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Good maintenance practices and proactive planning are essential to ensure coal handling equipment performance, but a look at the entire cost of handling coal has yielded some surprising conclusions. Optimizing [...]

The author shares his opinion in the current battle over coal. He believes that even if coal units are retired, coal-fired power generation will remain an integral and major source of energy for the country. He thinks that replacing the least upgradeable coal units with high efficiency cycles with technologically advanced emission controls, overall contribution to greenhouse gases would be much lower. He finds the Environmental Protection Agency to be out of step with common-sense solutions.

Talks about the studies commissioned by the Electric Power Research Institute to gauge the impact that powder river basin (PRB) coals and coal blends have on power plant operation. First area impacted by a switch to a subbituminous coal or a blend containing subbituminous coal; Combustion tests designed to evaluate and compare the combustion characteristics of several PRB subbituminous and bituminous coals; Effect of high-temperature fouling.

The author reflects on the implications of U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election on the coal industry. He refers to Obama's plan to discourage new coal fired-generation and phase out existing coal plans as irresponsible and a dangerous plan that relies on cheap natural gas and sources of expensive renewable power. He notes that another term for Obama would mean that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will require coal-fired power plants to comply with a new carbon standard.