Environmental science & technology
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Environ. Sci. Technol. · Mar 2011
Water use at pulverized coal power plants with postcombustion carbon capture and storage.
Coal-fired power plants account for nearly 50% of U. S. electricity supply and about a third of U. S. emissions of CO(2), the major greenhouse gas (GHG) associated with global climate change. ⋯ Replacing wet towers with air-cooled condensers for dry cooling would reduce plant water use by about 80% (without CCS) to about 40% (with CCS). However, the cooling system capital cost would approximately triple, although costs are highly dependent on site-specific characteristics. The potential for water use reductions with CCS is explored via sensitivity analyses of plant efficiency and other key design parameters that affect water resource management for the electric power industry.
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Environ. Sci. Technol. · Jan 2011
Carbon and sulfur cycling by microbial communities in a gypsum-treated oil sands tailings pond.
Oil sands tailings ponds receive and store the solid and liquid waste from bitumen extraction and are managed to promote solids densification and water recycling. The ponds are highly stratified due to increasing solids content as a function of depth but can be impacted by tailings addition and removal and by convection due to microbial gas production. We characterized the microbial communities in relation to microbial activities as a function of depth in an active tailings pond routinely treated with gypsum (CaSO(4)·2H(2)O) to accelerate densification. ⋯ Similarly, the most abundant methanogens and syntrophs identified as a function of depth closely mirrored the fluctuating methanogenesis rates. Methanogenesis was inhibited in laboratory incubations by nearly 50% when sulfate was supplied at pond-level concentrations suggesting that in situ sulfate reduction can substantially minimize methane emissions. Based on our data, we hypothesize that the emission of sulfide due to SRB activity in the gypsum treated pond is also limited due to its high solubility and oxidation in surface waters.
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The quality of drinking water in the United States has continued to improve over the past 40 years. The formation of the U. ⋯ While the widespread adoption of filtration and disinfection in the early 1900s virtually eliminated waterborne typhoid fever, some residual risks still remained 40 years ago. These national regulatory developments compelled USEPA and the drinking water community to address these remaining risks in drinking water and optimize risk reduction for the public.