Environmental Pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Environmental Pollution - Essay Example There are four various rank of coal: anthracite, bituminous, lignite and sub-bituminous (Plant et al., 2012). The fuel obtained from coal has several uses in industries and other sectors such as power stations. In power stations, coal is used as a fuel, in generating of electricity. Coal accounts for 39 percent of the world’s electricity. Electricity is essential in promoting economic growth and improving living standards. Coal is also used in the making of cement. It is used as a fuel to give the high temperatures required, approximately 1450 degrees Celsius, in the furnace used in the burning of raw materials used in making cement. The raw materials include calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica and alumina which are combined and burnt to produce clinker. The clinker is then combined with gypsum to produce cement. Purified coal tar is used in the production of chemicals like naphthalene, benzene, cresol oil. Ammonia gas found in coke furnace is used for making ammonia salts, fertilizers used in agriculture and nitric acid. The manufacture of steel and iron is dependent on coal. Coal is burnt in hot kilns for production coke. The coke is then used for extraction of iron from its ore in order to make steel. Coal is also used to make plastics by the use of methanol and ethylene found in coal. Coal industry has several negative impacts on the environment. The effects include thermal pollution, formation of acid rain, micro plastics, and presence of mercury in fish, acidification of oceans, flourishing of algae, and death of fish. When coal is burnt it releases mercury into the atmosphere, which settles in water bodies with time. When the fish take in the polluted water, mercury accumulates in their body fat. When nitrogen, a byproduct of combustion of coal, finds its way into the rivers or lakes, it increases the nutrient level in the water bodies causing eutrophication. It also results to the bloom of algae. Sulphur (IV) oxide and