Herminé Nalbandian, ,Air Pollution Control Technologies and their Interactions (2004) International...

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International Journal of Coa

Book review

Hermine Nalbandian, Air Pollution Control

Technologies and their Interactions, International

Energy Agency, 2004, CCC/92, 75 pp.

With the regulation of coal combustion emissions

in developed countries and a large growth in coal

combustion in developing countries, a synergy

emerges in the selection of the best coals to fit the

desired/required emission standards. For many years,

coal purchases have been driven by parameters such

as ash, sulfur, and heating value. While such choices

will not vanish from coal marketing, other criteria

will play a greater role as new emission standards are

enforced.

Fig. 1 shows 24 projected air quality initiatives

between 2004 and 2013, just for the US. The need to

restrict mercury emissions, just as one example, may

lead to purchases based on the amount of Hg in a coal,

perhaps in combination with the amount of chlorine.

The control of Hg emissions, as dictated by US

Environmental Protection Agency rules issued 15

March 2005 (http://www.epa.gov/mercuryrule/), will

result in a number of consequences, possibly including

ruining fly ash due to the addition of activated carbon to

remove Hg in the flue gas. Another consequence may

be a renewed interest in high-S coal, both because of

the co-benefit of Cl in the coal aiding in the oxidation

and capture of Hg, but also because, if flue-gas

desulfurization is installed, utilities may decide to

purchase the less-expensive high-S coal instead of

higher-cost low-S Appalachian coal or low-Cl western

US subbituminous coal. The impacts of regulations, in

turn, impact the decisions regarding coal purchases

which, in turn, impact mine planning.

IEA books are produced on a short time frame,

keeping the contents current (but also leading to rapid

doi:10.1016/j.coal.2005.04.001

obsolescence). Regrettably, this also leads to errors in

the text. For example, flue-gas entrained particles of

larger than 1 m are mentioned on page 14. The

conversion of pounds per 1012 Btu (page 28), a unit

not particularly well understood in the non-US world,

to kilograms per 10.5 PJ is not only awkward in

consideration of standard expression of SI units, but

inaccurate (the equivalency is 1 lb/1012 Btu=0.4299

kg/PJ). On page 38, the average Hg content of coal

purchased by US utilities is about 0.1 ppm, not

0.01 ppm.

While readers need to be cautious in working

around the errors, the basic information concerning

present, pending, and projected in the US and in

other countries is a valuable summary for anyone in

mine planning and coal marketing. In most countries,

air quality regulations will impact the use of coal for

the foreseeable future, and probably as long as coal is

used for power production. The interactions between

air pollution technologies and the unintended con-

sequences of pollution control will continue to drive

coal research.

The book is typical of IEA books in price: $480 in

non-IEA member countries, $160 for purchasers in

IEA member countries (Australia, Austria, Canada,

Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,

Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the USA), and $80

for educational establishments within member

countries.

James C. Hower

University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy

Research, 2540 Research Park Drive,

Lexington, KY 40511, USA

E-mail address: hower@caer.uky.edu.

Tel.: +1 859 257 0261; fax: +1 859 257 0360.

l Geology 63 (2005) 276