What will prevent a disaster like the coal ash spill in Tennessee described as “one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in the United States history”?
Comparing the new White Stallion ash disposal facility to the old Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) facility is an apples and oranges comparison. The ash produced by old pulverized coal (PC) technology electric generation units, such as used by TVA, was disposed of by transporting wet ash in a slurry form (50% water) via pipeline to a pond. This pond was usually formed by installing an earthen dam across a creek. The slurry was pumped into the pond where the water was decanted from the ash. White Stallion is using the new circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology to generate electricity. This technology requires limestone to be inserted into the combustion process to reduce emissions. As a result, the ash produced from this process is a dry substance with high lime content similar to low grade cement. The baghouse air filtration system captures over 99% of this ash. The ash is loaded into trucks at the plant site and sprinkled with a small amount of recycled water for dust control and
Better coal ash storage techniques will prevent it. In many coal plants the ask from the coal burning process is valuable for use in other industries such as cement production. After the coal is burned, the exhaust is passed through a baghouse which is a housing with filters inside, which collector all of the solid particles and then let the now clean air escape. Once the ash is collected by the baghouse, it can be transferred by a conveyor system to trucks to be transported to places where it can be used, and not just buried in landfills.
See Article: Clean Coal Technology, When Will We Have It?
http://www.baghouse.com/2011/02/01/clean-coal-technology-why-we-need-it-when-will-we-have-it/
