Environmental issues from coal mining and their solutions

The environmental challenges from coal mining include coal mine accidents,land subsidence,damage to the water environment,mining waste disposal and air pollution.These are either environmental pollution or landscape change.A conceptual framework for solving mine environmental issues is proposed.Clean processes,or remediation measures,are designed to address environmental pollution.Restoration measures are proposed to handle landscape change.The total methane drainage from 56 Chinese high methane concentration coal mines is about 101.94 million cubic meters.Of this methane,19.32 million,35.58 million and 6.97 million cubic meters are utilized for electricity generation,civil fuel supplies and other industrial purposes,respectively.About 39% of the methane is emitted into the atmosphere.The production of coal mining wastes can be decreased 10% by reuse of mining wastes as underground fills,or by using the waste as fuel for power plants or for raw material to make bricks or other infrastructure materials.The proper use of mined land must be decided in terms of local physical and socio-economical conditions.In European countries more than 50% of previously mined lands are reclaimed as forest or grass lands.However,in China more than 70% of the mined lands are reclaimed for agricultural purposes because the large population and a shortage of farmlands make this necessary.Reconstruction of rural communities or native residential improvement is one environmental problem arising from mining.We suggest two ways to reconstruct a farmer's house in China.

Progress of the technique of coal microwave desulfurization

With the advantages of its fast speed,effective and moderate controllable conditions,desulfurization of coal by microwave has become research focus in the field of clean coal technology.Coal is a homogeneous mixture which consists of various components with different dielectric properties,so their abilities to absorb microwaves are different,and the sulfur-containing components are better absorbers of microwave,which makes them can be selectively heated and reacted under microwave irradiation.There still remain controversies on the principle of microwave desulfurization at present,thermal effects or non-thermal effects.The point of thermal effects of microwave is mainly base on its characters of rapidly and selectly heating.While,in view of non-thermal effect,direct interactions between the microwave electromagnetic field and sulfur containing components are proposed.It is a fundamental problem to determine the dielectric properties of coal and the sulfur-containing components to reveal the interaction of microwave and sulfur-containing compounds.However,the test of dielectric property of coal is affected by many factors,which makes it difficult to measure dielectric properties accurately.In order to achieve better desulfurization effect,the researchers employ methods of adding chemical additives such as acid,alkali,oxidant,reductant,or changing the reaction atmosphere,or combining with other methods such as magnetic separation,ultrasonic and microorganism.Researchers in this field have also put forward several processes,and have obtained a number of patents.Obscurity of microwave desulfurization mechanism,uncertainties in qualitative and quantitative analysis of sulfur-containing functional groups in coal,and the lack of special microwave equipment have limited further development of microwave desulfurization technology.

The view of technological innovation in coal industry under the vision of carbon neutralization

This paper analyzed the current situation and development trends of energy consumption and carbon emissions,and the current situation and development trend of coal consumption in China.In the context of recently established carbon peak and carbon neutralization targets,this paper put forward the main problems associated with the green and low-carbon development and utilization of coal.Five key technological innovation directions in mining were proposed,including green coal development,intelligent and efficient mining,low-carbon utilization and conversion of coal,energy conservation and emission reduction,carbon capture,utilization and storage(CCUS).Focusing on the above technological innovation directions,it is suggested to carry out three basic theories,including the theory of green efficient intelligent mining,clean and low-carbon utilization and transformation of coal,and CCUS.Meanwhile,it is proposed to develop 12 key technologies,including green coal mining and ecological environment protection,efficient coal mining and intelligent mine construction,key technologies and equipment for efficient coal processing,underground coal gasification and mining,ultra-high parameter and ultra-supercritical power generation technology,intelligent and flexible coal-fired power generation technology,new power cycle coal-fired power generation technology,the development of coal-based special fuels,coal-based bulk and specialty chemicals,energy conservation and consumption reduction,large-scale and low-cost carbon capture,CO_(2) utilization and storage.Finally,necessary measures from the governmental perspective were also proposed.

Clean coal geology in China:Research advance and its future

In China,the connection between coal utilization and environmental pollution has been increasingly evident due to the rapid growth in energy consumption.Clean coal technology(CCT)is one of the effective methods to address coal-associated pollution.However,CCT needs the practical and theoretical support of clean coal geology(CCG).In this paper,a new definition of CCG is proposed,based on the definitions of coal,coal geology,and CCT,combined with the development of national CCG.CCG is the discipline comprehensively researching the genesis,nature,distribution,cleaning potential,clean utilization and environmental effects of resources(coal,coal bed methane,and other coal-associated resources)that can be cleaned by CCT.The research content of CCG is discussed from different aspects,such as cleaning potential evaluation,geological guarantee for coal mining,ash yields and sulfur contents,trace elements,pollution caused by coal,and mine reclamation.The progress of CCG in China is also briefly divided into four stages and delineated.Finally,scientific problems in CCG are summarized and an outlook for CCG is given.

