Brief introduction of coal pollution coal

Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are the main organic matter in coal, accounting for more than 95%; The deeper the coalification, the higher the carbon content and the lower the hydrogen and oxygen content. Carbon and hydrogen are the elements that generate heat when coal is burned, and oxygen is the combustion-supporting element. When coal is burned, nitrogen does not generate heat, but is converted into nitrogen oxides and ammonia at high temperature and precipitated in a free state. Sulfur, phosphorus, fluorine, chlorine and arsenic are harmful components in coal, of which sulfur is the most important. When coal is burned, most of the sulfur is oxidized into sulfur dioxide (SO2), which is discharged with flue gas, polluting the atmosphere, endangering the growth of animals and plants and human health, and corroding metal equipment; When high sulfur coal is used in metallurgical coking, it will also affect the quality of coke and steel. Therefore, the content of "sulfur" is one of the important indexes to evaluate coal quality.

There are few inorganic substances in coal, mainly water and minerals, and their existence reduces the quality and utilization value of coal. Minerals are the main impurities in coal, such as sulfide, sulfate and carbonate, most of which are harmful components. 85% of the coal in China is directly burned, mainly including thermal power generation, industrial boiler (kiln) furnace, civil heating and household stoves. Coal burning with high consumption and low efficiency releases a lot of SO2, CO2 and smoke into the air, which causes air pollution in China, mainly in the form of smoke.

(1) Coal mining leads to the destruction of land resources and the deterioration of ecological environment. Due to stripping and dumping of open-pit mining, surface subsidence and cracks in underground mining will destroy land resources and plant resources, affect land cultivation and vegetation growth, change landforms and cause changes in landscape ecology. Mining subsidence caused a large area of flooding or salinization in the eastern plain mining areas of China, which aggravated soil erosion and land desertification in the western mining areas. Coal mining subsidence will also cause landslides or mudslides in mountainous areas and hills, endangering the safety of ground buildings, water bodies and traffic lines. According to the survey, the forest area directly destroyed by mining in China has reached 6,543,800+0,600 hectares, and the grassland area has been destroyed by 263,000 hectares. The total land occupied by China is about 5.86 million ha, and the land destroyed is about 6.5438+0.57 million ha, which is still increasing at the rate of 40,000 ha per year, while the land reclamation rate in mining areas is only 65.438+00%. According to another calculation, for every 1 10,000 tons of coal mined in China, the average land subsidence is 0.2ha；; In the plain mining area with dense villages, about 2000 people need to be relocated for every 6.5438+million tons of coal mined.

(2) Coal mining destroys groundwater resources and intensifies water shortage in water-deficient areas. China is a country with low per capita water resources in the world, and the distribution of water resources is extremely unbalanced. Judging from the distribution of coal-bearing areas, coal-rich areas are often water-deficient areas. According to the survey, among the 96 state-owned key mining areas in China, water-deficient mining areas account for 7 1%, of which 40% are seriously short of water. With the increasing intensity and extension speed of coal mining, the groundwater level in the mining area has dropped in a large area, which makes the water supply in water-deficient mining areas more tense, thus affecting the production and life of local residents. On the other hand, due to the destruction of coal measures strata, a large number of groundwater resources leaked into the mine and discharged, and less than 20% of these mine water was purified and utilized, which caused new pollution to the surrounding environment of the mining area. According to statistics, all kinds of wastewater produced by coal mines in China account for about 25% of the total wastewater in China. In 2000, the national coal mine wastewater discharge reached 2.75 billion tons, including 2.3 billion tons of mine water, 350 million tons of industrial wastewater, 50 million tons of coal washing wastewater and 4.5 million tons of other wastewater.

(3) Coal mining leads to waste gas emission and harms the atmospheric environment. The waste gas formed by coal mining mainly refers to mine gas and gas released by spontaneous combustion of ground waste hills. Methane is the main component of mine gas and an important greenhouse gas, and its greenhouse effect is 2 1 times that of CO2. According to statistics, China emits 7-9 billion cubic meters of methane every year due to mining? 3. It accounts for about 30% of the total methane emissions in the world. Except for about 5% centralized recovery, the rest are all discharged into the atmosphere. The spontaneous combustion of the ground gangue hill in the mining area releases a lot of toxic and harmful gases such as SO2, CO2 and CO, which seriously pollutes the atmospheric environment and directly harms the health of the surrounding residents. The output of coal gangue is very large, and its emission accounts for about 15% ~ 20% of the output of raw coal in coal mines. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 1500 gangue hills in China's state-owned coal mines, with a cumulative amount of 3 billion tons over the years and an area of 5,000 hectares. According to 1994 mine environment survey, 464 coal gangue hills in the semi-arid area north of Huaihe River 1072 spontaneously ignited, and the spontaneous combustion rate reached 43.3%.

