Chemical Processes And Its Effects On The Industrial Age

Emissions from coal fired power plants contribute to global warming, ozone smog, acid rain, regional haze, and perhaps most consequential of all from a public health standpoint, fine particle pollution.

On top of emitting 1.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, coal-fired power plants in the United States also create 120 million tons of toxic waste. That means each of the nation's 500 coal-fired power plants produces an average 240,000 tons of toxic waste each year. A power plant that operates for 40 years will leave behind 9.6 million tons of toxic waste” (2009). Coal Combustion Residue despite containing toxic metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, selenium, and cadmium that are proven to cause cancer, kidney problems, birth defects, and wreck havoc on the nervous system. Coal Combustion Residue can is disposed by either being land filled, used to reclaim mine shafts, or are stored in pits on-site of coal burning plants. Even without a spill these contaminants can leach into the ground and pose a health risk if they are not disposed of properly.

Coal is not the most abundant fossil fuel, and should not be used in the future. There are three main reasons for this, the first being that the amount of coal in the world is very close to gone. Every year, humans consume 11 billion tons of coal a year, scientists predict that the coal supply will be gone in the next 50 years (Ecotricity, 2017). Another being that coal not being a major source of energy, it is a dirty and hazardous organic matter. Coal can cause black lung disease for the miners who are harvesting the coal (Chiras, 2016). The last major reason is that burning coal is a major source of pollution for the atmosphere. The impact that coal has on the environment is detrimental. When coal is being mined it is mined by using a technique

Uncontrolled smelting process may emit large quantities of particulate matter, trace elements and sulfur oxides to air that contribute to sulphur dioxide, sulfates and sulfuric acid forming in atmosphere. Then it could potentially lead to premature deaths in the region(,). In operations of Olympic dam, majority of primary sulphur dioxide emissions are converted into sulphuric acid in the acid plant that reduce the environmental effect on air quality. Other emissions consist of oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb) and fluoride, carbon disulphide (CS2), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are emitted from either the metallurgical plant, the decomposition of xanthates within the flotation circuit or primarily from the storage and usage of hydrocarbons such as diesel separately. These emissions on vegetation from mineral processing activities could lead to reduction of the habitat values of ecosystems for some animals and

Coal is the most hazardous of all fossil fuels. When coal is burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. Clean coal technology is a collection of technologies that was developed to reduce the environmental impact of coal energy generation. When coal is used as a fuel material or source, the gaseous emissions generated by the thermal decomposition of the coal include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide ,carbon dioxide, mercury and other chemical byproducts that vary depending on the properties of coal being used. These emissions have been established to have a negative impact on the environment and human health, contributing

As the world we live in today continues to become more focused on “going green” and doing more to protect the environment, clean coal technology is one of the key focal points to look at. In 2003, each person in the United States consumed, on average, 3.7 tons of coal (Ristinen, and Kraushaar 19). This number has obviously increased year by year, and today it looms as a massive number. Coal usage has some well-documented detriments to the environment. Atmospheric problems, sulfur dioxide and acid rain, and global warming issues all can be directly linked to the heavy usage of coal burning. We Americans use massive amounts of coal each year, so naturally finding more clean and

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world and has been a critical source of heat and energy for thousands of years. It powered the industrial revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries and was the world’s primary source of energy until the late 1960s. Coal continues to be a vital source of energy today due to its low cost, accessibility, and abundance. Today, around 90% of the world’s coal is used to generate electricity or as fuel for heat or steam. Coal produces more than 40% of the world’s electricity which equals the amount of

Sulphur dioxide is naturally released into the atmosphere by volcanic activity and geothermal hot springs. Since volcanic activity varies year to year, it is difficult gain an accurate measure of the increase in atmospheric sulphur dioxide due to industrial sources.

Coal has been one of the main gases to give us energy, but it is polluting our air and destroying our ozone layer leading to warmer climates globally. Coal is not the only fossil fuel, creating these conditions, there are also oil and natural gases (hydrocarbon, nitrogen, helium, etc.) to blame. When looking at these three common air pollutants I want to focus on coal first because it has been around the longest, 1679, and arguably the biggest emission of CO2. For 3,000 years coal has been around and during this time it has become one of our biggest energy sources. “Coal was the second-largest energy source for U.S. electricity generation in 2016—about 30%.” (Quoted from U.S. Energy Information Administration). Since coal is responsible for ⅓ of our energy sources we cannot just simply get rid of it or more realistically cut down its usage easily, because there are countless cities and businesses that still use coal as their main energy source. When coal is burned, CO2, mercury, sulfur and other harming elements are released

