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New method can pull rare earth elements from electronic waste and coal ash.. When a pulse of current goes through a tube containing coal ash, a flash of light indicates rapid heating. Rare earth elements then become much easier to extract.. As chemists scramble to find ways to reclaim valuable metals from industrial waste and discarded electronics, one team has found a solution that sounds a little like magic: Zap the trash with flashes of electric heat. Rare earth elements (REEs) present an environmental paradox. On one hand, these dozen or so metals, such as yttrium and neodymium, are vital...

The Environmental Protection Agency will propose easing rules on disposal of coal ash, the residue from burning coal, to make it less likely the federal government would shutter a coal-fired utility plant, in an announcement set for Monday. The move is part of what has been a larger deregulation push by the Trump administration to roll back strict Obama-era regulations that the industry viewed as the previous administration’s “war on coal” that pushed to shut down many coal-fired power plants. “The EPA is no longer picking winners and losers in electric generation,” Peter Wright, assistant administrator for EPA Office of...

Shipping containers full of coal ash from China, Poland and India have come into the U.S. through the Port of Virginia as foreign companies find a market for the same industrial waste that America's utilities are struggling to dispose of.

Coal ash scare stories are the latest tactic in their long war on coal-fueled electricity generation Coal-fired power plant scrubbers now remove 80-90 % of airborne particulate, mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants. But that means “fly ash” and noncombustible residues (what we used to call clinkers) must be sent to landfills. That’s opened a new front for anti-energy activists, who use accidents, “detectable” pollutants in water, and scary stories about health threats to advance their agenda. In 2008, a Tennessee Valley Authority earthen retainer dam near Knoxville ruptured, sending 5.4 million cubic yards of rain-soaked fly ash...

US scientists have found what it could be key for the future of the country’s ailing coal industry as they detected that ashes from local operations, particularly those around the Appalachian region, are very rich in rare earth elements. Researchers from North Carolina-based Duke University analyzed coal ashes from coal-fired power plants throughout the US, including those in the largest coal-producing regions: the Appalachian Mountains; southern and western Illinois; and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. One of the team main conclusions was that coal waste generated by the Appalachian coal operations was the richest in rare earth...

In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant - a by-product from burning coal for electricity - carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

Six years after a devastating coal ash spill in Roane County, the federal government is putting in place standards to regulate ash from coal-fired power plants as a nonhazardous material, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today. The new rules, the first-ever federal regulations for the storage and disposal of coal ash, would require industries to install liners and put in place other safeguards for new and existing storage ponds. Groundwater monitoring systems would have to be installed to detect pollutants, any existing contamination would have to be cleaned up immediately, and impoundments that are already polluting groundwater above health-safety...

Duke Energy this afternoon completed the installation of a permanent plug at its site in Eden, N.C., to stop releases from an ash basin at the Dan River Steam Station. Overnight, crews filled a section of the pipe with a concrete grout material and capping system. The material cured and hardened over the next 12 hours and was successfully tested by workers Saturday afternoon. The company will continue to fully grout the entire pipe. "Plugging the pipe was clearly job one, but we're continuing our efforts and working closely with all the agencies involved in this response," said Charlie Gates,...

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency agreed to enter a revised consent agreement with a ferry operator that would stop the nation’s last coal-fired ferryboat from dumping waste ash into Lake Michigan before the start of the 2015 sailing season. A federal judge has to approve Friday’s motion, the Ludington Daily News reported. Lake Michigan Carferry, operator of the S.S. Badger, wants to install an ash retention system aboard the ship that hauls passengers, vehicles and cargo between its home port of Ludington, Mich., and Manitowoc, Wis., from May to October. Currently, ash from its boilers is mixed with...

Linguistic analysis of a White House petition against increased coal-ash regulations — submitted by coal industry front group “Citizens for Recycling First” in late 2011 – revealed that hundreds of Chinese signatures from Colorado on the petition that are less than authentic. The most basic of the fake names appear to be generated by software or small group of individuals that only changes simple things in the names — names like Fred Smith, Larry Smith, Larry Williams, George Jones, William Jones, James Jones, Henry Jones, Peter Jones. Other names are more inane, inanimate objects. These names are not traditional Chinese...

Linguistic analysis of a White House petition against increased coal-ash regulations — submitted by coal industry front group “Citizens for Recycling First” in late 2011 – revealed that hundreds of Chinese signatures from Colorado on the petition that are less than authentic. The most basic of the fake names appear to be generated by software or small group of individuals that only changes simple things in the names — names like Fred Smith, Larry Smith, Larry Williams, George Jones, William Jones, James Jones, Henry Jones, Peter Jones. Other names are more inane, inanimate objects. These names are not traditional Chinese...

The Obama administration has repeatedly said job creation is a top priority, but apparently the memo seems to have missed the bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This became evident when EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus testified Thursday before an Environment and Energy subcommittee hearing that his agency does not take jobs into account when it issues new regulations. “We have not directly taken a look at jobs in the proposal,” Stanislaus said, referring to a regulation that would govern industries that recycle coal ash and other fossil fuel byproducts. Coal ash is commonly used to make concrete stronger...

CHATTANOOGA — The Tennessee Valley Authority won another round in a court fight against lawsuits from the utility’s huge coal ash spill, with a magistrate saying no to plaintiff lawyers who asked to seek damages in a class action. U.S. Magistrate Bruce Guyton recommended denying the class action status sought by attorneys for some of the 457 plaintiffs spread among about 50 current lawsuits, and for any others waiting to sue. Since the Dec. 22, 2008, spill of 5.4 million cubic yards of toxin-laden sludge in the Emory River and on privately held land beside TVA’s’ Kingston Plant, the utility...