User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

The major air pollutants emitted by coal-fired power plants are sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter, and mercury (Hg).

The currently available (2008) technology for flue gas clean-up can remove 99.9% of the fly ash, 99% of the sulfur dioxide and about 90% of the nitrogen dioxides.

Coal-fired power plants also emit large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO₂) which is not a pollutant in the traditional sense. In fact, it is essential for all plant life on Earth through photosynthesis. However, it is a greenhouse gas considered to have a major role in so-called global warming. 50% of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal.2 � Th ere are the equivalent of more than fi ve hundred, 500 megawatt, coal-fi red power plants in the United States with an average age of 35 years.2 � China is currently constructing the equivalent of two, 500 megawatt, coal-fi red power plants per week and a capacity comparable to the entire UK power grid each year.3 � One 500 megawatt coal-fi red power plant produces approximately 3 million tons/year of carbon dioxide (CO2).3 � Th e United States produces about 1.5 billion tons per year of CO2 from coal-burning power plants. � If all of this CO2 is transported for sequestration, the quantity is equivalent to three times the weight and, under typical operating conditions, one-third of the annual volume of natural gas transported by the U.S. gas pipeline system. � If 60% of the CO2 produced from U.S. coal-based power generation were to be captured and compressed to a liquid for geologic sequestration, its volume would about equal the total U.S. oil consumption of 20 million barrels per day.