Clean coal
See also: Coke (fuel) and Anthracite
Clean coal is an umbrella term used to de-
scribe methods that have been developed to
reduce the environmental impact of coal-
based electricity, which accounts for nearly
half of the United States’ electricity supply.
These efforts include chemically washing
minerals and impurities from the coal, gasi-
fication (see also IGCC), treating the flue
gases with steam to remove sulfur dioxide,
carbon capture and storage technologies to
capture the carbon dioxide from the flue gas
and coal de-watering technologies to improve
the calorific quality and thus the efficiency of
burning coal for energy. These methods and
the technology used are described as clean
coal technologies. Figures from the Environ-
mental Protection Agency show that these
technologies have made today’s coal-based
generating fleet 77 percent cleaner on the
basis of regulated emissions per unit of en-
ergy produced.[1]
While the term “clean coal” is today com-
monly used to describe carbon capture tech-
nologies, the earliest use of the term can be
traced back to U.S. Senate Bill 911 in April,
1987:
“The term clean coal technology means
any technology…deployed at a new or exist-
ing facility which will achieve significant re-
ductions in air emissions of sulfur dioxide or
oxides of nitrogen associated with the utiliza-
tion of coal in the generation of electricity.”
It was in the late 1980s and early 1990s
that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
conducted a joint program with the industry
and State agencies to demonstrate these
technologies large enough for commercial
use. The program, called the Clean Coal
Technology & Clean Coal Power Initiative [2],
has had a number of successes that have re-
duced emissions and waste from coal-based
electricity generation [4]. Moreover, the Pro-
gram has met regulatory challenges by incor-
porating nitrogen oxide (NOx) control tech-
nologies “into a portfolio of cost-effective
regulatory compliance options for the full
range of boiler types.” This portfolio has posi