Microalgae mass cultures can use solar energy for the biofixation of power plant flue gas and other concentrated CO2 sources into biomass that can be used to produce renewable fuels such as methane, ethanol, biodiesel, oils and hydrogen and for other fossil-fuel sparing products and processes. They thus can mitigate emissions of fossil CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Microalgae are currently us...

An extensive series of studies was performed at the Energy & Environmental Research Center with mercury (Hgo) sorbents in a thin bed using combinations of various flue gas constituents. This work determined that all the sorbents exhibited breakthrough in about I hour in the full flue gas mixture, and the mercury emitted after breakthrough is an oxidized mercury species. Trapping of the oxidized...

Part of the opposition to accepting greenhouse gas (GHG) constraints in the United States and some other developed countries stems from concern that developing nations are not expected as well to undertake constraints in currently suggested regimes. It is pointed out by some U.S. policy makers and lobby groups that large developing states soon will be responsible for an important share of futur...

Secondary atmospheric pollutions may result from wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) systems caused by the reduction of Hg(2+) to Hg(0) and lead to a damping of the cobenefit mercury removal efficiency by WFGD systems. The experiment on Hg(0) reemission from limestone-gypsum WFGD slurry was carried out by changing the operating conditions such as the pH, temperature, Cl(-) concentrations, and o...

Coal-burning power plants have been the largest unregulated source of mercury emissions in the United States, sending 48 tons of mercury into the air annually. In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promulgated its Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR), requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce their mercury emissions by approximately 20% beginning in 2010. Numerous states are already requ...

Coal-fired power plants provided between 45% and 50% of the United States net energy generation in the years between 1999 and 2010 and will continue to be a primary source of electricity into the future. Among the major environmental concerns of coal utilization is the release of mercury (Hg), which was recently regulated by the US EPA in the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) ruling in De...

Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) is responsible for troposphere ozone and urban smog through photochemical reactions. The rapid economic growth and unlimited consumption of fossil fuels have resulted in large emissions of NOx. Due to the adverse environmental effects, environmental regulatory agencies are compelled to enforce stringent NOx emission standards. Recently promulgated Clean Air Interstate R...

At international level LCA is being increasingly used to objectively evaluate the performances of different Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management solutions. One of the more important waste management options concerns MSW incineration. LCA is usually applied to existing incineration plants. In this study LCA methodology was applied to a new Italian incineration line, to facilitate the predictio...

All the leading cities in the world are slowly becoming inhospitable for human life with global warming playing havoc with the living conditions. Biomineralization of carbon dioxide using carbonic anhydrase (CA) is one of the most economical methods for mitigating global warming. The burning of fossil fuels results in the emission of large quantities of flue gas. The temperature of flue gas is ...