Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has estimated that at the aggregate level (i.e., without accounting for particle size, chemical composition, and source), approximately 80% of total global exposure to airborne particulate matter occurs indoors in developing nations. Details of exposure for various household members, and the roles of both pollution and behavior (e.g., location with respect to stove and activities), have been studied and evaluated using new tools and technology. (more…)

A combination of legislation and technology has helped clean up many of the world’s coal-burning plants. Both developed and developing countries have adopted increasingly stringent environmental regulations to govern emissions from coal-fired power plants. In the United States, all coal-fired power plants built after 1978 must be equipped with postcombustion cleanup devices to capture pollutants before they escape into the atmosphere. Cyclones, baghouses, and electrostatic precipitators filter out nearly 99% of the particulates. Flue gas scrubbers use a slurry of crushed limestone and water to absorb sulfur oxides from flue gas. The limestone reacts with the sulfur dioxide to form calcium sulfate, which may be used to produce wallboard. Staged combustion and low-NOx burners are used to burn coal to minimize NOx formation. Another strategy, selective catalytic reduction, reacts ammonia with NOx over a catalyst to produce nonpolluting nitrogen and water vapor.

Conventional coal-fired power plants capture pollutants from the flue gas after it leaves the boiler. Circulating fluidized bed (CFB) combustors capture most of the pollutants before they leave the furnace. Crushed coal particles and limestone circulate inside the CFB combustor, suspended by an upward flow of hot air. Sulfur oxides released during combustion are absorbed by the limestone, forming calcium sulfate, which drops to the bottom of the boiler. The CFB combustor operates at a lower temperature (14001F) compared to pulverized coal (PC) boilers (27001F), which also helps reduce the formation of NO x .

Precombustion coal cleaning is another strategy to reduce sulfur emissions by cleaning the coal before it arrives at the power plant. Sulfur in coal is present as pyrite (FeS2 ), which is physically bound to the coal as tiny mineral inclusions, and as ‘‘organic sulfur,’’ which is chemically bound to the carbon and other atoms in coal. Pyrite is removed in a coal preparation plant, where coal is crushed into particles less than 2 inches in size and is washed in a variety of devices that perform gravity-based separations. Clean coal floats to the surface, whereas pyrite and other mineral impurities sink. Additional cleaning may be performed with flotation cells, which separate coal dust from its impurities based on differences in surface properties. Precombustion removal of organic sulfur can be accomplished only by chemical cleaning. So far, coal combustion emissions and chemical cleaning has proved to be too costly, thus flue gas scrubbers are often required to achieve near-complete removal of sulfur pollutants.

The tightening of environmental regulations is likely to continue throughout the world. In the United States, for example, by December 2008, it is anticipated that coal-fired power plants will have to comply with maximum emission levels for mercury. Emissions of mercury and other trace metals, such as selenium, are under increasing scrutiny of coal combustion emissions because of suspected adverse effects on public health.

Coal is sometimes combusted with waste material as a combined waste reduction/electricity production strategy. The disposal of waste from agriculture and forestry (biomass), municipalities, and hospitals becomes costly when landfill space is limited. Some wastes, particularly biomass feedstock, are combustible, but their low energy density (compared with coal) limits their use as an electricity production fuel. Blending coal with these fuels provides an economical method to produce electric power, reduce waste, and decrease coal plant emissions. Most wood wastes, compared to coal, contain less fuel nitrogen and burn at lower temperatures. These characteristics lead to lower NO x formation. In addition, wood contains minimal sulfur ( o 0.1% by weight) and thus reduces the load on scrubbers and decreases scrubber waste biomass.

Numerous electric utilities have demonstrated that 1–8% of woody drying biomass can be blended with coal with no operational problems. Higher blends may also be used, but require burner and feed intake modifications as well as a separate feed system for the waste fuel. Cofiring in fluidized bed boilers may avoid some of these drawbacks, but the economics of co-firing are not yet sufficiently attractive to make it a widespread practice.

