Lichens have been used extensively and with considerable success as bioindicators of atmospheric pollution in North America and Europe for more than thirty years. Little research has followed in tropical and subtropical regions where population growth is rapid and environmental pressures unprecedented. However, taxa used as bioindicators in other studies and/or taxa having this potential, occur naturally in Central Florida. A new potential major source of pollution, the coal-fired Curtis H. Stanton Energy Center, is about to begin operation providing the opportunity to determine the extent of impact. Therefore, lichen monitoring sites have been established and the collection of baseline data reflecting species diversity, frequency, overall cover and vitality has been accomplished. These locations will be preserved for future monitoring activities. Voucher specimens and photographic documentation of sample populations have been deposited in the herbarium of the University of Central Florida.

Energy developments in the Southwest have established a basis for the examination of complexities involved in environmental decision making. The coalfired generation facilities exhibit an impact potential on the social, physical, and economic surroundings of both local and distant communities. A recent seventeen-volume report directed by the U.S. Department of Interior, The Southwest Energy Study, is an indicator of the magnitude of the situation. The Four Corners Program is a team research project with emphasis placed upon technology transfer. Simulation models are used to estimate the physical, economic, and social effects of a range of decisions concerning alternate power schedules. The research results are communicated to interest groups in other than the usual report form. A workshop environment allows the participants to interact with the decisions, the models, the results, and one another. One of the simulation models is the groundwater model. The groundwater model is used to estimate head declines in the confined and unconfined portions of the Navajo Sandstone and the Mesaverde Formation on Black Mesa. The Mesaverde Formation is found to be isolated from the Navajo Sandstone by the Mancos Shale and other intervening layers. A simulation routine developed by the Illinois State Water Survey is modified and adapted to the problem. As a result of the small amount of published aquifer data, minimum or below minimum values of aquifer properties and a sensitivity analysis were incorporated into model considerations. Pumping rates and pumping durations of groundwater for slurry transfer of coal define the decision space. The mining pumpage will have a negligible effect upon the Indian wells located in recharge areas of the Navajo Sandstone. The effects of mining pumpage upon potentiometric surfaces in the artesian portion of the Navajo Sandstone will range from zero to twenty percent of the artesian head, depending upon location and aquifer properties. Theoretical effects of groundwater pumpage on four monitor locations are quantified in terms of ranges of variation. These results can help to evaluate development plans for decision makers and other interest groups. With the future acquisition of measured drawdowns, consideration of theoretical and actual results can provide additional precision to aquifer parameter estimates. The Four Corners Program has a two year duration. The goal of the first year effort was the completion of simulation modeling. Beyond technical or prejudicial hurdles, the workshop encounters will require a public relations and communications posture which is conducive to group participation. The effectiveness of simulation as a means of technology transfer to a variety of users is yet to be evaluated.

Run-of-mine (ROM) coal sampling is one of the most important factors in determining the disposition of ROM coal for an overall emission control strategy. Determination of the amount of sample, or still better, the frequency of ROM coal sampling is thus essential to the analysis of overall emission control strategies. A simulation model of a portion of the Upper Freeport coal seam in western Pennsylvania was developed employing conditional simulation. On the simulated deposit, different mining methods were simulated to generate ROM coal data. ROM coal data was statistically analyzed to determine the sampling frequency. Two schemes were suggested: (1) the use of geostatistical techniques if there is spatial correlation in ROM coal quality, and (2) the use of classical statistics if the spatial correlation in ROM coal quality is not present. Conditions under which spatial correlation in ROM coal quality can be expected are also examined. To link the ROM coal and coals from other sources to coal stockpiles and subsequently to solve coal blending problems, where varying qualities of stockpiled coals are normally used, an interactive computer program was developed. Simple file-handling, for stockpiling problems, and multi-objective goal programming technique, for blending problems, provided their solutions. The computer program was made suitable for use on both minicomputer and microcomputer. Menu-driven and interactive capabilities give this program a high level of flexibility that is needed to analyze and solve stockpiling and blending problems at the power plant.

Eighteen stands of bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa Michx.) and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) were sampled and analyzed using dendrochronological methods to study the potential effects on tree growth of emissions from a 132 MW coal-fired generating station. Sixteen stands were sampled within a 16-km radius of the station, and two control stands were sampled outside of the range of influence, at distances . 40 km. All stands showed similar radial growth patterns from 1960-2001, regardless of distance from or direction relative to the generating station, and a number of stands, including the controls, had below average growth after 1970. Both species were significantly affected by climatic factors, showing decreased radial growth with increasing June temperature. The species differed in their growth responses to spring precipitation and temperature in the previous October. One bur oak site displayed marked radial growth decline beginning in the mid-1970s, strongly pronounced following 1977. This decline does not appear to be related to emissions from the station, but is suspected to be a result of poor site conditions (shallow soil developed over calcareous till), confounded by a change in drainage (a road was built adjacent to the stand in 1977, perpendicular to the direction of drainage). The below average growth seen in 1970-2001 across most stands is likely attributable to stand dynamics and age effects.