(4) In order to meet the social demand for clean coal, the proportion of raw coal washing in China has increased year by year. 1999 raw coal washing capacity was 3170,000 t, accounting for 30%, of which the proportion of state-owned key coal mines reached 48%. When washing raw coal, a large amount of slime water is also discharged to pollute soil vegetation and water system. According to the survey, China discharges 45 million tons of coal gangue, 40 million tons of coal washing wastewater and 2 million m3 of coal slime every year.

(5) In China, the huge spatial difference between coal production and consumption leads to the long-distance coal transportation pattern of "transporting coal from north to south and coal from west to east". The flying coal dust during transportation not only lost a lot of coal, but also polluted the ecological environment around the line. According to statistics, the national railway coal transportation capacity in 1999 was 649 17000 t, with an average transportation distance of 550km；. 600 million tons of coal are transported by road or railway, with an average transportation distance of 80 kilometers. If the dust loss is calculated as 0.5%, the coal dust discharged into the atmosphere due to transportation will reach more than 6 million tons, and the direct economic loss will exceed 600 million yuan.

(6) China's long-term coal-based energy consumption structure has not only caused soot-type air pollution with acid rain, sulfur dioxide and soot as the main hazards, but also the main reason why China's pollutant emissions rank second in the world. Statistics show that in 2000, the total emission of SO2 in the national exhaust gas was19.95 million t, including16120,000 t from industrial sources and 3.83 million t from domestic sources. The total amount of smoke and dust emission is11650,000 t, including 9.53 million t of industrial smoke and dust emission and 21200,000 t of domestic smoke and dust emission; The acid rain area accounts for about 30% of the land area. Recently, Greenpeace, an international environmental protection organization, and CEDELFT, an independent and authoritative energy agency in the Netherlands, released the global report "The Real Cost of Coal", pointing out that in 2007, global coal use caused at least 360 billion euros (about 3.2 trillion yuan) in losses.

Greenpeace called on all countries in the world to pay attention to the environmental consequences caused by coal burning, and immediately reduce and gradually give up the use of coal.

Aneska Markuska, an expert at the Sedford Institute, said: "The annual loss of 360 billion euros is actually a relatively conservative calculation. If effective measures are not taken to actively stop climate change, the resulting losses will rise sharply. " For example, billions of people will face water shortage, food security of hundreds of millions of people will be threatened, and extreme weather will become more frequent.

In addition, coal directly pollutes water and air and causes black lung disease. (1) Supporting policies and regulations to increase investment in environmental protection. The state has successively promulgated and revised 13 laws and regulations directly related to environmental protection in coal mining areas, which made the environmental protection and governance in mining areas step into the legal track and accelerated the development of mine environmental protection. According to incomplete statistics, during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the coal industry invested 2.86 billion yuan in environmental management, with an average of 570 million yuan per year.

(2) Land reclamation has achieved certain results. According to the data, about150,000 mu of abandoned land has been reclaimed in China, accounting for 8% of the total amount of abandoned land; Among them, more than 6 million mu of industrial and mining wasteland was reclaimed, accounting for 10% of the total industrial and mining wasteland. 70% of the reclaimed land is used as cultivated land or other agricultural land, and 30% is used as non-agricultural construction land or other purposes. From the perspective of coal industry, during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, coal mining subsidence land was reclaimed 1.50 ha, with a reclamation rate of 1.5%, and open-pit coal mining land was completed, with a reclamation rate of 4 1%. ?

(3) The treatment effect of three wastes is remarkable. During the ninth five-year plan period, the utilization rate of coal gangue reached 40%, 9 percentage points higher than that during the eighth five-year plan period; By the end of 1999, there were 3 10 fire-extinguishing waste hills, and the fire-extinguishing rate reached 80%. 1998, Shandong province comprehensively utilized more than 7 million tons of coal gangue, accounting for 7 1% of the total discharge, and realized profits and taxes of nearly 70 million yuan. The new coal mine design refuses to pile up gangue, which will effectively ensure the complete eradication of gangue hill in the future. Statistics show that 1999, the national extractive industries * * * removed industrial SO2 156 104 t, of which 41505t; Is removed in fuel combustion; Removal of industrial dust 1647893t.

(4) The greening of mining area has changed from planting trees and grass to green ecological engineering construction. Many mining areas continue to increase investment, greening and beautifying production and living areas. According to the geographical environment of the mining area, actively adopt new greening technology, build shelter forests in the mining area, green coal gangue hills, control sand and consolidate soil, restore vegetation and maintain water and soil. ?

