On His way

Saying for the day:
Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
~George Carlin

The economy is in chaos. Gas is up to $4.50 a gallon. Is there any hope?
Never fear hope like Mighty Mouse is on the way.
FutureGen, a $1-billion project sponsored by the DOE in partnership with 11 leading energy companies to build the first near-zero-emission coal plant by 2012. The 275-megawatt facility will serve as the model for a new generation of high-tech coal facilities.


HOW FUTUREGEN WORKS

* STEP 1: Gasify Coal
Coal, water and oxygen are rapidly heated under high pressure to produce a mixture of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) called syngas. The syngas enters a cleaner, where sulfur is filtered off for use in the chemical industry and at least 90 percent of the mercury is captured. Other metallic pollutants are converted to an inert solid called slag.
* STEP 2: Capture CO2
Cleaned syngas enters the reactor and combines with steam to yield carbon dioxide (CO2) and H2. The gases are separated, and the CO2 is pumped several thousand feet underground into a saltwater reservoir. Other disposal site options include unminable coal seams and depleted oil wells, where the CO2 would force additional crude to the surface.
* STEP 3: Produce Power
The hydrogen burns to drive a gas turbine and generate electricity. Exhaust from the process heats water to power a steam turbine that produces additional electricity, for a total of 275 megawatts.
The storing of the CO2 is a temporary device until some way can be found to treat it.
The good news is we have far more coal than oil and if we can make it clean burning we take a giant step toward energy independence.
( Information and Picture from “Popular Science”)

#### News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal . Bonnie McGregor came home this morning. She and the twins rode in on the milk train. Her husband Russel and her oldest daughter were there to help her with the twins. This is the first set of twins born to a Pigeon Falls resident since 1981 when the Erickson twins were born. Because f that and her age Bonnie is something of a celebrity. Then there was the driblet which it now seems doesn’t apply. But there was a time when people including Tommy TW thought it did.
Tommy TW is growing tired of telling the story of whale travel and the man in black. He does not intend to do it again. He got back just in time to keep Mrs. Trumble from telling their secret. It is not time yet, in his opinion, for the secret to be told.
Tommy UK’s father said he would ground him for all the trouble he has caused but it wouldn’t do any good. Tommy UK is always going to be Tommy UK.
In any case they know more about the whale now than they did before. They not that for sure it moves back and forth between the Lake of the Loons and the lake in Canada. It may also visit other lakes but of that they are not sure. Nor does Tommy UK have the slightest idea how the whole thing works. What is it that moves the whale and that once Tommy UK from one lake to the other?
The Tommy Club is now concentrating on the man in black. He would seem to be the key to the entire thing. The problem is nobody in Pigeon Falls including Tommy TW has ever seen this elusive man. They have the driblet and Tommy TW was told a man in black had paid for his tickets and provided the passport for his trip home. But Tommy UK didn’t see the man.
The Tommy Club managed to pull a fingerprint off the passport that Tommy UK was given. They got Eino to have his friend in the FBI run the fingerprint through the FBI data base. Eino’s friend said he would do it as soon as possible and get back to him.
******

Today's Link- Earthlier Happy is the Rose Distilled--- -What should you put in a blog? How many should you have?
I started the day by making another loaf of banana bread. It turned out just as good as the other one. I brought the St. Mark's website up to date with Sunday's bulletin. In the afternoon i visited blogs and left comments. Betty, Petrer, Pennie and Bree have gone to Lifequest again so I am home alone. My other son and his boys are coming and should get her before Betty . Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
Our fourth: