IPSFZC

coal/clean coal fired power

A coal fired power station burns coal to produce electricity. Central station coal-fired power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation. In many countries, such plants provide most of the electrical energy used. Coal-fired power stations have rotating machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in small plants, a reciprocating internal combustion engine. All plants use the energy extracted from expanding gas - steam or combustion gases. Very few MHD generators have been built which directly convert the energy of moving hot gas into electricity.

Clean coal technologies are several generations of technological advances that have led to more efficient combustion of coal with reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Power plants being built today emit 90 percent less pollutants (SO2, NOx, particulates and mercury) than the plants they replace from the 1970s, according the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Regulated emissions from coal-based electricity generation have decreased overall by over 40 percent since the 1970s, while coal use has tripled.