Tidal Current Energy

Chapter 2
The Future of Clean Coal
Mustafa Balat
Sila Science, University Mahallesi, Trabzon, Turkey
Summary : Energy demand is increasing at an exponential rate due to the
exponential growth of the world population. Global energy demand is expected
to continue to grow steadily, as it has over the last two decades. According to
an investigation, with current consumption trends, the reserves-to-production
(R/P) ratio of world proven reserves of coal is higher than that of world
proven reserves of oil and gas – 155 years versus 40 and 65 years respectively.
Despite environmental issues and competitive pressure from other fuels, coal is
expected to maintain a major share of the world’s future energy use. In recent
years, concerns have been growing worldwide regarding the environmental
consequences of heavy dependence on fossil fuels, particularly climate change.
Coal is undoubtedly part of the greenhouse problem. The main emissions from
coal combustion are sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates, carbon dioxide
and mercury. The introduction of cleaner coal technologies can reduce the
environmental impact of the increase in coal use. During the last two decades,
significant advances have been made in the reduction of emissions from coalfired
power plants. In short, greenhouse gas reduction policies have and will
have a major impact on the future use of coal.
1 .
Introduction
Energy can be simply described as a dynamic indicator that shows the development
level of a country. There is a strong positive correlation between energy
production/consumption and economic development/scientific progress [1] .
Energy demand is increasing at an exponential rate due to the exponential
growth of world population. World population is expected to double by the end
of the 21st century. Developing countries have 80% of the world’s population but
25