Clean coal? myth or reality?

    What is clean coal? This is a very misleading term, because, hello? There is no such thing as clean coal, there is just a group of people trying to convince us to keep using coal as a resource to create energy. In fact, the term clean coal was popularized in 2008 when climate change was still highly questioned amongst most people. The reason that we use coal is because it is very cost efficient in saving the U.S. a lot of money, but we are allowing the greed of money to dictate our population’s health. But still, what is clean coal? Clean coal is referring to the ways we can try and control the damage that is done from the burning and abstracting of coal. According to the Clean Air Task Force there is an estimated 7,5000 premature deaths every single year just amongst the company workers. The workers however are not the only people at risk, according to a research conducted by Carnegie Mellon, a researcher on the economics and public safety team, babies born in the areas where the carbon is in the air, have been reported at a low birth weight. Because the babies are born with a low birth weight, they have a lesser shot of having a long and healthy life. One way that the U.S. contributes to the cleaning of coal is by their carbon capture and storage factory, Perta Nova, that is located around Houston, Texas. This is the only factory of its kind in the entire country, and they were awarded $190 Million dollars from the Obama administration to open and operate. What makes Petra Nova so exquisit is that this factory can actually take the carbon that is released from the usage of coal, and can pump that carbon to the nearby oil factories in the area where they are able to use it. The reason that other factories do not want to mess with the storage and transportation of carbon is because of the necessary expenses that are involved with it. Another way to contain and discharge of the carbon is ocean storage. Ocean storage is where they take the CO2 and inject it into the ocean 1,500-9,000 ft into the ocean where it eventually dissolves. In order to contain and transport carbon above land, companies would need to pay to install scrubbers. Scrubbers are used for flue gas desulfurization systems, which removes sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is a major cause of acid rain. Flue gas desulfurization system is when limestone and water are sprayed mixed with sulfur dioxide to create synthetic gypsum. Not only does this eliminate worry of acid rain, but the synthetic gypsum that is created is used to create drywall. Another way that we could significantly help with the dangers of coal consumption is by washing the coal that we use. How do you wash coal? Most of the coal washing process uses upward currents or pulses of a fluid, usually water is used, to fluidize a bed of crushed coal and impurities. After the rapids, the lighter coal particles elevate and are removed from the top of the bed. The heaver impurities are remaining on the bottom of the bed and are then collected to be burned and used to turn the turbines. Another way to produce cleaner coal is by integrated gasification combined cycle, known as (IGCC). IGCC is the process where steam and very hot pressurized air combine with coal in a reaction that forces carbon molecules to break apart. Integrated gasification combined cycle creates syngas which is cleaned and then burned in a gas turbine to make electricity. So no, there is not a such thing as clean coal, only cleaner coal.