How Clean Is The Coal-Fired Power Plant?

March 12,2010
How Clean Is The Coal-Fired Power Plant?
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

I am somewhat astounded upon reading the front page of a Cebu-based daily The Freeman with a huge picture of a streamer placed at the stage which says “246MW Clean Coal-Fired Power Plant”: during its “Switch On Ceremony” with PGMA as its guest speaker held at the CEDC Multi-purpose Hall in Toledo City, Province of Cebu (The Freeman, March 6, 2010 issue).
I am surprised because all I have learned about coal is that it is the dirtiest fossil fuel on earth. According to the information that I have gotten from the US Environmental Protection Agency it was reported that coal-fired power plants account for most of the pollutant elements emitted by the power industry in the United States. Coal-fired power plants emit 93% of the nitrogen oxide,96% of the sulfur oxide,88% of the carbon dioxide and 99% of the mercury emissions that pollute the air. Any person can just imagine the high percentage of pollution and health hazards pose by the coal-fired power plants to the residents within the surrounding vicinity where the projects are constructed.
How can it be that it was described as “clean”? What process the management was using to make the emission of coal be filtered? Is there now an existing technology that can filter the pollutants being released by the burning of tons of coal to produce power equivalent to 246MW as was stated on a huge tapestry at the stage? I have learned on the news story that it was 82MW, part of the three units to be constructed comprising a total of 246MW,an additional power output for the province of Cebu.
If there’s already an existing coal emission filter technology, is it a Filipino invention or one that is from other country either in the USA,Germany,Japan,India,China,Australia,Austria,France,Italy or Egypt?
Are some technical men and experts from a country where such invention has originated were invited to inspect and make experiments and tests to see how the new coal cleaner technology works?
If there were no technical men and experts from other country or countries invited, was the conduct of series of experiments and tests done by our very own Filipino technical men and experts?
If the answers to my questions were met with positive actions relative to the objective of making emissions of tons of coal everyday throughout the whole year being cleaned by filtration or other means of
cleansing its pollutants, how come that there’s no detailed reports that we can read in Cebu’s leading newspapers either from The Freeman or Cebu Daily News?
Most of the reports that I have read were that of the oppositions/objections among the residents in the constructions of coal-fired power plants in the area. Although the project was welcome by no less than the Chief Executive of Toledo City because of its employment and revenue generations for the city’s coffer. But without counting the environmental pollution which would be the eventual result of coal’s continual emissions of pollutants into the surrounding air. On the other hand,CEDC’s $450M or roughly P3billion has another 2 and 3 units expected to go on line by the end of May and the end of December according to the report.
Is the DENR that is in-charged in the inspection and approval of such delicate project do some checking and testing of its equipments,. apparatus and gadgets to see if the plant is applying the provisions under the Clean Air Act of 1999?
Our planet Earth is already suffering from heavy pollution because of man’s less caring of his environment and ecosystem but more on material gains and profits. Because of this we are now feeling the effects of global warming as the outcome of too much emission of different kinds of pollution that stuck and hover in the Earth’s atmosphere.
According to the Scientists and some experts the heat from the sun that is supposed to bounce back to the atmosphere was blocked by the heaps of heavy pollution hovering in the Earth’s atmosphere and goes back to the Earth again-the result is the inevitable global warming.
Additionally, global warming caused some thick hard ice or icebergs in some parts of the earth to gradually melt. The melting would result to higher water elevation of some oceans of the world that shall potentially submerges small islands in the near future if global warming would continue unabated.. Now we have this so-called erratic weather conditions that begets climate change. If you are an observant of weather conditions you know and will understand what climate change is all about.
If the manufacturers of various products for human consumptions and other human needs like cars, airplanes, vehicles, chemical sprays, pesticides and other things needed by today’s modern world would religiously implement some measures to reduce by 3/4 of the volume of their emissions (release) of pollutant elements and substances into the air, they will greatly contribute to the gradual reduction of global warming on our only life-giving planet.
WE hope that the adjective “clean” describing the newly-open unit one which is a part of the 246MW coal-fired power plant in Toledo City is not a bluff neither a misleading flattery, but a palpable reality. I hope so. We hope so.
On the other hand, our public officials and other high government officials including the NGOs and the private sector ought to lead the entire population in seriously always adopting environment-friendly measures in the establishing and constructing of any income-generating projects in the country. This primary important step is mainly to protect and preserve our only one ecosystem, the Planet Earth, for the seek also of other coming generations of man who should enjoy the same benefits and privileges as we have.(Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)