Today’s demand for electricity is voracious, consuming 3913 billion kilowatt-hours in the United States alone6. According to the Wall Street Journal, coal is currently one of the most used fuel source to produce the United States’ energy along with natural gas, petroleum, renewable energy, and nuclear power1. For a long time, coal has been the best heat source since it contains more heat per gram and potential energy compared to wood’s meager output4. To use coal to produce electricity, the coal is heated and cooled with water. The water vapor is used to turn a turbine connected to a generator, and is later condensed back into liquid water and returned to a body of water or recycled4. The chemical formula of coal is C135H96O9NS from carbonized plant biomass but varies from different coal qualities, ranging from anthracite to peat1. What differs between each quality of coal is the amount of carbon, oxygen, and impurities such as mercury and sulfur. These impurities affect the amount of pollution that gets expelled into the atmosphere such as sulfur dioxide and poisonous mercury gas4. As a result, these pollutants cause respiratory problems and acidify water

Climate change is world issue, especially as population increases and is expected to increase by nine billion by 2050. Over thirty-percent of Duke Energy’s energy sources is coal-fired power plants (“Coal Energy”, n.d.) Moreover, power plants or electric generation contribute over thirty percent of greenhouse emissions (“Understanding Global”, n.d.). Extracting and burning of coal release many emissions: carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and residues like bottom ash. All of which, contribute to climate change and the health of the environment and its biotic factors (“Coal and”, n.d.). Simply discussing that burning coal contributes to climate change will not change anything, therefore action must be taken and this proposal

The Industrial revolution was a good occurrence yet with the good outcomes for people but there were also some negative outcomes as a result. Three environmentally negative impacts of the Industrial Revolution are air pollution, The Enclosure Movement, And water pollution. During the late 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, coal became used on a large-scale during the Industrial Revolution resulting in a dense fog of soot and harmful waste gasses covered towns built around factories. This causing the community an increase in pneumonic diseases also made it very hard to keep clean because the quantity of soot. In 1873, there was a breakout of killer fogs in London triggering larger than 1,150 deaths in just a few days from severe

The sulfur dioxide was regarded as the acknowledged toxic gas, and is also one of main factors for acid rain. Due to its severe toxicity, the major pollution incidents have even happened in human beings’ history. During 1st December and 15th December 1930, the toxic gases including the sulfur dioxide caused great loss for Meuse Valley in Belgium. The toxic gases led to thousands of people in the industrial zone of Meuse Valley were catched with respiratory diseases, and “nearly 63 people were dead within a week”. ( Benery B, HoetPH, Nemmar A. 2001) Additionally, many livestocks also could not survived and died of the toxic gases. In the incident, the mixture of SO2 and SO3 were the main dioxide smog.

Today the Sudbury region is known for mining and production of nickel, as it is located just off the Canadian Shield region that holds a vast nickel reserves. Throughout the early 20th century, many mining and smelting venture such as Inco and Falconbridge were created to take advantage of the growing nickel industry. Both are these companies used a smelting process called heap roasting method to extract the nickel from the ore. However, Smelting process is the one main source of the sulphur fumes which caused acid rain (Buhr, 1998). This results from nickel production itself, where there is 8 more times of sulphur oxides particulate in the ore than actual nickel (Crawford, 1994). At the beginning of this century, the amount of SO2 released into the atmosphere weren’t much of a concern since the nickel output was considerably small. It later became a problem as the demand for nickel production was gradually increasing (Crawford, 1994). Up till the 1970’s, the Smelting industry in the Sudbury region was one of the largest metal producing complexes in the world, which meant that it also release a massive amount of Sulphur and metal particulates into the environment. By the 1960’s, the smelting site in Sudbury was one of the largest point source of SO2 emission releasing thousands of tons of metal particulates from the smelters as graph 1 displays. (Keller, Heneberry & Gunn, 1999). As more ground level of sulphur dioxide emission

Reducing our dependence on imported coal and oil is a key driving factor behind the switch to renewable energy. Increasing prices of coal and oil are provoking countries worldwide to a more change to a more reliable and greener source of energy production. Burning of fossil fuels release carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. The accumulation of these gasses in the upper atmosphere acts as a blanket trapping heat in the atmosphere which is usually lost over time. In 2001 the Huntley Power Station released 3.26 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere while producing energy for the national grid while burning a coal fuel source.