Coal-fired power plants are by far the largest source of mercury pollution in the US. Through the coal-combustion process, they emit approximately 50 tons of mercury particulates into the atmosphere every year (EPA, 2005 data). When the mercury falls back to earth it is deposited on the land and gets into the water ecosystem, where it is converted into the highly toxic organo mercury compound, ...

China depends for most of its energy on coal – a situation that is likely to persist in the light of the abundance of its coal resources, the paucity of its oil and gas resources, and the reluctance of the government to allow China to become overly dependent on energy imports. The challenge is to find ways to use coal without the enormous air pollution damage caused by current conversion techno...

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) empowered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set emission standards for a number of potentially hazardous air pollutants (HAPS) generated by a variety of specific combustion sources. Eleven elements (or compounds of these elements) present in coal are among the 189 pollutants identified as air toxics by the CAAA legislation. Mercury is incl...

The paper discusses two procedures of flotation of difficult-to-float oxidized coal. The first one is the normal flotation procedure which relies on wetting coal with water followed by addition of flotation reagents (dodecane, dodecyl tetraoxyethelene ether (C12E4), and 1-pentanol). The second, direct contact procedure consists of mixing pure reagents with dry coal followed by addition of water...

Mercury rule lets hazardous air pollutants off the hook O n March 15, the U.S. EPA issued the long-awaited and controversial rule establishing trading as the mechanism for reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired plants. Although the debate over the rule focused on how best to control mercury releases, critics say that an opportunity to also regulate several other hazardous air pollutants (HA...

Previous progress towards instituting carbon emission caps in the US have been derailed by fears (voiced most prominently by the current administration) that such regulations would stifle the American economy. There has been progress, however, as exemplified by the bipartisan support for the Lieberman– Warner Climate Stewardship Act, which, while not reaching a full vote by the Senate this year...

Management of e-waste is becoming a challengeable issue in today’s world. The increase of waste and the need for saving the environment are two global debates in the world. These managerial problems come as a result of technological advancements and globalization as global forces toward complexity. These global forces made e-waste management become a world’s priority issue followed by cleaning ...

Blending of imported and domestic coal is becoming of increasing importance. Until recently, coal blending in power stations was mainly adopted to reduce the cost of generation and increase the use of indigenous or more readily available coal. Low-grade (high ash) coal can be mixed with higher grade (imported) coal without deterioration in thermal performance of the boiler, thus reducing the co...