Mention coal and mental images of spewing smokestacks of primitive factories during the Industrial Revolution comes to mind, but the fossil fuel is still a major factor today. It generates a good portion of the world’s electricity, in fact 92 percent of the United States’ supply. So far it’s relatively cheap and in good supply, so it’s not likely to be replaced by a cleaner fuel any time soon.
However, coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, producing emissions that contribute indisputably to global warming. The use electricity in the daily lives of today’s global citizens is accepted without thinking as it’s an integral part of life. But, if we stopped and learned about the energy we use, we would be shocked with the realities of how energy production affects our health and our environment. Coal-fired power plants also release about two-thirds of the sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution every year. Sulphur dioxide can travel long distances in the atmosphere before falling down to the land, causes additional problems when it combines with other pollution to form additional dangerous compounds. Acid rain, for example, occurs when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (NOx) react with water and oxygen in the atmosphere to form acidic compounds which either mix with natural precipitation and fall to the earth as acid rain, or remain dry and then settle to the ground. For a full report go to www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/power.asp.
Further, when inhaled, this smog can cause a wide range of health problems, including immediate symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pains, and wheezing. It has also been deemed responsible for other serious problems like increased risk of asthma attacks and lung inflammation, especially in children, the elderly, and those with respiratory problems. And it destroys ecosystems, including streams and lakes, by changing their delicate pH balance making them unable to support life, destroying forests, plant and animal life.
Some technology exists to reduce these harsh environmental effects and produce less carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides, such as coal washing which removes unwanted minerals from the product. And gasification avoids burning coal altogether, with integrated combined cycle systems, steam and hot pressurized air or oxygen combining with coal in a reaction that forces carbon molecules apart. The resulting syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is then cleaned and burned in a gas turbine to make electricity.
But perhaps the best solution of all is to encourage industry to find cleaner alternatives. Nuclear energy is the only electricity source that can generate power reliably and efficiently and with no greenhouse-gas emissions. Communities enjoy considerable economic benefits when they host new nuclear plants, including hundreds of jobs and an expanded tax base. And biofuels are gaining a lot of attention, with some cities developing biodiesel powered generator facilities, such as that in Oak Ridge North, Texas. The facility is the first power plant in the USA to run entirely on biodiesel, a renewable carbon neutral fuel produced from vegetable oil and animal fat. In agriculture, a plant is considered to be carbon neutral if the carbon dioxide that it absorbs while alive is the same as the CO2 it emits when burned as a fuel. A series of biodiesel powered electric generating plants to serve residential and industrial customers in the Houston Metropolitan area is planned. For a full report on this revolutionary and successful experiment go to http://e85.whipnet.net/alt.fuel/biodiesel.generator.html/ Wind and solar power are also clean alternatives to coal.
Industry must be encouraged through public pressure and government incentives to consider alternate sources of energy and stop using coal-fired polluting power plants. The next generation of global citizens depends on it!
