Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
The long-term future for coal looks bleak. The recent UN climate change conference in Paris called for an end to the use of fossil fuels. However, coal remains one of the world’s most important sources of energy, fuelling more than 40% of electricity generation worldwide, with many developing nations relying almost wholly on coal-fuelled electricity.
Coal has been the fastest growing energy source in recent years and is essential for many industrial activities, but the coal industry is hugely damaging for the environment. A major driver in climate change and causing around 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, coal fuel comes at a high environmental price. Furthermore, mining and air pollution kill thousands each year.
A timely addition to the series, this book critically reviews the role of coal in the 21st century, examining energy needs, usage and health implications. With case studies and an examination of future developments and economics, this text provides an essential update on an environmental topic the world cannot ignore.
The series has been edited by Professors Hester and Harrison since it began in 1994.
Professor Roy Harrison OBE is listed by ISI Thomson Scientific (on ISI Web of Knowledge) as a Highly Cited Researcher in the Environmental Science/Ecology category. He has an h-index of 54 (i.e. 54 of his papers have received 54 or more citations in the literature). In 2004 he was appointed OBE for services to environmental science in the New Year Honours List. He was profiled by the Journal of Environmental Monitoring (Vol 5, pp 39N-41N, 2003). Professor Harrison’s research interests lie in the field of environment and human health. His main specialism is in air pollution, from emissions through atmospheric chemical and physical transformations to exposure and effects on human health. Much of this work is designed to inform the development of policy.
Now an emeritus professor, Professor Ron Hester's current activities in chemistry are mainly as an editor and as an external examiner and assessor. He also retains appointments as external examiner and assessor / adviser on courses, individual promotions, and departmental / subject area evaluations both in the UK and abroad.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| Contents | xi | ||
| Preface | vii | ||
| Editors | xvii | ||
| List of Contributors | xix | ||
| World Energy Needs: A Role for Coal in the Energy Mix | 1 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 1 | ||
| 2 What Is Coal? | 2 | ||
| 2.1 Coal Formation | 2 | ||
| 2.2 Coal Classification | 3 | ||
| 2.3 Where Is Coal Found? | 4 | ||
| 2.4 Coal Exploration | 5 | ||
| 2.5 Coal Mining | 5 | ||
| 2.6 Coal Preparation | 6 | ||
| 2.7 Coal Transportation | 7 | ||
| 2.8 Coal Mining and the Environment | 7 | ||
| 2.9 Mine Rehabilitation | 8 | ||
| 2.10 Mining Safety | 9 | ||
| 3 The Global Coal Market | 9 | ||
| 3.1 Coal Production | 9 | ||
| 3.2 Coal Consumption | 9 | ||
| 3.3 Coal Trade | 10 | ||
| 4 How Is Coal Used? | 10 | ||
| 4.1 Coal and Electricity | 10 | ||
| 4.2 Coal's Role in Delivering Modern Infrastructure | 11 | ||
| 4.3 Steel Production | 11 | ||
| 4.4 Cement Production | 12 | ||
| 4.5 Coal Liquefaction | 13 | ||
| 4.6 Other Uses of Coal | 14 | ||
| 5 Meeting Future Energy Demand | 14 | ||
| 5.1 Coal as an Important Element in the Balanced Energy Mix | 16 | ||
| 5.2 Coal as a Guarantor of Energy Security | 16 | ||
| 5.3 On-grid Electricity | 17 | ||
| 6 Coal and the Environment | 21 | ||
| 6.1 Efficiency Improvements – What Can Be Achieved? | 22 | ||
| 6.2 Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Development Vital to Meeting Climate Goals | 25 | ||
