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The coal/natural gas plant near me was burning what appears to be some nasty coal just yesterday (bright yellow smoke)... is the smoke color a good indicator of
by OrgNet 7y ago
The coal/natural gas plant near me was burning what appears to be some nasty coal just yesterday (bright yellow smoke)... is the smoke color a good indicator of it's toxicity? (most of the time, the smoke is white, not sure if it is because they were burning natural gas at that time)
- mullen 7y agoYellow would mean coal high in sulfur.
- hanniabu 7y agoAhhh, just what the lungs need!
- sbzodnsbd 7y ago“Coal” plants burn carbon, making carbon dioxide. It’s colorless and pretty much harmless, excepting it’s inpact as a GHG. However, coal contains (depending on the source), mercury, sulfur, radioactive elements, tars, rare earth elements. Some of these are volatile when burned. Some become ash. A plant running anthracite is naturally very clean. The plant has to have scrubbers to remove the volatile ones. Especially the yellow smoke (likely sulfur) However, a one time emission of sulfur is likely insignificant. Finally you mentioned it could be natural gas. Natural gas, mostly methane, is also colorless except it releases water vapor. Given the right conditions, you might see plumes of white smoke coming out - that’s harmless water vapor.
- wonderwonder 7y agodue to regulations most of the time the smoke is relatively free of particulates. They massive amount of carbon released is another issue but when it comes to health concerns the major one should be the coal ash. It is radioactive and packed with heavy metals and carcinogens.