Environmental-impact assessment for the proposed oil-shale integrated Ttrigeneration plant

Air, land and water impacts for a proposed commercial-sized oil-shale Aintegrated tri-gen-eration system (OSITGS) are predicted. A preliminary Aanalysis of the processes incurred was conducted to determine the nature and Aexpected rates of various effluent streams emerging from the OSITGS. Mining and Athe processing of the oil-shale will significantly disturb the environment, as Aa result of pollution by dust particles and ash derived from the oil-shale as well as various gaseous emissions from the proposed development. However, it is Alikely that solid-waste handling (including ultimate disposal) as well as land-Ause impacts will be of greater concern than emissions to the atmosphere from Athe proposed oil-shale operations. Preliminary predictions indicate that the Aproposed integrated process will be financially attractive, as well as an Aenvironmentally-acceptable technique for producing synthetic (liquid and gaseous) fuels and electricity from oil-shale, compared with conventional Autilisation methods. But significant information gaps exist, so inhibiting the Amaking of accurate environmental assessments concerning the behaviour of the AOSITGS at this time. C 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.