Industrial demand for western coal in the Great Lakes region

Technical Report · Sat Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5722153· OSTI ID:5722153

Krohm, G. C.

The Great Lakes industrial coal market, though currently much smaller than utility use, is expected to grow by as much as 3% per year until 1985. Although the potential for industrial coal use appears to be growing modestly, the share of this market captured by Western coal is critically affected by air quality regulations. Existing and projected ambient air quality violations in the vicinity of port cities will prohibit new coal use. This will be a particularly severe constraint in the center of the industrial core areas of Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, and Detroit. In addition to ambient air quality problems, more stringent New Source Performance Standards may make it prohibitively expensive to burn coal. The economic advantage of Western coal may be minimal in comparison to locally available high-sulfur coal because it costs just about as much to use a high-efficiency scrubber with low-sulfur coal as with high-sulfur coal. Under a standard of 1.2 lb SO/sub 2/ per million Btu of heat input, Western coal can be expected to capture a large share of the new boiler market within 75 miles of the Great Lakes ports. With a sulfur standard more stringent than the above, the market for Western coal will vanish even for users immediately adjacent to the port. Western coal is only attractive in the East due to its low sulfur content, which under some conditions allows the end user to avoid expensive sulfur control technologies. The Great Lakes shipping system represents the most economic way of moving coal from the Western states to major portions of the industrial Midwest and Northeast. The Great Lakes system can move coal to users in the vicinity of port cities at costs that are less than half the cost of the most economic rail route.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 5722153
• Report Number(s): ANL/CNSV-TM-13
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
015000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Economic
Industrial
& Business Aspects
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200108 -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Fuels-- (1980-)
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Coal
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
AIR QUALITY
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CLEAN AIR ACT
COAL
DATA
DATA FORMS
DESULFURIZATION
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
EQUIPMENT
FLUE GAS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL CONSUMPTION
FUELS
GASEOUS WASTES
GREAT LAKES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
LAKES
LAWS
MARKET
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
POLLUTION CONTROL
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
POLLUTION LAWS
RAILWAYS
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
REGULATIONS
SCRUBBERS
SHIPS
SURFACE WATERS
TABLES
TRANSPORT
USA
WASTES