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Illustration of air pollutants generated by U.S. power plants (includes both coal-fired and oil-fired plants) During combustion, the reaction between coal and the air produces oxides of carbon, including carbon dioxide (CO 2, an important greenhouse gas), oxides of sulfur (mainly sulfur dioxide, SO 2), and various oxides of nitrogen (NO x).
Air pollution from this source has been reported in England since the Middle Ages. [7] [8] London, in particular, was notorious up through the mid-20th century for its coal-caused smogs, which were nicknamed "pea-soupers". Air pollution of this type is still a problem in areas that generate significant smoke from burning coal.
Photomicrograph made with a scanning electron microscope and back-scatter detector: cross section of fly ash particles. Fly ash, flue ash, coal ash, or pulverised fuel ash (in the UK)—plurale tantum: coal combustion residuals (CCRs)—is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates that are driven out of coal-fired boilers together with the flue gases.
The combustion of coal releases diverse chemicals into the air. The main products are water and carbon dioxide, just like the combustion of petroleum. Also released are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, as well as some mercury. The residue remaining after combustion, coal ash often contains arsenic, mercury, and lead. Finally, the burning of ...
A coal-fired power plant with ash ponds. Coal ash, also known as coal combustion residuals (CCRs), is the mineral residue that remains from burning coal. Exposure to coal ash and to the toxic substances it contains may pose a health risk to workers in coal-fired power plants and residents living near coal ash disposal sites.
Coal power plant wastestreams. Coal burning power plants kill many thousands of people every year with their emissions of particulates, microscopic air pollutants that enter human lungs and other human organs and induce a variety of adverse medical conditions, including asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and cancers.
Fusion forces together atoms of very light, stable elements like isotopes of hydrogen, creating slightly heavier elements like helium and producing as much as four times as much energy, per unit ...
Air pollution emission factors are usually expressed as the weight of the pollutant divided by a unit weight, volume, distance, or duration of the activity emitting the pollutant (e.g., kilograms of particulate matter emitted per megagram of coal burned). The factors help to estimate emissions from various sources of air pollution.