Energy Conversion Engineering Towards Low CO2 Power and Fuels

Coal is a widely available cheap fuel that has been used extensively in heating, electricity generation, and industrial processes. Coal reserves and resources are the largest among other known fossil fuel reserves and resources. Besides carbon, hydrogen, and some oxygen, raw coal contains, among other things, sulfur, metallic compounds, mercury, and nitrogen. Technologies have been developed to utilize coal while limiting the emissions of “criteria” pollutants, including sulfur compounds, nitric oxides, mercury, and fine particulates. While increasing the cost of electricity by raising the plant capital cost and lowering its efficiency, these technologies made it possible to continue to expand the use of coal without negatively affecting air quality. More recently, coal use has accelerated significantly in developing economies. This and the fact that coal produces the largest amount of CO2 per unit of useful energy has intensified the effort to improve the overall efficiency of coal power plant and to develop technologies for CO2 capture from these plants.