Pollution Prevention When and How

To understand the possible benefits, we must first develop a working definition of pollution prevention. Although the term seems obvious, there are often wrong interpretations given to P2 practices. 

By converting the plant to natural gas, we displace the use of coal and eliminate the hazardous air emissions associated with its combustion — but we need to invest into a new technology. The new process is generically referred to as cleaner production, simply because it is inherently cleaner or less polluting, and the technology is referred to as green technology.  

Overview The U.S. Air Force has classified material that must be destroyed. Disintegrators provide an alternative to incineration for the destruction of classified materials. Disintegrators are able to handle the destruction of paper, thick documents, video cassettes, microfilm or reels, CD-ROMs, microfiche, and diskettes. Disintegrators are available with a capacity of 50 to over 7500 lbs. per hour. Disintegrators work in the following way  

From an economic standpoint, electricity production from a new natural gas plant versus a newly built coal-fired plant heavily favors natural gas, because natural gas-fired plants are cheaper to build. However, older coal-fired plants built 20 to 30 years ago are often more profitable than newly built gas plants, because — among other reasons — coal is cheaper than natural gas, and the older plants have long since paid for their capital investments through depreciation. 

Another reason why we can question whether such a technology investment really makes sense is the fact that emissions-control requirements tend to be less stringent when it comes to older coal-fired plants. In the United States the great majority of NOj emissions from the power sector come from existing coal-fired plants, many of which were built between 1950 and 1980. 

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