| 7 Coal and Our Energy Future | 26 | ||
| References | 26 | ||
| Coal Mining | 30 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 30 | ||
| 1.1 Brief History of Coal Mining | 31 | ||
| 2 Coal Mining Methods | 31 | ||
| 2.1 Surface Mining | 32 | ||
| 2.2 Underground Mining | 41 | ||
| 2.3 Novel Methods | 46 | ||
| 3 Coal Transportation and Utilization | 48 | ||
| 3.1 Coal Transportation Methods | 48 | ||
| 3.2 Coal Utilization | 49 | ||
| 4 Current Status of Coal Mining | 50 | ||
| 5 Future Trends | 50 | ||
| References | 50 | ||
| Coal-fired Power Stations | 58 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 58 | ||
| 2 Pre-treatment for Power Generation | 60 | ||
| 2.1 Conventional | 61 | ||
| 2.2 Gasification | 63 | ||
| 3 Combustion Technologies | 68 | ||
| 3.1 Boilers and Steam Generators | 68 | ||
| 3.2 Integrated Gasifier Combined-Cycle | 72 | ||
| 3.3 Solid Oxidisers and Chemical Looping | 75 | ||
| 4 Coal-fired Power Stations in the 21st Century | 77 | ||
| 4.1 Committed Carbon Emissions and Stranded Assets | 77 | ||
| 4.2 Water Consumption | 78 | ||
| 4.3 Pollution Formation | 80 | ||
| 4.4 Climate Stresses | 83 | ||
| 4.5 Generating Flexibility and Dispatch Merit Order | 85 | ||
| 4.6 Operating and Capital Expenses | 88 | ||
| 4.7 Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Retrofitability | 89 | ||
| 4.8 Availability of Finance | 91 | ||
| 5 Conclusion | 92 | ||
| References | 93 | ||
| The Life Cycle of Coal and Associated Health Impacts | 100 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 100 | ||
| 2 Mining | 101 | ||
| 2.1 Accidents | 101 | ||
| 2.2 Coal-worker's Pneumoconiosis (CWP) or Black Lung Disease | 102 | ||
| 2.3 Coal Mining Effects on Water Quality | 104 | ||
| 2.4 Effects of Mining on the Health of Residents in Adjacent Communities | 104 | ||
| 3 Coal Preparation and Transport | 105 | ||
| 3.1 Coal Cleaning; Mining Wastes | 105 | ||
| 3.2 Coal Waste Accidents | 105 | ||
| 3.3 Coal Shipment | 106 | ||
| 4 Combustion | 107 | ||
| 4.1 A Brief History of Coal Combustion and Health | 107 | ||
| 4.2 Particulate Matter | 111 | ||
| 4.3 Ozone | 115 | ||
| 4.4 Oxides of Nitrogen and Oxides of Sulfur | 117 | ||
| 4.5 Mercury | 118 | ||
| 5 Costs of Burning Coal | 120 | ||
| 6 Post-combustion Waste: Coal Ash | 122 | ||
| 6.1 Coal Ash Defined | 122 | ||
| 6.2 Coal Ash Toxicity | 122 | ||
| 6.3 Coal Ash: A High-volume Waste | 124 | ||
| 6.4 Coal Ash Persistence and Mobility in the Environment | 124 | ||
| 7 Disposal of Coal Ash | 125 | ||
| 7.1 Common Disposal Techniques | 125 | ||
| 7.2 Dilution as Disposal | 126 | ||
| 7.3 ''Beneficial Reuse''Instead of Disposal | 126 | ||
| 8 Human Exposure to Coal Ash: Pathways | 127 | ||
| 8.1 Surface Water Pathway | 127 | ||
| 8.2 Leaching into Groundwater | 129 | ||
| 8.3 Airborne Coal Ash | 131 | ||
| 8.4 Exposure via Contaminated Fish | 132 | ||
| 8.5 Exposure via Drinking Water | 132 | ||
| 9 Coal Ash ''Damage Cases'' | 133 | ||
| 10 Protecting Human Health from Coal Ash | 135 | ||
| 10.1 Vulnerable Populations | 135 | ||
| 10.2 Best Available Technologies | 136 | ||
| 10.3 Coal Ash Regulation | 136 | ||
| 11 Coal and Climate Change | 137 | ||
| 11.1 Coal and Greenhouse Gases | 138 | ||
| 11.2 Climate Change and Health | 138 | ||
| 12 Coal, Human Health and the Precautionary Principle | 140 | ||
| References | 141 | ||
| The State of Coal Regulation Around the World: Insights from the United States, China, Germany and India | 147 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 147 | ||
| 2 Global Coal Market Trends | 148 | ||
| 3 Will Climate Commitments Drive a Shift Away from Coal? | 149 | ||
| 4 National Policies and Policy Drivers Related to Coal | 151 | ||
