Given that coal used by power plants has a heating value of 27.5 million Btus per metric ton (25 million Btus per ton), determine the number of kilograms (and pounds) of coal needed to produce 1 million Btus of heat.
About 10,000 Btus of heat input are required for an electric utility to produce 1 kilowatt-hour (kwh) of electrical energy. How many metric tons (and how many tons) of coal must be supplied each hour to provide the input heat requirements for a 1,000-megawatt (1-million-kilowatt) power plant?
Assuming that this power plant uses coal with 1.00% sulfur and operates at full capacity 24 hours per day, how many metric tons (and how many tons) of sulfur will be released into the atmosphere each year?

The post 1. The U.S. Clean Air Act limits sulfur emissions from large coal-fired boilers to 0.54 kilograms (1.2 pounds) of sulfur per million Btus (British thermal units) of heat generated (1 metric ton = 1,000 kilograms = 2,200 pounds = 1.1 tons; 1 kilogram = 2.2 first appeared on Original Papers.

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