Gasification is a thermo chemical process that has been exploited for more than a century for converting solid feedstocks to gaseous energy carriers. The first gasifier patent was issued in England at the end of the 18th century and producer gas from coal gasification was mainly used as lighting fuel throughout the 19th century. At the turn of the 20th century, the main use of producer gas, obtained essentially from coal, switched to electricity generation and automotive applications via internal combustion engines. The use of producer gas was gradually supplanted by the use of higher energy density liquid fuels and as a result confined to areas with expensive or unreliable supplies of petroleum fuels. (more…)

The energy efficiencies of various fuel production pathways from well to pump. The efficiencies shown are defined as the energy in a given fuel (available at pumps in vehicle refueling stations) divided by total energy inputs during all Well-to-Pump activities, including the energy content of the fuel. One way to interpret the Well-to-Pump efficiencies in the figure is as the difference between 100% and the energy efficiencies, which roughly represent energy losses during Well-to-Pump stages for making a given fuel available at the pump. As stated in Section 3, Well-to-Pump activities include biomass feedstock production; feedstock transportation and storage; fuel production; and fuel transportation, storage, and distribution. (more…)

At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or reformulated gasoline) and diesel fuels. Since the first oil price shock in 1973, efforts have been made to seek alternative fuels to displace gasoline and diesel fuels and achieve energy and environmental benefits. Some of the alternative fuels that have been researched and used are liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), methanol (MeOH), dimethyl ether (DME), Fischer– Tropsch diesel (FTD), hydrogen (H 2 ), ethanol (EtOH), biodiesel, and electricity. Production processes associated with gasoline, diesel, and each of these alternative fuels differ. (more…)

The fuel cycle for a given transportation fuel includes the following processes: energy feedstock (or primary energy) production; biomass feedstock transportation and storage; fuel production; fuel transportation, storage, and distribution; and vehicle operations that involve fuel combustion air or other chemical energy conversions. The processes that precede vehicle operations are often referred to as the well-to-pump (WTP) stage, the vehicle operations are referred to as the pump-to-wheels (PTW) stage, and the entire fuel cycle is referred to as the well-to-wheels (WTW) cycle. Various models have been developed that allow researchers to conduct fuel cycle analyses of vehicle/fuel systems. The GREET (greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy transportation) model, developed by Argonne National Laboratory, is in the public domain and, so far, more than 1000 users worldwide have used the model to predict the energy use and emissions associated with alternative fuels vehicles. The GREET model and its documents are posted on the Internet at http:// greet.anl.gov. (more…)

Thermo chemical processing of biomass yields gaseous, liquid, and solid products and offers a means of producing useful gaseous and/or liquid fuels. Biomass gasification is a total degradation process consisting of a sequence of thermal and thermo chemical processes that converts practically all the carbon in the biomass to gaseous form, leaving an inert residue. The gas produced consists of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrogen (N2) (if air is used as the oxidizing agent) and contains impurities, such as small char particles, ash, tars, and oils. The solid residue will consist of ash (composed principally of the oxides of Ca, K, Na, Mg, and Si) and possibly carbon or char. (more…)

Biofuels are made from living matter, plant or animal, and are strongly favored by agricultural interests because of the large boost they bring to domestic farms. Most U.S. biofuels is made from corn (ethanol) or soybeans (biodiesel), although several unusual fuel sources are emerging, including algae and oil waste from deep-frying of foods. The biofuels industry experienced meteoric growth in 2005, 2006 and early 2007, but then it began to slow because of high feedstock prices. Private investment in biofuels finished off 2007 at $2.1 billion, according to ‘Global Trends in Sustainable Energy’, a report by New Energy Finance and United Nations Environmental program. (more…)

To date, most discussion and research relating to the various of biomass role in mitigating CO2 emissions has been focused around its use as a fuel or as a sink. However, full utilization of the potential of biomass products, particularly from woody biomass, may provide significant opportunities. (more…)

Biodegradable materials are considered those materials that can be destroyed by microorganisms. To prevent the accumulation of non-biodegradable compounds in nature, there are two solutions that are currently under investigation: use roots or microbial strains that can attack thought products were not degradable, biodegradable materials or develop common strains. (more…)