Chapter 7 COAL Penn State College of Earth （第七章煤炭,宾州州立大学的地球）.pdf

Chapter 7 COAL If we as a nation are to benefit in the future from our enormous, low-cost coal reserves, a variety of efforts are necessary to (1) develop and demonstrate new “clean coal” technologies; (2) reduce uncertainty over environmental regulation and allow electric power plants (which use more than four-fifths of all the coal consumed in the United States) maximum flexibility in their actions to comply with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990; (3) provide regulatory incentives to offset financial risks in commercial development of new clean coal technology; (4) reduce the cost, investment risks, and environmental impacts of producing liquid fuels from coal; and (5) confront head-on the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with the use of coal. (National Energy Strategy, Executive Summary , 1991/1992) The Administrations policy is to help industry develop cleaner and more efficient uses for coal as part of the U.S. energy portfolio. Because the primary risks of coal use are environmental rather than economic or security-related, technology development and deployment that reduce environmental impact are critical to sustaining coals contribution to U.S. energy needs. (Sustainable Energy Strategy, 1995) 114 CHAPTER 7 Coal is an organic rock (as opposed to most other rocks in the earths crust, such as clays and sandstone, which are inorganic); it contains mostly carbon (C), but it also has hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N), as well as some inorganic constituents (minerals) and water (H2O). Most of the worlds coal exists in the northern hemisphere. The United States, former Soviet Union an