Estimates of Sulfur Oxide Emissions from the Electric Utility Industry. Volume I: Summary and Analysis

摘要

This report was prepared as part of the Electric Utility Analysis Project, a research project supported by the Environmental Protection Agency. The objective of the report is to provide detailed information on emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx) in the atmosphere from electric generating plants over the period, 1976-1980. Annual emissions estimates for all generating plants were calculated using fuel use, fuel quality and plant configuration data from several sources. The analysis of yearly emissions from 1976-1980 show a gradual reduction in emissions from the utility industry of about 7.7 percent. The reductions are attributed to use of cleaner coals and increased use of SO2 scrubbers. Analysis also shows that a subset of plants with high emissions account for a substantial share of industry capacity and coal use. Approximately 10% of the plants produced roughly 85% of the SOx emissions and account for 50% of total capacity. Volume II presents selected statistics for the 237 plants which were the largest emitters of SOx during the 1976-1980 period.