Potential effects of clean coal technologies on acid precipitation, greenhouse gases, and solid waste disposal

Abstract

The US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program (CCTDP) was initially funded by Congress to demonstrate more efficient, economically feasible, and environmentally acceptable coal technologies. Although the environmental focus at first was on sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) and nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}) because their relationship to acid precipitation, the CCTDP may also lead to reductions in carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) emissions and in the volume of solid waste produced, compared with conventional technologies. The environmental effects of clean coal technologies (CCTs) depend upon which (if any) specific technologies eventually achieve high acceptance in the marketplace. In general, the repowering technologies and a small group of retrofit technologies show the most promise for reducing C0{sub 2} emissions and solid waste. These technologies also compare favorably with other CCTs in terms of SO{sub 2} and NO{sub x} reductions. The upper bound for CO{sup 2} reductions in the year 2010 is only enough to reduce global ``greenhouse`` warming potential by about 1%. However, CO{sub 2} emissions come from such variety of sources around the globe that no single technological innovation or national policy change could realistically be expected to reduce these emissions by more than a few percent. Particular CCTsmore » can lead to either increases or decreases in the amount of solid waste produced. However, even if decreases are not achieved, much of the solid waste from clean coal technologies would be dry and therefore easier to dispose of than scrubber sludge.« less