October 18, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - The Governor’s Office of Energy Policy recently awarded a grant of almost $150,000 for environmental sustainability research at Western Kentucky University’s Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology (ICSET).
The project by Dr. Chin-Min Cheng and Dr. Wei-Ping Pan will evaluate whether the reuse of coal combustion byproducts could be beneficial to agricultural application.
Kentucky is ranked second in the nation in installed flue gas desulfurization (FGD) scrubber capacity for coal-fired power plants. As a result, large amounts of FGD byproducts are produced every year. An increase in the utilization of FGD byproducts (for example, agricultural land application) creates significant economic opportunities for Kentucky. However, concerns about the release of hazardous elements have inhibited the usage.
In “Emission and Leaching Potential of Mercury from Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) Byproducts Amended Soil,” Dr. Cheng and Dr. Pan propose to study the emission, leaching and/or bioaccumulation of mercury and other environmental-concerned trace elements (such as arsenic, selenium and chromium) from soils, which are amended using FGD byproducts. They will also evaluate the benefit of using FGD byproducts in improving plant growth and soil properties.
Both laboratory and field studies will be conducted to collect environmental and plant growth monitoring data, which will provide vital information to conduct the life cycle analysis. Life cycle analysis will allow this project to evaluate if the land application of FGD byproduct shifts the environmental problems associated with coal combustion processes from one phase to another.
The project, in cooperation with National Gypsum Company and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, is expected to lead to the development of application strategy for agricultural and coal fired power plants to the beneficial utilization of FGD byproducts.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Wei-Ping Pan at (270) 745-2272.
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