Listen to this articleHard to convert into a positive
The Champaign lady with the snarky attitude toward those concerned about carcinogens in the coal ash (including me) had a bright idea about gaining good from the bad.
She suggests someone figure out how to harvest rare earth elements from the waste. Perhaps she had read Sierra Magazine.
Its recent story related that the U.S. Department of Energy spent millions trying to do just that, and while it can be done, it is, so far, not worthwhile.
When a ton of coal burns, it creates some 220 pounds of “coal ash,” with several heavy metals, and uranium, plus another 240 pounds of new, mostly toxic chemicals, formed in the coal combustion, most of which ends up in the coal-ash pile.
The dust that escapes contains some of both factions, which accounts for the higher incidents of cancers near coal-ash locations, and coal-fired generation plants, along with the leaching of these contaminants into the groundwater.
While coal ash does contain some rare earth elements, assays show
it to be around 1 kilo per 5 metric tons, or one part in 5000. This is 2.5 percent of the typical content in rare earth ores, which makes the cost to process the elements from coal ash extremely pricey.
Further, one still would have the other 4,999 parts of the 5,000-part sample to deal with, along with the chemical contamination of both the removed rare earth elements and the leftover 99.999 percent of the coal ash.
VINCE KOERS
Danville