| 5 Opposition to Coal Regulation | 152 | ||
| 6 Transition Assistance | 153 | ||
| 7 Carbon Capture and Storage: The Future of Coal? | 153 | ||
| 8 Coal Regulation in the United States: A Political Football | 155 | ||
| 9 Regulating CO2 Emissions from Coal: The Embattled ''Clean Power Plan'' | 155 | ||
| 9.1 The Legal Route to Federal Regulation | 155 | ||
| 9.2 The Clean Power Plan | 156 | ||
| 9.3 The Litigation | 158 | ||
| 9.4 Trump Administration | 159 | ||
| 10 Regional/State Regulation of CO2 Emissions from Coal Fired Plants | 160 | ||
| 11 Regulation of Mercury and Other Air Toxics from Coal Plants: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been | 163 | ||
| 12 Acid Rain: A Notable Success Story | 165 | ||
| 13 Conclusion | 165 | ||
| References | 166 | ||
| Liquid Fuels and Chemical Feedstocks | 173 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 174 | ||
| 1.1 Organic Structure of Coal | 174 | ||
| 1.2 Liquefaction Routes | 176 | ||
| 1.3 Historical Development and Current Situation | 176 | ||
| 1.4 Scope | 178 | ||
| 2 Coal Gasification and Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (Indirect Liquefaction) | 179 | ||
| 2.1 Gasification | 179 | ||
| 2.2 Water–Gas Shift Reaction | 179 | ||
| 2.3 Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) | 181 | ||
| 2.4 Syngas Conversion | 182 | ||
| 3 Staging Direct Liquefaction and Primary Conversion | 183 | ||
| 3.1 Concept | 183 | ||
| 3.2 Reaction Mechanisms | 186 | ||
| 3.3 Solvents | 187 | ||
| 3.4 Catalysis | 187 | ||
| 3.5 Impact of Coal Structure on Conversion and Product Composition | 188 | ||
| 4 Upgrading Intermediate Products to Transport Fuels and Chemicals | 190 | ||
| 4.1 Hydroprocessing Heavy Coal Liquids | 190 | ||
| 4.2 Refined Distillate Fractions | 191 | ||
| 5 Other Process Variants | 192 | ||
| 5.1 Non-donor Solvents | 192 | ||
| 5.2 Direct Hydrogenation | 192 | ||
| 5.3 Integrated Processing with Other Feedstocks | 193 | ||
| 6 Concluding Remarks and Future Perspectives | 194 | ||
| References | 195 | ||
| Carbon Capture and Storage and Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage | 198 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 198 | ||
| 1.1 A Brief History of Global Warming Science, Starting with Tyndall and Arrhenius | 198 | ||
| 1.2 Early Developments in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology | 199 | ||
| 1.3 An Outline of the Various Routes for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) | 200 | ||
| 1.4 International Developments in the Deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) | 200 | ||
| 2 Pre-combustion, Post-combustion and Oxy-fuel Technologies | 201 | ||
| 2.1 An Examination of the Potential of Pre-combustion Routes | 201 | ||
| 2.2 Post-combustion Options | 202 | ||
| 2.3 Oxy-fuel Technology | 203 | ||
| 3 Chemical Looping and Calcium Looping Technologies | 204 | ||
| 3.1 State of the Art Chemical Looping Technology | 204 | ||
| 3.2 State of the Art Calcium Looping Technology | 206 | ||
| 3.3 Hybrid Chemical and Calcium Looping Technologies | 207 | ||
| 3.4 Alternative Solid CO2 Capture Approaches | 208 | ||
| 4 Biomass with CO2 Combustion (Bio-CCS) | 209 | ||
| 4.1 Potential for Using Biomass in Negative CO2 Schemes | 209 | ||
| 4.2 Evaluation of Potential Bio-CCS Technology | 209 | ||
| 5 Air Capture, Mineralisation and CO2 Utilisation (CCUS) | 209 | ||
| 5.1 An Evaluation of Air Capture Options | 209 | ||
| 5.2 A Primer on Mineralisation and its Potential | 210 | ||
| 5.3 CO2 Utilisation and Enhanced Oil Recovery | 211 | ||
| 6 Conclusions | 211 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 212 | ||
| References | 212 | ||
| Subject Index | 216 |