ENV200H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Coal Slurry, Solar Panel, Unconventional Oil
Document Summary
Strip mines = large machines scrape off overlying sediment to expose coal seams: mountaintop removal = the whole top of a mountain ridge is scraped off to access buried coal. One of the most environmentally destructive methods of coal mining. Coal may be on the way out (cid:173) coal is providing less of our electricity: federal regulations are part of this decline. Epa will slash the allowable mercury, arsenic, chromium, and fine particulates emissions from coal-fired power plants. Delayed for decades by owners of old power plants, who argued that their facilities were about to be closed anyway and so they shouldn"t have to install expensive pollution control equipment. Epa will limit carbon emissions from power plants. There are cleaner ways to generate energy from coal: gasification = heating a coal slurry at high pressure in the presence of almost pure oxygen. Coal reacts with oxygen and breaks down into a variety of gases (e. g. , hydrogen, co2)
