China Needs Clean Air- Well we all Do!

Being a world mega giant for manufacturing is good for GDP but hard on your home ground.

China over Bo Hai Bay the Yellw Sea

China: Only 1% of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union because all the China's major cities are constantly covered in a "toxic gray shroud". Before and during the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing was frantically searching for a magic formula to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics. The pollution has spread internationally, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo; and according to the Journal of Geophysical Research, the pollution even reaches Los Angeles in the USA.

Coal production and consumption have tripled since 2000, while steel output is expected to have reached around 793.66 million tons in 2012, over five times the 2000 rate. Last year China burned more than 3.6 billion tons of coal and some people expect that to increase to 4 or 5 billion tons. Remember 3 times the amount is released in Co2, man you're going to suffocate can't breathe money.

Micrograms (mcg) per cubic meter of particulate matter (PM) is measured from the air quality in which people breath. Mcg is the weight and PM is the size of that matter. Particulate matter originates from a variety of sources, including diesel trucks, power plants, wood stoves and industrial processes. The chemical and physical composition of these various particles vary widely. While individual particles cannot be seen with the naked eye, collectively they can appear as black soot, dust clouds, or gray hazes.

China's Air Crisis 

Those particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are known as "fine" particles; those larger than 2.5 micrometers are known as "coarse" particles. Fine particles result from fuel combustion (from motor vehicles, power generation, industrial facilities), residential fireplaces and wood stoves. Fine particles can be formed in the atmosphere from gasses such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds. Coarse particles are generally emitted from sources such as vehicles traveling on unpaved roads, materials handling, and crushing and grinding operations, and windblown dust.

January 2013 the pollution had worsened with official Beijing data showing an average figure of PM2.5 over 300mcg and readings of up to 700mcg at individual recording stations while the US Embassy recorded over 755mcg on January 1 and 800mcg by January 12. At this point, you need a self-contain breathing apparatus.

CNBC

 

Coal Burning Plants

Coal is a sedimentary rock

130-140 cars with 100 short tons of coal in each one, for a total load of over 15,000 tons fuels a large plant under full load, requires at least one coal delivery this size every day. Plants may get as many as three to five trains a day, especially in "peak season" during the hottest summer or coldest winter months. The Co2 released from coal burning is 3 times that of every load.  While it is possible to remove most of the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter (PM) emissions from the coal-burning process, carbon dioxide emissions and radionuclides are more difficult to address.  Acid rain is caused by the emission of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.  These gasses may be only mildly acidic themselves, yet when they react with the atmosphere, they create acidic compounds such as sulfurous acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid which fall as rain, hence the term acid rain.

Of the fossil fuels, coal is more carbon intensive than oil or natural gas, resulting in greater volumes of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of electricity generated. In 2010, coal contributed about 81% of CO2 emissions from generation and contributed about 45% of the electricity generated in the United States.  

Coal is a sedimentary rock formed primarily from accumulated plant matter, and it includes many inorganic minerals and elements which were deposited along with organic material during its formation. As the rest of the Earth's crust, coal also contains low levels of uranium, thorium, and other naturally-occurring radioactive isotopes whose release into the environment leads to radioactive contamination.  

U.S. government scientists tested fish in 291 streams around the country for mercury contamination. They found mercury in every fish tested, according to the study by the U.S. Department of the Interior. They found mercury even in fish of isolated rural waterways. Twenty-five percent of the fish tested had mercury levels above the safety levels determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

https://www.firstenergycorp.com/content/fecorp/community.html

We're trying to clean this up a hard balance, clean and affordable energy. We're working wind, solar but that's going to take a while, there's natural gas and GE along with Siemens have developed high-end turbans for that. Another development is Hybrid power plants which use natural gas, solar and wind, until we can move into the future of clean energy  plants we're working on "Clean Coal" a process at which the co2 will be captured and stored deep in the ground, we don't know the long effect of injecting the co2 so the facts are not in yet on "Clean Coal". From 2008 here is a look at what First Energy is doing with their coal plants. 

First Energy 

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