Market assessment of environmental issues affecting coal use for Los Alamos National Laboratory

This is a market assessment of environmental issues affecting coal use through 2020. It was prepared by Los Alamos National Laboratories for the Fossil Energy R&D Program. It is based on interviews of representatives of 8 coal, coal technology, electricity and environmental groups concerned with the future of energy and the environment. Interviewees generally agreed that the U.S. and other countries would continue to need to use coal into the middle of the next century. The size of the market for coal would be determined by the ability of coal and coal technologies to meet environmental requirements at costs that would compete with natural gas. Outside the U.S., three interviewees suggested that there is a market for low cost coal technologies that will reduce the environmental impact of coal use, particularly in developing countries that have few alternative sources of energy. The principal environmental concerns mentioned in these interviews were: efficiency and carbon, air toxics, and NO{sub x}. Several also mentioned potential modifications to the SO{sub x} standards, a fine particulate standard, bottom and fly ash, and methane from coalbeds