Effect of Heating and Power Plants on the Environment

The OAO Gazprom has proposed that the consumption of natural gas by heating and power plants in Russia be decreased by 30 billion m³ per year and that this volume of gas be replaced by coal. Data on the environmental effects and effects on human health resulting from enterprises in the coal industry and heating and power plants burning coal and natural gas are analyzed. The volume of emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere when 30 billion m³ of gas are replaced at heating and power plants by kansko-achinsk and hard kuznets coal is calculated (for three variants). The calculations show that decreasing the amount of gas burned by heating and power plants and increasing at the same time the consumption of coal results in a substantial increase in harmful emissions into the environment.