[SystemSafety] Off-topic: Biomass versus Coal

[Peter Bernard Ladkin]

This is off-topic, so private answers, please! (One could make a theoretical case that "clean" power
also comes under "safety", since environmental damage is explicitly included in the definition of
"harm" in IEC 61508, but I won't.)

"Friday was Britain’s first ever working day without coal power since the Industrial Revolution,
according to the National Grid."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/21/britain-set-for-first-coal-free-day-since-the-industrial-revolution

Um, how does Ms. Brown know? I can't find any reference that burning coal privately (say, in local
power plants for local industry) is forbidden in the UK. I did find out that coal is not an
"authorised fuel" and so, if you burn it, your appliance needs to be "exempt". But it doesn't say
you can't use it
http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/policy-areas/air-quality/air-pollution-law-and-policy/using-wood-and-coal-for-home-heating/


(BTW, wood is an authorised fuel in Germany, even in cities. I have a couple of neighbors who use
it, and in winter on one side of the house in particular the atmosphere is often quite unpleasant.
And Germany likes to pride itself on being low-polluting!)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/world/europe/britain-burning-coal-electricity.html

The NYT is clear that we are only talking about grid electricity. But then it seems silly to say
"since the Industrial Revolution", since that started in 1760 or thereabouts, and the first
coal-fired electricity generating plant was opened in Britain in Holborn in London by Thomas Edison
in 1882, 120 years later. You might as well say "...since the universe began..." with the same
justification.

But that's just a niggle. There has been quite a change in a short time. In 2012, 40% of electricity
in the UK came from coal-fired plants; in 2015 it was 22%, in 2016 9%. But surely that can only have
happened because some plants switched to biomass. Which brings me to my question.

The Guardian suggests coal is a "polluting fuel". It may be, but so is biomass, which
is basically the same stuff. I haven't been able easily to find breakdowns of the byproducts or
their quantities. How is burning biomass in large, efficient generating plants any less
polluting than burning coal? Isn't it even worse in terms of carbon dioxide release?

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Bielefeld, Germany
MoreInCommon
Je suis Charlie
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs-bi.de





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