Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
technology is that its high rate of plant renewal or building gives it the
opportunity to introduce new technology. For the same reason, half of all
its coal plants also now have flue gas desulphurization (FGD) equipment:
as its name suggests, this takes the sulphur dioxide out of the flue gases
which escape up the smoke stack. Sulphur dioxide is not a greenhouse gas,
but a cause of acid rain, which strips leaves off trees.
But all this new technology only reduces the relative impact of China's
surge in coal use. By doubling the absolute level of its coal consumption
over the past decade, China has overtaken the US to be the largest single
pumper of carbon into the atmosphere.
Moreover, although China's rulers in Beijing are imposing more mod-
ern technology on new or larger power plants, they are having difficulty
getting their orders for the closure of smaller, older, dirtier coal mines and
power plants carried out across their huge country.
Longwall mining machines consist of multiple coal shearers mounted on a series
of self-advancing hydraulic ceiling supports. They extract “panels” - rectangular
blocks of coal as wide as the mining machinery and as long as 12,000 feet (3650
metres).
