Japan spruiks 'highly efficient' coal-fired power plants as stop-gap measure to Australia's energy crisis

When it comes to Australia's energy crisis, there's been a lot of talk about "clean coal”.

The coal processing section of Japan's Isogo
power plant, where the coal gets crushed.

Some have suggested that high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) coal-fired power plants could be the answer to provide certainty across the energy grid.

Australia's Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg and Resources Minister Matt Canavan have taken separate trips to Japan to see how the technology works in practice.

Both politicians visited the Isogo power plant, south of Tokyo — which has been recognised as the world's cleanest coal-fired power station in the world, in terms of emissions intensity.

Read the ABC News story - “Japan spruiks 'highly efficient' coal-fired power plants as stop-gap measure to Australia's energy crisis.”

New, improved, less energy and fewer carbon dioxide emissions

The new CSIRO magnesium wheel - super
strong, manufacture consumes less energy
and has fewer CO2 emissions.

It’s used to make our smartphones and cars, and it makes our fireworks go off with a brilliant bang. It’s the third most commonly used structural metal and comprises 2% of Earth’s crust. We are of course talking about magnificent magnesium.

Why do we think it’s so magnificent? Well, when magnesium is mixed with other metals it makes stable, super-strong alloys. Not only are these alloys used in our mobile phones and laptops, they are also highly sought after by car manufacturers who are turning to the metal as a solution for making lightweight, low-emission vehicles.

Australia is sitting in the driver’s seat to deliver new, improved, ‘supersonic’ magnesium metal and take advantage of our vast untapped reserves of magnesite. So we’ve decided to take the wheel and develop an innovative technology, known as MagSonic, which produces magnesium using up to 80 per cent less energy and up to 60 per cent less carbon dioxide emissions than traditional processes.

Read the CSIRO blog story - “Supersonic magnesium.”