New Process Takes Energy From Coal Without Burning It

Sounds nice, except for the 'combusted in a sealed chamber' bit. How is this going to scale up so they can feed 100 tons/hr through the plant cycle? That is the question.

The key to the technology is the use of tiny metal beads to carry oxygen to the fuel to spur the chemical reaction. For CDCL, the fuel is coal that?s been ground into a powder, and the metal beads are made of iron oxide composites. The coal particles are about 100 micrometers across?about the diameter of a human hair?and the iron beads are larger, about 1.5-2 millimeters across. Chung likened the two different sizes to talcum powder and ice cream sprinkles, though the mix is not nearly so colorful.

The coal and iron oxide are heated to high temperatures, where the materials react with each other. Carbon from the coal binds with the oxygen from the iron oxide and creates carbon dioxide, which rises into a chamber where it is captured.

They ran this for 9 days straight. They only stopped because they were tired. Scaling it up probably is not that much of a problem.
The bigger problem might be obtaining both the fuel and the oxidizers in quantity economically.

Coal powered that finely would be rather dangerous, because it has so much surface area. Exposure to air, any spark could set it
off. Handling it would require special care never to let it flow around or accumulate around the crushers. They might have to
make it in a slurry just for safety, then waste more heat drying it before use.

TFA shows them handling bottles of it, and even then they are wearing masks.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/feibLZvQ4AQ/story01.htm

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