Coal power stations disrupt rainfall: global study

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/fu-cps030919.php

Public Release: 12-Mar-2019
Coal power stations disrupt rainfall: global study

Ultrafine particles from exhaust gas filters 'worse than road traffic'

Flinders University

Modern coal-fired power stations produce more ultrafine dust particles than road traffic and can even modify and redistribute rainfall patterns, a new 15-year international study shows.

The study indicates filtration systems on modern coal-fired power stations are the biggest source of ultrafine particles and can have considerable impacts on climate in several ways.

…

In the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, the researchers report how coal-fired power stations clearly emit large amounts of ultrafine particles (UFP) through filtering technology of exhaust gas. The key findings of the long-term study are:

• Modern coal-fired power stations emit more UFP than urban road traffic
• UFP can harm human health
• UFP can affect rainfall distribution on local to regional scales by increasing the condensation nuclei count
• UFP can be transported in layers with high concentrations for hundreds of kilometres and then lead to localised "particle events" (dramatic spikes in short-term particle concentrations on the ground) far away from their source.

The research also found UFP concentrations have increased continuously since modern coal-fired power stations were commissioned in many locations around the world.

…

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0075.1

[Sinistrous]

1. Ah yes, the vaunted "Clean Coal" technology.

These UFPs must only be a minor annoyance, because "Clean Coal" is so wonderful.

ps:

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Well, "clean coal" is ill-defined

However, I don't believe these plants qualify as what is typically termed "clean coal."

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/news/a27886/how-does-clean-coal-work/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_pollution_mitigation