No description available.

No description available.

Masters of Science / Eskom supplies to 95% of South Africa’s energy needs and it primarily comes from coal combustion at their coal–fired power stations. Large volumes of fly ash are generated at these coal-fired power stations as a by-product of the coal combustion process. Fly ash is disposed onto landfills at the respective power stations and these landfills are currently running out of storage space. Subsequently, there are concerning environmental impacts upon the natural water environment resulting from coal mining. More specifically, the discharge of acid mine (AMD) water from historical coal mines impact negatively on the water quality in the nearby rivers and dams in the Witbank area. Therefore, as a consequence of the limited space at fly ash landfills, Eskom has embarked on finding alternative ways to re-use fly ash in different applications such as: soil amelioration and land reclamation, road construction as well as brick and cement development. This study focussed on the feasibility of disposing fly ash into the backfill of historical and future coal mines with the intention to firstly reduce fly ash disposal at existing landfills and secondly to improve the decant water quality of the coal mines in the Witbank area. Globally, fly ash has been successfully used in mine backfilling and AMD treatment in countries such as United States of America and India, due to cementitious properties of their fly ash. However, there is limited knowledge on how South African fly ash would behave under backfilled conditions of opencast coal mines where it will be exposed to acidic water environments. This is due to the fact that South African fly ash is considered a Level 3 type hazardous waste, due to its heavy metal concentrations. This waste classification is unique and the strictest compared to global classifications and these methodologies specify that fly ash should be disposed onto lined waste disposal sites due to the potential leaching of heavy metals from these waste sites. It is important to understand the hydrogeological and hydro-geochemical properties of fly ash over time once it is exposed to acid mine water. Field and laboratory tests were conducted to understand these hydrogeological and hydro-geochemical properties of fly ash. Falling head hydraulic tests were conducted at two existing ash landfill sites to determine the hydraulic conductivity (K) of ash of different age. The results exhibit a decreasing trend in K with increasing age. This is due to the pozzolanic nature of fly ash and secondary mineralization of gypsum which causes the fly ash to harden in the presence of water from irrigation for dust suppression together with precipitation over time. Laboratory testing included the use of constant head Darcy column tests to determine the change in K and geochemical properties of the leachate over time. Natural AMD with a pH of 2.5 and a metal composition was used as influent and the leachate were routinely collected and analysed for metal concentrations. The hydraulic conductivity of the fly ash showed a decreasing trend over time. During the placement of coal ash, the moisture allows pozzolanic reactions to solidify the coal ash and lowers the K, towards 10-1 m/d, relative to fresh ash. Secondary mineralization of calcium minerals, in the coal ash contributes to a further decrease in the K, by another order of magnitude from 10-1 m/d towards 10-2 m/d. Sulphate and iron minerals from the AMD also played a major role in the decreasing K as they accumulate in void spaces and having a clogging effect, decreasing the K to 10-3 m/d. The alkaline nature of the coal ash initially neutralizes the acidic levels of AMD from an inflow pH = 2.5 to an outflow pH = 11. Acidification of the outflow towards a pH = 4 was observed, due to large volumes of AMD (>80 000 mL) flowing through short coal ash columns. The K decreased to 3 orders of magnitude, from an initial 10-1 m/d to 10-3 m/d, with the AMD iron (>150 mg/L) and sulphate concentration (>2000 mg/L) playing the dominant role in reducing the hydraulic conductivity. From the geochemical leach test results, it was observed that most of the leachate water was of a better quality than the influent AMD water quality. The outflow pH (pH = 11 to pH = 4) was higher than the pH of the inflow AMD (pH = 2.5). Overall EC reduced in discharge compared to inflow AMD (ECinflow: 535 – 545 mS/m versus ECoutflow: 350 – 490 mS/m), although Na and K in the leachate exhibited higher concentrations (10+2 mg/L) compared to the AMD inflow concentrations (10+1 mg/L). However, most of the other chemical elemental concentrations such as Fe (10-2 – 10+1 mg/L), Si (10-2 – 100 mg/L), Al (10-2 – 10+1 mg/L), Mn (10-2 – 10+1 mg/L), Cr (10-3 – 100 g/L) and SO4 (10+2 – 1+3 mg/L) in the discharge showed lower concentrations when compared to the inflow Fe (10+2 mg/L), Si (100 mg/L), Al (10+1 mg/L), Mn (10+1 mg/L), Cr (10-2 mg/L) and SO4 (10+3 mg/L) concentrations. These results show how fly ash backfill may impact on the current coal mining environment. Overall, the laboratory hydraulic conductivity and geochemical testing showed promising results for fly ash backfilling. Based on this research, fly ash can be used to alter the existing coal mining environment as it is currently known in the Witbank area. The topography, hydraulic conductivity and the water table within the backfill can be altered to improve decant water quality of ash backfilled coal mines.

