Analysis Of The Buck Steam Station

Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. With all of the talk surrounding nuclear energy, hydropower and biofuels, you might be forgiven for thinking that grimy coal is finally on its way out. On the other hand, coal is no sooty remnant of the Industrial Revolution - it generates half of the electricity in the United States and will likely continue to do so as long as it's cheap and plentiful . Clean coal technology seeks to reduce harsh environmental effects by using multiple technologies to clean. Coal is a fossil fuel composed primarily of carbons and hydrocarbons. Its ingredients help make plastics, tar and fertilizers. A coal derivative, a solidified carbon called coke, melts iron ore and reduces it to create steel. But most coal - 92 percent of the U.S. supply - goes into power production .Electric companies and businesses with power plants burn coal to make the steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. When coal burns, it releases carbon dioxide and other emissions in flue gas, the billowing clouds you see pouring out of smoke stacks. Some clean coal technologies purify the coal before it burns. One type of coal preparation, coal washing, removes unwanted minerals by mixing crushed coal with a liquid and allowing the impurities to separate and settle. Other systems control the coal burn to minimize emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and

In particular, the state of Pennsylvania has created a number of regulations to control the modern day fracking procedures and practices. Companies like Chesapeake Energy utilize a combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to obtain more natural gas and cover more area. Currently, 30% of our country’s natural gas supply is extracted domestically and contributes to the 25% of our nation’s energy that comes from natural gas. Coal is the main source of energy at 30% and following natural gas are nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar. Natural gas leaves half the amount of carbon footprint that coal leaves. Natural gas is primarily used for electric power, but is also used to create material such as steel, glass, paper, cloth, and brick. It is also used in raw material such as paints, fertilizer, plastics, antifreeze, dyes, photographic film, medicines, and explosives. (EIA,

It implies that it is possible to make coal a fuel source that is free of (or very low in) carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutant emissions. Some of the techniques that would be used to accomplish this include chemically washing minerals and impurities from the coal, gasification (see also IGCC), treating the flue gases with steam to remove sulfur dioxide, carbon capture and storage technologies to capture the carbon dioxide from the flue gas and dewatering lower rank coals (brown coals) to improve the calorific value, and thus the efficiency of the conversion into electricity.

What is coal ash, and how does it relate to North Carolina? Coal ash is a mixture of chemicals and metals that are a threat to the environment and the well- being of others. The dangers of coal ash increase as the ponds they are stored in are being located near power plants sitting beside our water sources. Sadly, we Americans use coal for a significant number of things. This may include electricity, steel, cement, etc. North Carolina has 30 additional sites of coal manufacturing located in 14 different locations. As a community, we continuously take resources that we need such as water for granted. We don’t realize how contamination of our water sources can affect our daily lives.

In 1930s the thermal power by coal, was becoming an unprecedented era of great development. In the mid of 1950s the capacity of thermal power generating units improved from 200 to 300 megawatt to 600 megawatt. In 1973, the largest thermal power was 1300 MW. At the end of the 1980s, the world's largest thermal power plant with a capacity of 4400 MW was Japan's Kagoshima thermal power plant. However, people found that the bigger the unit, the lower the reliability and the availability. Thus in the early 1990s, the thermal power became stable at the unit capacity of 300 to 700 MW. (Barrow, 126)

The energy we get from coal today comes from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. When an area is to be mined, topsoil and subsoil are removed from the rock and so is another material, call overburden, to expose the bed of coal. All living plants give solar energy through photosynthesis. When plants die the energy gets out as the plants decay. The whole decaying process gets interrupted which prevents the release of the stored solar energy, then the energy stays locked in the coal. The plant material gets subjected to high temperatures and pressures which causes physical and chemical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into peat and then into coal. The formation of peat is the first step in the geological formation of fossil fuels such as coal. Peat plants is not only the first step for formation but they also capture CO2 itself. There are many effect to the environment when it comes to coal; an example is AMD which stands for Acid mine drainage; it includes the outflow of acidic water from coal mines or metal mines. Mines exposed rocks containing pyrite which reacts to water and air to form acid and dissolved iron and can easily wash into rivers and streams. Coal is a huge impact when it comes to hurting our

Jason Hayes, communications director for the American Coal Council says “the industry over the past few decades had invested over $100 billion in cleaning up emissions and it’s already been effective. All of the important noxious pollutants have decreased markedly over the last 30 to 40 years. We’ve been doing all of this on top of dealing with everything else.” Coal may not be green, but it is a source of energy American needs. It is cheap and efficient. Without coal, America wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today. The coal mined here isn’t just used for energy. America’s

The production of coal energy produces the most amount of carbon dioxide than any other method. It is a non-renewable energy source, and coal mines destroy most of the surrounding areas around it. With the recession going on, no one is buying into coal power plants at the moment which is an economy issue. (Center for Energy)

Coal power is the cheapest fuel to power the ever growing population with Australian mining industry still putting in billions of dollars into a vast amount of coal projects never the less coal power is a fossil fuel, a fuel which takes hundreds of year to form so the future of coal is undetermined. Coal is a reliable power source but one of the many concern with coal is the mining process used to remove it from the ground. Ecological effects are developing worries for the industry, with the carbon emissions possibly contributing to global warming.

