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Coal Facts: 1 2 3
Currently, there are approximately 540 coal plants in the United States and of those 140 have scrubbers that cleanse coal of harmful pollutants.
Clean Coal: Coal Gasification
Rather than burning coal directly, gasification breaks down coal into its basic chemical constituents. In a modern gasifier coal is exposed to hot steam and carefully controlled amounts of air or oxygen under high temperatures and pressures, which causes carbon molecules in coal to break apart, setting into motion chemical reactions that produce a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and other gaseous compounds.
Gasification may be one of the best ways to produce clean-burning hydrogen for tomorrow's automobiles and power-generating fuel cells. Hydrogen and other coal gases can also be used to fuel power-generating turbines.
Coal gasification can cleanse as much as 99 percent of the pollutant-forming impurities from coal-derived gases. Coal gasification can remove 97 percent of the sulfur and 82 percent of the nitrogen oxide from smoke stacks. Coal gasification plants release 50 percent less mercury and 20 percent less carbon dioxide than a conventional coal-fired plant without scrubbers because of the inherent efficiency of the gasification process. Sulfur in coal, for example, emerges as hydrogen sulfide and can be captured by processes used today in the chemical industry. In some methods, the sulfur can be extracted in either a liquid or solid form that can be sold commercially. In an integrated gasification combined-cycle plant, significant efficiencies can be achieved. And using Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) reduce emissions to levels comparable to firing with natural gas.
If oxygen is used in a coal gasifier instead of air, carbon dioxide is emitted as a concentrated gas stream. In this form, it can be captured more easily and at lower costs for ultimate disposition in various sequestration approaches. (By contrast, when coal burns or is reacted in air, 80 percent of which is nitrogen, the resulting carbon dioxide is much more diluted and more costly to separate from the much larger mass of gases flowing from the combustor or gasifier).
Report Says Coal Power-Plant Pollution Affects Blacks More
"Air of Injustice: African Americans & Power Plant Pollution"
By: Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, Black Leadership Forum
According to a new report by environmental justice activists and civil rights organizations, blacks are more likely than whites to live near areas polluted by coal-fired electric power plants and suffer more adverse health consequences as a result. Although the report provides some excellent information, the unreferenced conclusions about the effects of the 30 mile air pollution and 5 mile flyash detract from report.
{ AAEA comments in Blue }
The study concludes that thirty miles is the distance within which people experience the maximum effects of smokestack emissions. AAEA doubts this statistic is true for NOx and SOx. Nitrates and sulfates travel long distances to damage health and environment depending on atmospheric conditions. There is no reference for this citation and it is not needed to document disproportionate impact. Cumulative and comprehensive sources, particularly mobile sources, of air pollution cause disproportionate impacts in African American communities.
The Atlanta-based Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and Washington- based Black Leadership Forum, released the study showing that 68 percent of blacks lived within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, compared with 56 percent of U.S. whites. Nationwide, 71 percent of blacks live in counties that don't meet federal air pollution standards, compared with 58 percent of whites, the study said. The report correlates respiratory illnesses in Washington, DC to 5 power plants here. Two of those plants are oil-fired turbine peaking plants. The most impacted community (River Terrace) was probably most negatively affected by PCB tainted fuel oil burned in one of those plants (See AAEA reports Our Unfair Share 1,2 & 3)). The Capitol Power Plant is coal fired, but does not produce electricity.
According to the study, U.S. coal fueled power plants account for 67 percent of all emissions of sulfur dioxide. Emissions from power plants also combine with other pollutants to form ozone, a principle component of smog, which can cause a number of respiratory ailments. The report states that African Americans account for 17% of the people living within 5 miles of a power plant flyash waste site. Again, there is no reference for this statistic and it is not needed to prove disproportionate air pollution impacts.
The study reported that asthma hospitalization rates for blacks, at 35.6 admissions per 10,000 people, were three times the white hospitalization rate of 10.6 admissions per 10,000 people. The death rate from asthma among blacks of 38.7 deaths per 1 million people was twice that for whites, which was 14.2 deaths per million.
See AAEA information on air pollution. AAEA believes that this report supports our position that nuclear power should be the primary source of baseload electricity production. We also support state-of-the-art scrubbers, such as electro catalytic oxidation, on all coal plants, especially those over 25 years old. Adoption of the Clear Skies Initiative would speed up the reduction in air pollutants for all communities.
Coal Today
Coal currently supplies 52 percent of America's electricity needs. Coal is about a third of the cost of natural gas and it is estimated that there is about 200 years worth in the ground. Coal produces significant amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) that creates acid rain as well as the nitrogen oxide (NOx) that causes smog and soot. Coal plants also generate the majority of the industry's carbon dioxide (CO2) and mercury emissions. At least 90 percent of toxins regulated under the Clean Air Act that include NOx and SO2 can be removed with new technologies.
Today's coal-fired plants have a fuel to efficiency rate of 33-35 percent. With the new technologies, such as gasification, however, that efficiency rate is said to increase to 45-50 percent, and potentially as much as 60 percent. The cost: about $1,200 per kilowatt compared to $900 with conventional coal plants.
President Bush's clean coal technology program has budgeted $2 billion over 10 years to help fund eight projects to install the latest equipment for reducing emissions. The administration will award about $316 million in 2003. The private sector, meanwhile, will contribute about $1 billion. Currently, more than 30 such projects are vying for the next round of money.
Coal plants run between 90 to 95 percent of the time compared to gas-fired combined-cycle plants that run 50 to 60 percent of the time. Coal plants are difficult to get sited, are far more capital intensiveand and take about twice as long to site as those fired by natural gas. That is why 90 percent of all power plants now being proposed would run on natural gas, which generates a return for investors sooner.
Eastern coal may be more expensive than Western coal but the transportation costs associated with it are lower. If the supply of eastern coal production is curtailed because mountaintop mining is banned, it would mean that certain utilities would import coal that has an inferior heat rate and at potentially higher costs.
The Energy Information Administration estimates that coal reserves in Appalachia are 55.2 billion tons while coal production tied to mountaintop mining in West Virginia alone is 52 million tons annually.
The coal industry is the single largest source of revenue for West Virginia. According to the National Mining Association, the industry contributes indirectly $13.5 billion there to the economy and supports nearly 113,000 jobs. Coal mining jobs pay as much as $50,000 annually and more than half of all such workers are older than 50 years old.
Indeed, American coal spot market sales are now worth about $50 a ton, although the price has been as high as $63 a ton. That's compared to roughly $40 a ton a year ago.
New Coal Company Goes Public
Foundation Coal Holdings Inc., a coal producer headquartered in an office park near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, has filed to go public. If the offering proceeds as envisioned by its owners, they could make roughly $600 million on a company they have only held since July.
The Linthicum Heights company is the fourth-largest coal producer in the country. Interest in coal producers has surged as energy companies, faced with rising natural gas prices and stepped-up demand for electricity, plan a number of new coal-fired power plants. For more click on the links below: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3111-2004Nov21.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53893-2004Dec9.html?referrer%3Demailarticle&sub=AR
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