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www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcoalgeo
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: [email protected].
Tel.: +1 859 257 0261; fax: +1 859 257 0360.
l Geology 63 (2005) 276