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. 21 November 2016 / In this work a comprehensive exergy analysis and heat integration study was carried out on a coal based oxy-combustion power plant simulated using ASPEN plus. This is an extension on the work of Fu and Gundersen (2013). Several of the assumptions made in their work have been relaxed here. Their impact was found to be negligible with the results here matching closely with those in the original work. The thermal efficiency penalty was found to be 9.24% whilst that in the original work was 9.4%. The theoretical minimum efficiency penalty was determined to be 3% whilst that in the original work was 3.4%. Integrating the compression processes and the steam cycle was determined to have the potential to increase net thermal efficiency by 0.679%. This was close to the 0.72% potential reported in the original work for the same action. / MT2017

A study was conducted in 2006 to investigate the long-term effects of air pollution on soil properties in the vicinity of the Arnot power station, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Fifteen sites were re-sampled and the soil chemical properties compared to baseline data gathered in 1996, resulting in a ten year period after which changes in soil properties were investigated. A spatial gradient was incorporated into the study in order to better understand the deposition of pollutants with increasing distance from the power station. The study indicates that long-term acidic deposition has led to detectable changes in soil chemical properties. Three chemical properties, namely the concentrations of calcium and magnesium in both the topsoils and the subsoils, as well as the effective cation exchange capacity in the subsoils showed a significant increase since 1996. However, five soil chemical properties, namely soil pH (K2SO4), the concentration of hydrogen and aluminium and total sulphur in both the topsoils and the subsoils, as well as extractable sulphate in the topsoils and soluble sulphate in the subsoils, all show that the soils have become more acidic over the ten years. The acidic components in the soil override the basic components, as shown by the ratio of basic cations to acidic cations in the soils. The spatial gradient generally indicates that at approximately 8 km from the power station, there is a decrease in the concentration of acidic soil properties and one explanation for this may be a reduction in the acidic components of atmospheric deposition at this site. However, this needs further investigation. Two significant relationships with distance were found, namely a significant negative relationship with soluble sulphate and a significant positive relationship with acid neutralising capacity. This research will form part of a database for other long-term monitoring programmes and will allow data to be compared to other data from this area of research. It will also provide information to important industry leaders such as Eskom.

Geological carbon sequestration, as a method of atmospheric greenhouse gas reduction, is at the technological forefront of the climate change movement. During sequestration, carbon dioxide (CO���) gas effluent is captured from coal fired power plants and is injected into a storage saline aquifer or depleted oil reservoir. In an effort to fully understand and optimize CO��� trapping efficiency, the capillary trapping mechanisms that immobilize subsurface CO��� were analyzed at the pore-scale. Pairs of proxy fluids representing the range of in situ supercritical CO��� and brine conditions were used during experimentation. The two fluids (identified as wetting and non-wetting) were imbibed and drained from a flow cell apparatus containing a sintered glass bead column. Experimental and fluid parameters, such as interfacial tension, fluid viscosities and flow rate, were altered to characterize their relative impact on capillary trapping. Computed x-ray microtomography (CMT) was used to identify immobilized CO��� (non-wetting fluid) volumes after imbibition and drainage events. CMT analyzed data suggests that capillary behavior in glass bead systems do not follow the same trends as in consolidated natural material systems. An analysis of the disconnected phases in both the initial and final flood events indicate that the final (residual) amount of trapped non-wetting phase has a strong linear dependence on the original amount of non-wetting phase (after primary imbibition), which corresponds to the amount of gas or oil present in the formation prior to CO��� injection. More importantly, the residual trapped gas was also observed to increase with increasing non-wetting fluid phase viscosity. This suggests that CO��� sequestration can be optimized in two ways: through characterization of the trapped fluid present in the formation prior to injection and through alterations to the viscosity of supercritical CO2. / Graduation date: 2013