2 ms·
To save others a click: it's slightly less than a factor of two better. 214-228 lbs C02 per btu, vs. 117 for natural gas.
by jessriedel 10y ago
To save others a click: it's slightly less than a factor of two better. 214-228 lbs C02 per btu, vs. 117 for natural gas.
- maxerickson 10y agoYou also have to factor in the differences in the plants. So I guess it often works out to slightly more than a factor of two. The other side of it is that unburned coal doesn't leak into the air as a potent greenhouse gas the way methane does.
- pacaro 10y agoThe other side of the waste equation is also worse for coal. Fly ash is typically radioactive enough that if it were produced at a nuclear facility it would be categorized as nuclear waste. To be clear, burning coal concentrates the uranium and thorium that naturally occur in coal by a factor of about 10. There is still only a very small amount. Living within the stack shadow (~1km) of a coal fired plant only increases your exposure to background radiation by about 5%