FLUORINE IN CHINESE COALS – Air Pollution

Air pollution caused more than 1.2 million premature deaths
in China in just one year

CHINA PLANS TO SPEND $275 BILLION

 TO COMBAT POLLUTION CRISIS

31 JULY 2013

Written by Aviva Shen

     China’s air pollution levels have reached dire levels, even breaking the upper limits of the Air Quality Index earlier this year. In a sign the government is serious about tackling this crisis. The China Daily announced Thursday that China will spend $275 billion over the next five years to reduce emissions and launch anti-pollution programs.

The funds, which exceed the total economic output of Hong Kong last year, will target emissions in the densely populated area surrounding Beijing, where residents have suffered through off-the-charts pollution and all its accompanying illnesses. Air pollution caused more than 1.2 million premature deaths in China in just one year, while some Beijing schools are building air-purified domes over playgrounds so children can play “outside” safely. Anti-pollution protests have grown more and more prevalent all over the country.

These unsustainable conditions are directly linked to China’s rapid industrialization. Most of Beijing’s pollution stems from factories and power plants outside the city. China’s coal production has tripled in the past ten years as the nation’s energy consumption has exploded. The Chinese government, up til this year, has aggressively encouraged economic growth at the expense of the environment and public health.

But now that the environmental repercussions cannot be ignored, the government has done a hard about-face. New promised anti-pollution measures include speedy installation of pollution control equipment on coal-fuelled refineries, restrictions on high energy consumption industries like steel, cement and glass, and use legal action to force industries to upgrade their emissions standards.

Before Thursday’s announcement, China had already pledged $16 billion to specifically help Beijing build and update sewage and garbage treatment, plant new forests and curb illegal construction.

The nation also invested twice as much as the U.S. in clean energy projects last year.

This post was originally published at ClimateProgress.

Read more:

http://www.care2.com/causes/china-plans-to-spend-275-billion-to-combat-pollution-crisis.html#ixzz2amQosYLR

See also: 

FLUOROSIS — COAL BURNING  – CHINA

 106 Fluoride Vol. 36 No. 2 106-112 2003 Research Report

For Correspondence: Prof Wuyi Wang, Institute of

Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources

Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,

Beijing 100101, China. E-mail:

wangwy@igsnrr.ac.cn

ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIC CHARACTERISTICS

OF COALBURNING ENDEMIC FLUOROSIS AND

THE SAFETY THRESHOLD OF COAL FLUORIDE IN CHINA

Yonghua Li, Wuyi Wang, a Linsheng Yang, Hairong Li

Beijing, China

SUMMARY:  Data on coal-burning endemic fluorosis throughout China and on the exposure-response relationship between concentrations of fluoride determined in coal samples and the prevalence of dental fluorosis reported from 17 representative surveillance stations in Southwest China were used to estimate the safety threshold for coal fluoride. Coal-burning endemic fluorosis occurs mainly in the mountainous areas of this part of China, where the prevalence of the disease is closely linked to geochemical parameters of the local environment. In these regions the incidence of dental fluorosis has a significant positive correlation with the concentration of fluoride in coal. The safety threshold of coal fluoride is estimated to be 190 mg/kg by the criterion of 0% incidence of dental fluorosis.

Keywords: China; Coal fluoride; Endemic fluorosis; Safety threshold.

INTRODUCTION

     Fluorine (F), the most electronegative and reactive of the halogens, is a common chemical element in the earth’s crust in combined form. F concentrations in rocks and soils are well documented, but data on the F concentration in coal are relatively limited.

1-4 Swaine reported the total F concentration in coal ranges from 20 to 500 mg/kg.

5 Statistical data indicate that the mean concentration of F in coal worldwide is 80 mg/kg, but in China it is 200 mg/kg.

6 In the mountainous areas of Southwest China, it is even higher— up to 3106 mg/kg in local coal.

7 Fluoride in coal can be released into the ambient environment as atmospheric F, waterborne F, and residue F during mining, handling, and combustion.

6-8 In Southwest China, F

See also↓
 FLUOROSIS – COAL BURNING IN CHINA

The Chinese have some coal for power stations. 

Queensland’s coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal
is needed by them to make steel.
Not very easy to do with steaming coal or solar power!

Coking Coal 
Coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal, has low sulphur and phosphorus content and can withstand high heat.
Coking coal is fed into ovens and subjected to oxygen-free pyrolysis, a process that heats the coal to approximately 1,100 degrees Celsius, melting it and driving off any volatile compounds and impurities to leave pure carbon. The hot, purified, liquefied carbon solidifies into lumps called “coke” that can be fed into a blast furnace along with iron ore and limestone to produce steel.

Steam Coal
Steam coal also known as thermal coal, is suitable for electric power production.
Steam coal is ground into a fine powder that burns quickly at high heats and is used in power plants to heat water in boilers that run steam turbines. These need to have Scrubbers on the smoke stacks.