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Clean Coal and Its Potential
With the United States' increasing addiction for petroleum and imported energy, many organizations have begun to pressure government agencies to consider cleaner methods for fuel. As evident from recent government spending, the current administration favors the generation of electricity through a fossil fuel abundant in the United States; coal. Though coal is widely seen as a cheap source of energy, it contains many drawbacks: it’s emissions. Clean coal alternatives are available and they appear to have a promising future in the world of non-renewable energy.
Coal, when used in the traditional manner, is the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet. The combustion of coal releases a combination of harmful emissions into the surrounding atmosphere. These include but are not limited to NOx, SO2, CO2, and trace amounts of mercury (Rinstinen). Effects of these emissions are seen in the accumulation of low-level ozone, global warming, and acid rain. Despite these devastating affects coal remains the largest single producer of energy in the US (Schobert). With so many coal burning plants already in operation, and the obvious benefits of coal’s energy potential, scientists have set out to harness coal’s good properties while at the same time protect the earth from it’s devastating short-comings.
The answer to the current debate over coal’s future seems to lie in the idealist potential of Clean Coal. It’s potential is so great that President Bush has poured millions of dollars into the Federal Budget to stimulate Clean Coal development and initiatives. Currently, countless plants from the 1950’s and 1960’s have become decommissioned or are in need of replacements; the need to reinv...
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...the non-renewable energies require too many additional processes to be considered a sustainable fuel for the future.
Works Cited
"Clean Coal Technology: How It Works." BBC News. 28 Nov. 2005. bbc.co.uk. 14 Feb. 2007 .
"Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle." Cogeneration. 8 Jan. 2004. CogenerationTechnologies. 14 Feb. 2007
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"Prospects For CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) – Fact Sheet." Iea.Org. 15 Feb. 2006. International Energy Agency. 14 Feb. 2007 .
Ristinen, Robert A., and Jack J. Kraushaar. Energy and the Environment. New York & London: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.
Schobert, Harold H. Energy and Society. New York & London: Taylor and Francis, 2002.
Although coal mining is important to local and global economies, there are many environmental impacts of both the mining and use of coal that must be considered. Actions can be taken to mitigate these environmental impacts but it is up to scientists to identify these potential problems and put plans into action before it is too late.
Coal was the cutting edge of energy generation before any other source was extensively used. Wood, wind, water, and muscle power provided nearly all of the energy before the widespread adoption of coal. The greater energy density of coal provides a greater efficiency than these other methods of generating power; combine that greater efficiency with its ease of transportation and coal easily becomes the fuel of a nation. In its early days, coal was mined and consumed in England, a country short on wood and usable water power. This shortage in other areas left a gap that the relatively cheap coal could fill. Coal allowed for industry and manufacturing to grow and produce profits greater than almost any other industry. Coal gained its popularity mainly because it had an economic value in that it provided energy in quantities and in locations that were unobtainable and unreachable for the other energy sources at the time. This start in England led to momentum in ta...
The United States relies mainly on other nations to receive there alternative energy source. An alternative energy source is energy that is solar, wind or nuclear energy that can replace fossil fuel sources such as coal, oil or natural gas (Alternative Energy 1). The United States is very close to China with making decisions. China is one of our biggest competitors with energy (Using Alternative Energy 1). China has experimented with many alternative ways of using energy within the world. One major energy source that is used a lot is coal. Coal generates around 44 % of energy but tends to be a big air polluter. Although coal mines seem like a brilliant idea, it causes many b...
As the world is literally heating up, so is the pressing, controversial topic of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes a climate change report every 5 years; the 2014 report is the most alarming report thus far. The long report is the collaborative work of more than 800 climate scientists and governmental representatives. The report is shocking, and it should be. The IPCC concludes that human activity is the cause of climate change, just as smoking causes cancer. The increasing living standards of industrialized nations are resulting in an increased use of coal energy. Along with the growing population, coal is being used at extravagant rates and increasing. Unfortunately, coal poses a threat to the future of humanity, and we are the direct cause (Richardson, 2014).
The coal industry has spent millions of dollars trying to convince people that they can create a product that is environmentally friendly. The coal industry wants the image of being a "clean" energy seems like a new phenomenon, where today there is better technology to understand the risk of coal and the everyday environment impact that can be seen today with the use of coal for more than a century for industrialization.
We near the year 2020, and sustainable energy is a pressing concern. On the political front, Hilary Clinton’s clean energy plan will be shutting down many coal power plants. However, if we stop using coal power plants we have many power options we need to select from; Such as solar, wind, water, or nuclear. It’s not clear which power option is best suited to replace the coal generation in place. Coal is a very cheap power option.
We also can fulfill this demand of energy by non renewable energy sources such as, fossil fuels-coal, petroleum, and natural gas, nuclear energy etc. but there are major disadvantages in using this type of energy sources. Carbon is the main element in fossil fuels. By processing fossil fuels
Over the last two centuries, humanity has become increasingly reliant on fossil fuels. Over that time, the consequences of constantly burning fossil fuels have accumulated into a threat to industrialized cities. The burning of fossil fuels causes acid rain to shower on cities and ecosystems around the world, tormenting their inhabitants. The increasingly deadly pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels has caused the deaths of many people around the world by causing respiratory problems. Not only has the pollution worsened, but the supply of fossil fuels is not limitless – as humanity’s reliance increases the supply decreases, and that is all the more reason to break humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels should be replaced with cleaner alternatives because fossil fuels cause environmental hazards, are non-renewable, and are detrimental to human health.
A mineral of fossilized carbon, or better known as ‘coal’, is one of the world’s leading sources of energy for the production of Electricity. Although coal is utilized for many other requirements such as refining metal, it is predominately burned for the production of heat and electricity. Coal is a fossil fuel, meaning that the process in which it became too be was through the decomposition of dead plant and animal matter which is referenced as ‘peat’. Different forms of Coal are created when Geological processes produce pressure to the peat which later leads to the formation of coal (Refer to figure 1).
This paper was designed to look more in detail at the power industry and the environment. The topics in this paper include: coal and its impact on the environment, natural gas and its impact on the environment, and basic economics. Specifically, this paper seeks answers to the following questions:
In my opinion, coal is not a good fuel to use for the production of electricity. I believe this because, even though the way coal is mined and burned as been improved, there is an impact on the environment, which results in global warming. There are many different sources that can be used to produce electricity, including; solar power, wind power, hydroelectricity, geothermal electricity and biomass. All of these examples have a smaller, if not no, impact on the environment and are sustainable.
One of the biggest cons of Coal Energy is that it releases Carbon Dioxide which has been sequestered for millions of years in the dead bodies of plant and animals. This transfer the Carbon from the Earth to the Environment leading to the Global Warming
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the procedure of sequestering carbon emissions from large emitters, such as power plants, moving it to a storage location, and injecting it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally in deep underground rocks. The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere (from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries). It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification. Carbon dioxide has been placed into deep rocks for many years for industrial purposes, including superior oil return. Long term storage of the gas is a relatively recent concept (Csiro 2014).
Coal has concentrated supplies in industrial countries, (U.S. Russia, China and India). Some pros about using coal as a resource for energy are that, the infrastructure is already in place and coal produces a high load factor, which means a high power output at a relatively low cost per unit. It is predicted that coal supplies will outlast both oil and natural gas. Coal is the cheapest form of electricity production, making it the viable option for developing countries. About 80% of coal’s total potential energy is extracted, this is relatively high.
Boorse, D. F., & Wright, R.T., (2011). Environmental science. Toward a sustainable future. (Eleventh Ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings