there is a plant in southern West Virginia that was built to turn coal into gas...cleanly. Obama and the EPA has for years held up licensing with all sorts of excuses.
Coal was used by Germany during WWII. They made synthetic gasoline. It can be done today but it is expensive.
A plant is being built in Louisiana to turn natural gas into liquid fuel.
Coal gasification is an old known method. In the 1800s they used to weld with a form of it. However as to reducing CO2, it won't since it is basically the same chemical activity as burning coal. It may be a little more efficient when it gets to the oxidation process but that is so marginal it is not worth mentioning.
Coal is not turned into natural gas. Coal plants are now investing in carbon sequestration, where CO2 is captured and transported by pipes deep in the ground -- in some places as much as a mile deep. The carbon that comes out of the ground is returned to ground rather than released to stay in the atmosphere and oceans for centuries.
At one time all UK's gas came from coal, in what they called coking plants, the gas was supplied to the public via pipelines, and the coke went to steel mills to manufacture steel.
So yes it can be done easily, the coke is just charcoal (pure carbon) and you can do whatever you want with it.
This process can be done with wood and other materials, it is called biochar and the charcoal can be ground up and put in the soil where it improves it fertility and will be locked away for thousands of years, google terrapetra.
I don't think coal can be turned into natural gas. Natural gas occurs naturally as a gas in Shale formations. Where as coal is mined from the ground as is
coal gasification has been around for some time.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gasi...
a number of power plants use this to fuel turbines.
using natural directly is cheaper.
No.
I would like to answer this question from Hey Dook