(5) Clean coal technology has developed rapidly. 1995, there were 557 coal washing plants in China, with an annual raw coal washing capacity of 280 million tons and a raw coal washing rate of 22%. By 2000, the number of coal washing plants had increased to 755, the raw coal washing capacity reached 450 million t, and the raw coal washing rate exceeded 30%. Before 1995, there was almost no power coal blending in China. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, a number of power coal blending plants with different specifications and types were completed and put into operation, with an annual production capacity of nearly 60 million tons. China civil briquette technology has matured. By the year 2000, the national civil briquette output will reach 80 million tons, and the urban residents' briquette popularization rate will reach 80%. In order to speed up the development of coalbed methane, during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the State Council approved the establishment of a company specializing in coalbed methane development. According to incomplete statistics, China has developed and utilized nearly 400 million cubic meters of coalbed methane in 2000. It is predicted that by 2005, the utilization of coalbed methane in China will reach more than 3 billion cubic meters.

Weak links of environmental protection and governance in coal mining areas

(1) Leaders have weak environmental awareness and low public participation. The historical experience of China's environmental protection proves that all environmental pollution and ecological destruction first come from the ideological understanding and decision-making behavior of leaders at all levels. At present, many leaders are far from establishing a real awareness of environmental protection, and only stay on the slogan of sustainable development, taking the old road of "pollution first, then treatment", or taking the crooked road of aggravating pollution for local interests. Public participation plays a very important role in environmental impact assessment in developed countries. Listen to public opinions extensively through hearings and other forms to meet the public's requirements for environmental protection. The public participation system has not been established in the environmental impact assessment of construction projects in China, and the degree of public supervision over environmental protection is still very low.

(2) Economic restructuring is slow and environmental supervision is weak. Although the country is constantly adjusting its economic structure, due to many factors such as ideological inertia, rigid system, lack of financial resources, lack of policies, regional barriers and so on, the unreasonable structure of energy production and consumption in China still exists. The direct consequence of this unreasonable structure is over-exploitation and waste of resources, and it is difficult to improve the environment and safety of the mining area. On the other hand, there are still many drawbacks in China's environmental protection management system, especially the failure of the restriction and supervision mechanism, which leads to poor environmental protection supervision, lack of compliance with laws, lax enforcement and excuses for breaking the law.

(3) There are many historical debts in environmental protection, poor funding channels and insufficient investment. China's long-term planned economic system has left a huge ecological and environmental burden on mining areas, especially many old mining areas, and no corresponding governance fund account has been established. Since the end of 1970s, China's environmental pollution has been deteriorating, and government finance is the only way to control funds. 1984, in the Decision on Environmental Protection (Guo Fa [1984] No.64), the State Council identified eight funding channels for environmental protection, seven of which were used for investment in pollution control. Although these seven channels have played an important role in fund raising, pollution control and environmental quality improvement, overall, the total investment in pollution control is far from reaching the level of basically controlling environmental deterioration. Some of these seven channels are blocked, even if blocked, there are still problems such as poor channels, and its external performance is a serious shortage of capital investment. According to statistics, China's annual direct investment in coal environmental protection is about 500-600 million yuan, accounting for only 0.3% of the coal industry output value, far below the national average of 1%.

(4) There are many blind spots in the reclamation of subsided land in mining area. Although as early as 1988, the State Council officially promulgated and implemented the Regulations on Land Reclamation, and five laws, including the Land Administration Law and the Coal Law, which were subsequently revised and formulated, all had laws and regulations on land reclamation, and almost all local governments at all levels successively formulated implementation measures for land reclamation regulations, but now the land reclamation rate in mining areas is only 10%, which is lower than that in developed countries by more than 50 percentage points. For example, there is no clear responsibility object and funding channel for the historical debt of land collapse in old mining areas; The principle of "whoever destroys will reclaim" in the Regulations on Land Reclamation exists in name only, and the existing compensation methods for land acquisition and collapse cannot restrain enterprises from implementing the Regulations on Land Reclamation. It is difficult for enterprises and local governments to form an effective cooperation mechanism in land reclamation.

(5) The country lacks more targeted and stricter laws and regulations on mine environmental protection. In the current environmental protection policies and regulations, there is a lack of laws, regulations and technical standards aimed at the characteristics of mine environmental protection, which is not conducive to the in-depth development of mine environmental protection and governance. Some environmental problems can not be dealt with in time because there is no law to follow, thus endangering the environment for a long time. For example, the spontaneous combustion of coal gangue and rocky mountain is characterized as unorganized discharge, and the state has no provisions for treatment within a time limit or fines exceeding the standard. In the 1950s, pollution in Britain caused thousands of deaths. Peter Solsey pointed out that Britain's arduous and long road to environmental protection is an important lesson for China.

Large-scale industrial production, heavy coal dependence and smoky cities are not only the characteristics of our country, but also the characteristics of Britain for a long time in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Because of similar experiences, Britain's long-term struggle against coal pollution is of special significance to China.

