diesel Organization
An international effort is required to develop engines and fuel for coal diesel. These engines must follow innovative designs. The same engine designs that burn coal can be used to burn cellulose lignin and hemi-cellulose in direct diesel cycle. Traditionally, raw bio fuels like cellulose must be converted to ethanol in expensive chemical process that loses over half the heating value of the original cellulose. Our organization has made developments in last year are patent pending. These breakthroughs will make possible the fulfillment of Rudolf Diesel’s dream of coal diesel. Bio fuels of cellulose hemi-cellulose and lignin can be used directly as fuel in these engines. It will take an international effort by those with sincere interest in escaping oil dependency for these engines and fuels to meet tomorrow’s energy needs.
We invite individuals companies and governments with interest in efficient use of coal and bio fuels to join us. We give special thanks for contributions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK and the US Department of Energy.