“720 tons of carbon monoxide is a main cause of global warming (Why We Need To Quit Coal)”, “3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas also contributes to global warming(Why We Need To Quit Coal)”, “10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide which is a main contributor to smog and acid rains(Why We Need To Quit Coal)”, also over “125,000 tons of ashe and 193,000 tons of sludge from smokestack scrubbers from coal plants(Why We Need To Quit Coal)”. There are many ways to get rid of coal completely but would take a lot of time and space. “We could build 243 hydroelectric dams that have hoover dams generating capacity which is about 2,000 megawatts(Kenward)”. “We could build 10,200 solar energy farms the size of the largest, Topaz energy farm in California but the space needed for this would be about three times the size of Delaware (kenward)”. “We could build 194,000 wind turbines having 2 megawatts each but that's about 8,000 (Kenward)” a year to reach Obama's goal, or “we could build 64 nuclear power plants the size of indian point power station in New York” (Kenward)”. This is all examples of clean energy that we have the technology for but would take a lot of time, money, and space. But with clean energy there is always cons. “If we converted to water power some good things that would happen would be, expands irrigation, provides water for 30% of irrigated land, and provides drinking water(Sideris)”! Now some cons are, “Water wars between the dams, maintenance on dams, expensive, and people would have to relocated(Sideris)”. “For nuclear power it would be very bad because a meltdown could occur and end up like chernobyl(Sideris)”! But not everything is bad about nuclear power like, “the fuel can be recycled, low cost,

Coal’s reputation has become as black as coal itself, but without it the quality of life that hundreds of millions of people enjoy today would not be possible. Coal has been used in many ways throughout history and it will continue to be a vital resource in supplying the energy needed to fuel an energy hungry world. Research cited throughout this paper suggests that coal is an energy source for the future because it is stable and reliable with abundant reserves, it is the most affordable and efficient fuel source used to produce power, and because of new clean coal technologies, coal can be burned with minimal to no damage to the environment.

To begin, coal is a combustible black rock which consist mainly is carbonized plant matter, and it found mostly in underground deposits and it is widely used for fuel. As time went on we could see the advantages of coal however, gradually we could see the disadvantages. One advantage of coal is that I can easily burn therefore making it easier to produce more quick energy. Another advantage would be that coal energy is affordable due to its stable price unlike other different energy producers. However, on the opposite side there are many disadvantages. For one, coal energy is depleting rapidly because many people consume large amounts of it daily. Also, the process in which it is obtained is very dangerous. Situations like cave-ins and explosion could and have occurred while men were mining.

Natural gas is made into energy when CPS Energy operates 14 gas units to complement its energy generation efforts with coal, nuclear and renewable energy. The turbines suck in air, mix it with the fuel and ignite a fireball. The hot gases from the fireball impact the blades of the turbine to cause motion, creating mechanical energy. The generator converts the mechanical energy into electricity before it is transmitted for customer use. (CPS Energy, 2013)

After the coal has been removed form the earth, it is still not ready for use; it must first be refined. Coal must first be separated form foreign materials, for example other minerals, to be considered useful to us. One way of doing this is called coal washing. The coal is first crushed into smaller pieces, and then a liquid is used to separate the coal based on density. Coal that is higher in density harbors more ash, so is left behind, whereas low-density coal has contains little ash and is more desirable. Another process to separate coal from foreign materials is call dry-shaling, which works without the use of liquid. After being separated, coal can be processed into coke, and eventually steel. When coal is transported, it can be by means of truck, train, or ship, and can go nearly anywhere. Truck and train transportation are the cheapest forms, particularly train if you are shipping a great amount, and ships are used for overseas transport.

CO2 is the most significant greenhouse gas, which mainly comes from the use of fossil fuels. Many people feel that content of CO2 in the atmosphere is the main reason for manmade global warming. The main sources of CO2 emissions involve electricity generation, industrial processes, fumes from transportation and commercial buildings and use. Emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, to the atmosphere are expected to cause even more of a significant change in global climate (Davison, 2007). The main focus to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to reduce the amount that is released from coal-fired power plants. Greenhouse gas emissions that involve the productions of electricity come from natural gas production and coal-fired power plant operations. Natural gas production accounts for twenty-four percent and coal-fired power plant operations accounts for seventy-five percent, while the other one percent is caused by other electricity generation operations. The main reason why coal-fired power plants have a higher percentage of emissions is because the sulfur content of coal is much higher than that of other fossil fuels (Jarmaillo et al., 2007). This proves that there is a great need to find an alternative fossil fuel to use instead of coal. Although coal is easy to mine, transport and process for the electricity generation process, it is also the