For many years, British people have different opinions about the consequences of unlimited coal consumption in their country, and many people in China are similar. Many people regard smoke and dust as a symbol of economic prosperity and high employment rate, while others think that these smog will pay a serious economic price.

The latter pointed out that cigarettes represent waste, not wealth. The main advocate of this view, Dr Nell Arnot, is Queen Victoria's personal doctor. In 1855, he declared that "because of the smoggy air, London residents alone spend 2.5 million pounds more on laundry every year than the same number of families in China."

Arnot's estimate is limited to the cost of laundry, while others try to make a more comprehensive statistics on the economic cost of air pollution. The scientist Rollo Russell (uncle of philosopher Russell) listed 24 kinds of hazards caused by smoke and dust, including paint layer aging, erosion of metal and stone products, destruction of vegetation, human diseases and so on. Decades later, in 1950s, a British government committee calculated that the air pollution loss was 250 million pounds per year, and their classification criteria were the same as many of Russell's. Although experts at that time emphasized that the destructive impact of coal combustion was not a purely local problem, no one could understand it from a global perspective.

Many critics point out that one of the biggest costs of soot is the waste of coal. Optimists hope that the air will become cleaner as users realize that preventing soot can save money. Although improving coal utilization efficiency can indeed save fuel costs and reduce soot emissions, it is expensive to purchase and implement necessary technologies. Even if manufacturers realize that purchasing energy-saving equipment can save money in the long run, many people lack the necessary funds or long-term determination to make this investment.

When it was obvious that polluters would not take active measures to reduce smog, the government began to intervene. 19 At the end of the 20th century, the British Parliament passed a series of laws requiring local governments to take action to stop those industries that emit a lot of smog.

The effect of this legislation is limited by many factors, including too few fines and loopholes in the law. In fact, many local officials responsible for enforcing the anti-smoking law are the bosses of polluting enterprises. These factors still hinder the effective governance of the environment all over the world. Even sometimes the rulers do not have personal economic interests in law enforcement, but they are often worried that too strict law enforcement will lead to the redistribution of industries, which will lead to unemployment and tax loss.

So, if it hadn't been hit by the disaster, the situation might be the same as before. 1952165438+1October, an intricate abnormal weather hit London, and the combustion products in millions of fireplaces could not rise into the atmosphere or dissipate into the wind. Visibility is zero, hospitals are crowded with people who have difficulty breathing, and thousands of people have died.

After the smog disaster, the British government began to consider reducing pollution, but it was under pressure from interest groups in the coal industry, manufacturing industry and power industry. As happened in China and the United States, advocates of these industries claim that pollution control measures and alternative energy sources are too expensive to implement.

After many consultations, Congress finally passed the Clean Air Act at 1956. In addition to expanding the government's research into the field of pollution prevention and control, the bill also sets new restrictions on industrial smog. It has also begun to control the smoke produced by home heating and cooking, which is also an important cause of air pollution in Britain. In order to help raise funds for purchasing low-pollution equipment, the state and local government departments have provided financial assistance.

Although this legislation is effective in reducing visible pollutants such as smog, it has no effect on invisible pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and mercury, not to mention greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Instead of prohibiting these substances from being discharged into the environment, regulators encourage factories to discharge them into the atmosphere through extremely high chimneys. They believe that these substances will be diluted to those levels and become "harmless".

Unfortunately, simply pulling up the chimney will only change the pollution. Sulfur dioxide will turn into acid rain and fall hundreds of kilometers downwind of factories and power plants where it originated; Fine particles can even drift further, and carbon dioxide will quickly diffuse into the atmosphere around the world. 2 1 by the end of the century, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration may be twice that of Britain in the early stage of industrialization.

The annual consumption of coal in China exceeds 2 billion tons, and coal will remain the main energy source in China in the coming decades. There are some technologies that can reduce particulate pollution and sulfur dioxide entering the atmosphere when burning coal. The biggest beneficiary of this change will be the people of China, who have paid a heavy price for the health damage, poverty and environmental damage caused by coal. However, the clean air in China will also benefit people who are far away from China. For example, researchers found that smoke particles from China drifted to the United States.

Besides pollution control measures, it is equally important to improve energy efficiency. The most advanced power plants burn less coal and emit less particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide than traditional power plants. Saving energy and improving energy efficiency can bring similar benefits, and the cost is lower than that of new power generation facilities. If China can invest in these technologies, it will benefit itself and the rest of the world.

Obviously, the best way to control pollution is not to dilute it, but to eliminate it at the root. All the inhabitants of the earth are neighbors, breathing the only air together. Parents should work closely together at the local and national levels to reduce pollution, so they must join hands at the global level to maintain healthy air.