Re:Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life
by Gordonjcp on Wednesday June 22, 2022 @11:59AM
(#31837765)
From a very simplistic "high school chemistry" point of view, coal is mostly carbon, natural gas is mostly hydrogen.
Burning coal will produce lots of carbon dioxide (and other nasties because of things like sulphur compounds but let's ignore that for now) and very little water. Burning methane will produce lots of water and carbon dioxide.
Re:Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life
by tgflynn on Wednesday June 22, 2022 @12:13PM
(#31837939)
Hmm, I'd always assumed that most of the energy from burning natural has came from the oxidation of the carbon, not the hydrogen, but maybe that's not the case.
Burning coal will produce lots of carbon dioxide (and other nasties because of things like sulphur compounds but let's ignore that for now) and very little water. Burning methane will produce lots of water and carbon dioxide.