The World’s Biggest Pollution Factory

The coal that has powered China’s economic growth . . . is also choking its people. – Elizabeth C. Economy At the root of many of China’s air-quality problems is its heavy dependence on relatively high-sulfur, low-quality coal for everything from electricity generation and industrial production to cooking and space heating in the home. China relies on coal for almost 75% of its energy needs. In fact, each year, China consumes more coal than Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States combined. The scale and scope of China’s coal power plant construction program is almost beyond one’s imagination. Consider that every single week, China adds one new large coal power plant to its energy base. Every single year, China builds enough new coal plants to light up the entire British Isles. In any given year, the amount of coal-fired capacity that China is building amounts to more than double that of the entire electricity-generating capacity of the state of California-more than 100 gigawatts. That China’s coal appetites are voracious is aptly captured in this passage from the Wall Street Journal: ”On a recent hazy morning in eastern China, the Wuhu Shaoda power company revved up its production of electricity, burning a ton and a half of coal per minute to satisfy more than half the demand of Wuhu, an industrial city of two million people. “It’s not just the quantity of coal used by China that matters.

To read full article, click here.

Air Pollution Control Systems
Your One-Stop Online Source
For anything and everything
About Air Pollution Control Systems