Alternatives for Future Coal Waste Disposal - Coal Waste Impoundments: Risks, Responses, and Alternatives - page 129

FIGURE 7.4 Typical circulating fluidized bed arrangement. Reprinted, with
permission, from Rousaki and Couch, 2000. Courtesy of IEA Coal Research.
percent fuel-to-electricity efficiency level and have near-zero NO x , SO 2 ,
and participate emissions. Market entry is projected for 2008 (DOE, 2001).
Coal-water slurry has advantages as a feed for pressurized fluidized-bed
systems, as compared with dry lump coal, because it can be easily introduced
by pumping (J.Morrison and B.Miller, Pennsylvania State University, personal
communication, 2001).
Fluidized-bed combustion has also been demonstrated for low heat content
waste found in piles in the Pennsylvania anthracite and bituminous mining
regions and elsewhere. At least 14 such plants are operating in Pennsylvania
(Couch, 1998), and additional plants have operated in West Virginia and
Illinois. Similarly, fluidized-bed plants in Utah and Montana burn coal from
mine refuse piles consisting of low-grade surface coal layers discarded during
the beginning of surface mining operations (Couch, 1998;