The problem of how to plan coal fuel blending and distribution from overseas coal sources to domestic power plants through some possible seaports by certain types of fleet in order to meet operational and environmental requirements is a complex task. The aspects under consideration includes each coal source contract’s supply, quality and price, each power plant’s demand, environmental requirem...

PROCESSES – Biomass combustion is a carbon-free process because the resulting CO2 was previously captured by the plants being combusted. At present, biomass co-firing in modern coal power plants with efficiencies up to 45% is the most cost-effective biomass use for power generation. Due to feedstock availability issues, dedicated biomass plants for combined heat & power (CHP), are typically of ...

A huge amount of coal is always stored in open spaces in coal-fired power plants before combustion. Mercury released from coal by rain or flowing water is an environmental risk and can cause contamination of the soil around the storage area. To better understand mercury pollution and to control mercury emission before combustion, it is necessary to determine the mobility and leaching characteri...

Ash problems in coal̄red power plants result in decreases in e±ciency, unscheduled outages, equipment failures, and cleaning. Assessing the potential impact of ash on power plant performance is extremely complex and di±cult due to coal variability, the complexity of the ash behavior processes involved, and changing operating conditions. To predict the impact of ash on power plant performance, th...

Mercury contamination in food can pose serious health risks to consumers and coal-fired power plants have been identified as the major source of mercury emissions. To assess the current state of mercury pollution in food crops grown near coal-fired power plants, we measured the total mercury concentration in vegetables and grain crops collected from farms located near two coal-fired power plant...

Global Hg emissions are presented for the year 2050 under a variety of assumptions about socioeconomic and technology development. We find it likely that Hg emissions will increase in the future. The range of 2050 global Hg emissions is projected to be 2390-4860 Mg, compared to 2006 levels of 2480 Mg, reflecting a change of -4% to +96%. The main driving force for increased emissions is the expa...

Coal power generation is expanding rapidly in India and other developing countries. In addition to consequences for climate change, present-day health externalities may also substantially increase the social cost of coal. Health consequences of air pollution have proven important in studies of developed countries, but, despite clear importance, similarly well-identified estimates are less avail...

The key threat to reliability and prices is the exit of coal plants at short notice. The risk of such exits has been demonstrated most recently through the Hazelwood closure in VIC where five months’ notice is all that was available. None of the key modellers (including AEMO) predicted it. If anything, the risk of sudden exit is rising as the coal plant fleet is ageing, the economics of coal pl...

The Environmental Protection Agency has recently proposed a reduction in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. There are two broad approaches under development to controlling mercury emissions from coal-fired electric utility boilers: (1) powdered activated carbon (PAC) injection, and (2) multipollutant control, in which Hg capture is enhanced in existing and new sulfur dioxide (SO2),...