Posts Tagged ‘Institute’
Posted in A large section of the Fifth Estate, that world company of scientists, climbed the Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh last week. They knew soft coal, what it was and what could profitably be done with it and were answering the call to the Second International Conference on Bituminous Coal made by President Thomas Stockham. Baker of Carnegie Institute of Technology.
Coal Situation. Of U. S. coal companies, only the Island Creek Coal Co. admits that it is making satisfactory profits. Practically all the rest claim that they are losing money. Certainly most are. They have millions of tons of coal mined and ready .for : sale at low, unprofitable prices. But sales have fallen off. Electricity, gas and oil are supplanting coal. This economic shift is inevitable.
The way to coal profits—President Baker emphasized when he opened last week’s conference—is to teach consumers how to use coal in new ways and to teach coal men how to “unlock the riches that lie hidden” in coal (i.e., to produce synthetic goods).
C-O-H-N & Synthetics. When Carnegie Tech’s President Baker asked Director Edwin Emery Slosson of Science Service to speak at this bituminous coal conference, he did not expect Dr. Slosson “to make any serious contribution to the practical and technical problems” which engaged the attention of the Congress. So Dr. Slosson, learned journalist, made a brilliant survey of synthetic chemistry, in which soft coal is the great raw material. Read the rest of this entry »
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Coal dust exposure is directly linked to severity of emphysema in smokers and nonsmokers alike, according to new research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
‘In this study we have shown that coal mine dust exposure is a significant predictor of emphysema severity,’ said Eileen Kuempel, Ph.D., a senior scientist at NIOSH and lead author of the study.
The findings, which were reported in the August 1 issue of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), highlight a health problem related to a growing industry. In the past 25 years, coal production has nearly doubled worldwide.
Dr Kuempel and colleagues compared lung autopsy results from 722 individuals, including 616 coal miners from West Virginia and 106 non-miners from West Virginia and Vermont. Those from West Virginia were collected from consecutive autopsies from 1957 and 1973 at the Beckley Southern Appalachian Regional Hospital as part of a black lung study. Those from Vermont were taken from consecutive autopsies performed at the University of Vermont between 1972 and 1978. Age at death, race, miner/non-miner status and smoking history were established where possible, and individual exposure to coal dust was estimated using work history data and job-specific dust exposure estimates. Read the rest of this entry »
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New research, reported this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, contaminated the Arctic and potentially affected human health and ecosystems in and around Earth’s polar regions.
The study, titled “Coal Burning Leaves Toxic Heavy Metal Legacy in the Arctic,” was conducted by the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reno, Nev. and partially funded by the National Science Foundation.
Detailed measurements from a Greenland ice core showed pollutants from burning coal–the toxic heavy metals cadmium, thallium and lead–were much higher than expected. The catch, however, was the pollutants weren’t higher at the times when researchers expected peaks.
“Conventional wisdom held that toxic heavy metals were higher in the 1960s and ‘70s, the peak of industrial activity in Europe and North America and certainly before implementation of Clean Air Act controls in the early 1970s,” said Joe McConnell, lead researcher and director of DRI’s Ultra-Trace Chemistry Laboratory. Read the rest of this entry »
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Turning coal into gasoline-like fuel has several advantages. It would use America’s vast coal reserves. It would reduce the nation’s thirst for foreign oil and help dampen spikes in energy prices. There’s just one problem: It is not “climate friendly” – at least, not yet.
Coal-to-liquids (CTL) fuels could end up emitting nearly double the carbon dioxide that the equivalent amount of gasoline does, mostly because of the way it’s manufactured. The CTL industry says new technology will fix the problem. But because such technology is not yet developed, it’s unclear whether CTL fuels would be competitive without state and federal subsidies, even competing against high-priced diesel, jet fuel, or gasoline, analysts say.
That’s where politicians come in. The National Mining Association has ramped up Capitol Hill lobbying, creating a new coalition and website, futurecoalfuels.org. Many in Washington are warming to the idea. CTL bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate have received strong backing. Read the rest of this entry »
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