Insights from principal component analysis applied to Py-GCMS study of Indian coals and their solvent extracted clean coal products

The present work aims at studying five Indian coals and their solvent extracted clean coal products using Py-GCMS analysis and correlating the characterization data using theoretical principal component analysis.The pyrolysis products of the original coals and the super clean coals were classified as mono-,di-and tri-aromatics,while other prominent products that were obtained included cycloalkanes,n-alkanes,and alkenes ranging from C_(10)-C_(29).The principal component analysis is a dimensionality reduction technique that reduced the number of input variables in the characterization dataset and gave inferences on the relative composition of constituent compounds and functional groups and structural insights based on scores and loading plots which were consistent with the experimental observations.ATR-FTIR studies confirmed the reduced concentration of ash in the super clean coals and the presence of aromatics.The Py-GCMS data and the ATR-FTIR spectra led to the conclusion that the super clean coals behaved similarly for both coking and noncoking coals with high aromatic concentrations as compared to the raw coal.Neyveli lignite super clean coal was found to show some structural similarity with the original coals,whereas the other super clean coals showed structural similarity within themselves but not with their original coal samples confirming the selective action of the e,N solvent in solubilizing the polycondensed aromatic structures in the coal samples.

A New Parameter of Cleanability to Determine the Clean Potential of Coal Resources

Objective This work is based on analysis on large numbers of coal data such as the latest national coal potential evaluation data and previous data published by REN Deyi, TANG Xiuyi and LU Xukun, and the evaluation methods of clean potential of coal resources proposed by predecessors. It is found that previous method rank coal is only in accordance with raw coal or washed coal, which fail to take full account of the changes in elements before and after coal washing. Some elements can be removed by washing or other methods, and others may be even enriched after the coal is washed. For this reason, this work defined a new parameter of cleanability and developed its calculation formula to determine the clean potential of coal resources. Cleanability is a comprehensive indicator based on the removal rate of each indicator harmful element in coal. The clean potential of coal is proportional to the value of cleanability. The higher the cleanability value is, the better the clean potential is, and vice versa.

Gasification of lignite from Polish coal mine to hydrogen-rich gas

The efforts of the world research activities involved in clean coal technologies development focus to a considerable extent on integrated hydrogen and power generation technologies based on coal gasification.As an alternative to combustion pro-cesses,gasification offers increased efficiency,lower negative environmental impact as well as wider application range of the main product—synthesis gas—in power generation and chemical syntheses.In order to select the most optimal lignite for the purpose of gasification,it is necessary to determine coal reactivity,the key parameter characterizing how fast the fuel reacts with the gasifying medium and controlling its process ability in thermochemical conversion to energy and/or energy carriers.This paper presents the experimental results of oxygen/steam gasification of lignite coal char in a fixed bed reactor under atmospheric pressure and at the temperature of 700,800 and 900℃;the samples come from an open pit lignite mine in the southwest of Poland.The effectiveness of the gasification process was tested in terms of the total gas and hydrogen yields,gas composition,carbon conversion rate and chars reactivity.

Prospect of Clean Coal Technologies to be Used in Fujian Province Power Industry

This paper is based on the existing status and development prediction of Fujian power industry, and describes that the structure of energy sources for generating power which will mainly use coal, will not be changed in the 2010s and 2020s in Fujian Province. In order to meet the requirements of high efficiency and envirofimental protection, the usage of clean coal technologies for power generating will be an inevitable option and the technologies will occupy the important position in Fujian power industry. This paper puts forward the staged targets and measures of developing and utilizing clean coal technologies, suggests that all government depotments related should give support and guarantee in policies and conditions, and welcome technical and economic cooperation at home and abroad, which is good for co-development of both parties.

Coal decarbonization:A state-of-the-art review of enhanced hydrogen production in underground coal gasification

The world is endowed with a tremendous amount of coal resources,which are unevenly distributed in a few nations.While sustainable energy resources are being developed and deployed,fossil fuels dominate the current world energy consumption.Thus,low-carbon clean technologies,like underground coal gasification(UCG),ought to play a vital role in energy supply and ensuring energy security in the foreseeable future.This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the world's development of UCG for enhanced hydrogen production.It is revealed that the world has an active interest in decarbonizing the coal industry for hydrogen-oriented research in the context of UCG.While research is ongoing in multiple coal-rich nations,China dominates the world's efforts in both industrial-scale UCG pilots and laboratory experiments.A variety of coal ranks were tested in UCG for enhanced hydrogen output,and the possibilities of linking UCG with other prospective technologies had been proposed and critically scrutinized.Moreover,it is found that transborder collaborations are in dire need to propel a faster commercialization of UCG in an ever-more carbon-conscious world.Furthermore,governmental and financial support is necessary to incentivize further UCG development for large-scale hydrogen production.