Energy and Pollution from Coal

The Energy and Pollution from Coal calculator computes the amount of electrical energy and pollutants produced by an amount of coal (Mc), the specific energy of coal and an efficiency factor.

INSTRUCTIONS: Choose units and enter the following:

• (Mc) Amount of Coal
• (ef) Efficiency of Coal Energy Conversion

Energy from Coal (E_c):  The calculator returns the energy in kiloWatt-hours.  However, this can be automatically converted to compatible units via the pull-down menu.  The calculator also returns:

• (CO2) Pounds of Carbon Dioxide
• (SO2) Pounds of Sulfur Dioxide
• (NOx) Pounds of Nitrogen Oxides
• (CA) Pounds of Coal Ash
• ( Hg) Grams of Mercury

The Math / Science

The specific energy of coal is 25 Mj/kg.  The formula for the Energy from Coal is:

     Ec = Mc • SEc • ef

where:

• Ec is the energy from coal
• Mc is the amount (mass) of coal
• SEc is the specific energy of coal (25 Mj/kg)
• ef is the efficiency of conversion factor

Note: a modern power station has an efficiency of about 30%.

Scientific Attribution: Special thanks to William Burt (Energy consultant and Project Engineer) for his Energy in Coal answer on Quora that is the basis of this calculator.

The pollutant ratios come from the following article found at the Freeing Energy site:

• How Much CO2 And Pollution Comes From Burning Coal? by Bill Nussey

The ratios from the article that were used in this calculator are as follows:

• 1,670 pounds of CO2 per 800 pounds of Coal
• 0.00375 tons of SO2 per ton of coal
• 0.0020875 tons of NOx per ton of coal
• 122 pounds of coal ash per ton of coal
• 4.5 grams of radioactive material per ton of coal
• 0.00000002809816 tons of mercury per ton of coal