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Title: Clean Coal Technology: The New Coal Era

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6020449· OSTI ID:6020449

The term clean coal technology'' entered the energy vocabulary in the 1980s. It describes a new generation of advanced coal technology, environmentally cleaner and in many cases more efficient and less costly than conventional coal-burning processes. These new power generating and pollution control concepts are the products of years of research and development in hundreds of government and private laboratories throughout the world. Their emergence in the 1980s is bringing about a new coal age -- one that not only responds to past problems with some of the most sophisticated technology available in the world today but offers a bright future for coal as well. Coal is the nation's most plentiful fossil fuel. One quarter of all the world's known coal lies within US borders. Coal also is an energy bargain. Even with the sharp decline in world oil and gas prices in the mid-1980s, coal has remained the least expensive fossil fuel in the US. In the future, coal can do more to help this country and our trading partners grow economically while enhancing national energy security -- if it can be used in greater amounts without endangering the Earth's fragile ecology. The new suite of advanced, clean coal technologies will help achieve that objective. They will ensure that the US can continue using its most abundant energy resource while maintaining a commitment to a clean, healthy environment.

Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
OSTI ID:
6020449
Report Number(s):
DOE/FE-0217P; ON: DE91008478
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English