Environmental impacts coal mining

Wliile some problems still exist, there is no question that coal mining operations are more efficient and safer for workers and leave less of an environmental footprint than operations several generations ago. As society s demand for energy from coal continues to increase and as coal s price declines (between 1978 and 1996 U.S. mine mouth prices fell from 47,118 to 18..S11 per ton in constant 1996 dollars), there is certain to be even gi eater efforts to limit the environmental impact of mining operations. 

Environmental impacts of coal mining and associated wastes a geochemical perspective... 

Outline the history of how perceptions of the environmental impacts of coal mining have evolved over the centuries ... 

Proffer a typology of the environmental impacts attributable to coal mining, distinguishing between those arising from bodies of mine waste and those arising from the mined voids themselves ... 

In terms of the environmental impacts of coal mine drainage, siderite plays an ambiguous role (see, for instance, Morrison et al. 1990, and works cited therein). On the one hand, the acidity released by pyrite oxidation can be... 

A typology of the environmental impacts attributable to coal mining... 

Figure 3 summarizes the principal environmental compartments that can in theory be affected by coal mining, as well as the principal potential environmental stresses that can arise from active and abandoned mine voids on the one hand, and from mine waste management facilities (i.e., spoil heaps and washery finings ponds) on the other. Further details on the mechanisms and impacts of these environmental stresses are given in Table 4 (for coal mine voids) and Table 5 (for coal mine wastes). 

Table 4., 4 generalized typology of the external environmental impacts arising from coal mine raids... 

Buchanan, D. J. Brenkley, D. 1994. Green coal mining. In Hester, R. E. Harrison, R. M. (eds) Mining and its Environmental Impact. Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 71-95. 

Tiwary, R. K. 2001. Environmental impact of coal mining on water regime and its management. Water Air and Soil Pollution, 132, 185-199. 

Younger, P. L. 2004. Environmental Impacts of Coal Mining and Associated Wastes A Geochemical Perspective. In Giere, R. STILLE, P. (eds) Energy, Waste, and the Environment a Geochemical Perspective. Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 236, 169-209. 

Using more coal to produce hydrogen will have a number of environmental consequences. Coal mining itself causes numerous environmental issues, ranging from widespread land disturbance, soil erosion, dust, biodiversity impacts, waste piles, and so forth, to subsidence and abandoned mine workings. Once coal has been extracted, it needs to be moved from the mine to the power plant or other place of use. 

Environmental Impacts of Mining and Disposal of Coal Wastes... 

Rathore CS, Wright R. Monitoring environmental impacts of surface coal mining. Int J Remote Sens 1993 14(6) 1021—42. 

An important early step is the definition of system boundaries within which impacts are accounted for. A good example of the issues in system boundary definition is the case of utility systems. The process plant in Figure 6 may consume electricity, but this consumption implies impacts at the power station through fuel combustion and water use. For a coal-fired power station, this, in turn, implies impacts at the coal mine. If the plant consumes natural gas for heating, impacts in exploration, extraction, treatment, and compression of the natural gas are implied. The environmental impacts incurred in such utility systems have... 

Cheng, Y.-P., Wang, L. Zhang, X.-L. (2011) Environmental impact of coal mine methane emissions and responding strategies in China, bitemational Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 5, 157 166. 

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