Association Puts Clean-Coal Message on Wheels October 7,2010 in...

Association Puts Clean-Coal Message on Wheels
October 7,2010 in Clean Coal
Posted Thursday, October 7, 2010 ; 06:00 AM | View Comments |This mobile classroom is one of two operated by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.Photo Credit: PAM KASEY / The State JournalA mobile classroom is making its way through Appalachia to educate the public about clean coal technology.| Bio | Other Stories by Pam KaseyMORGANTOWN -- A mobile classroom created by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity stopped at West Virginia University Oct. 4 on a tour through Appalachia and beyond.The classroom is one of two and is a part of a $35 million ACCCE "Clean Coal Technology. It Works." public education and outreach campaign. The Washington, D.C.-based trade association's members are coal companies, railroads and utilities."We hand out T-shirts and pens at fairs, and people are interested and want to know more," said ACCCE Senior Communications Director Stephen Gates."We thought, how do we reach them without sending them to a website?" Gates said. "Somebody said we should do a big RV with stuff on it. So we had these enormous things constructed, and the reception has been fantastic."Inside the two mobile classrooms -- at 42 feet in length, more like tractor-trailers than RVs -- murals explain past successes and current projects.Clean-coal technologies have achieved reductions of 40 percent and more in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions since 1980, according to one mural -- all while coal-based electricity has nearly tripled.Another shows locations around the world where demonstrations of carbon capture and storage are under way, a set of technologies widely seen as necessary to the future viability of coal as governments constrain emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate-warming emissions.In front of the murals, cabinets hold examples of highly engineered advanced materials that reduce emissions. Visitors can work with interactive electronic displays to learn more about clean-coal technologies.Reactions to the classrooms range from surprise that nearly half the nation's electricity still comes from coal to interest in the fact that technology has been cleaning up power plant emissions for four decades, according to team leader Scott Shiller.But the overarching message is to follow the words "clean coal" with the word "technologies" in people's minds, Gates said."People hear the phrase 'clean coal' and say 'How can coal be clean?'" he said. "Coal hasn't changed in millions of years. What we're saying is that clean-coal technologies are changing the way coal is used."The classroom's visit to WVU offered a great teaching opportunity, according to College of Engineering and Mineral Resources Dean Eugene Cilento."What's nice about the mobile classroom is that our students see first-hand what their careers and their career potential can be, especially in research," Cilento said."When students go out for internships or a co-op program, they work for a semester in industry and come back very different than when they went out," he said. "They're more interested, more excited. This is kind of a mini way of doing that."And the chance to see the importance of advanced materials to an industry can get some students thinking beyond a bachelor's degree to the careers that are vital to moving technologies forward, he said.Cilento and Richard Bajura, director of the National Research Center for Coal and Energy at WVU, drew a direct connection between a public that is educated in the value of advanced technologies and the nation's long-term competitiveness in the global marketplace."Currently we invest less than 1 percent of our research dollars in this country in energy research," Bajura said. "We were probably investing 25 percent of our research dollars in getting to the moon."Cilento nodded."We need that kind of investment in energy," he said.Since launching its mobile classrooms about a month ago, the organization has taken them to festivals and public attractions in Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as Tamarack in Beckley and Pickin' in the Panhandle near Martinsburg.One classroom is headed next to cities in Ohio; the other, after visiting the Forest Festival this weekend in Elkins, will travel to St. Louis and then to southern Illinois.MOREinfoAn American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity's mobile classroom may be seen at the Forest Festival in Elkins through Oct. 10. To request an appearance at an event, contact Stephen Gates at 703-302-1223. To learn more about the organization, visit

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