Coal is carried from semis and directly via conveyor belts from a nearby mine to the storage facility at the Conesville power plant. Although the plant has a capacity to store a reserve of more than 90 days of coal at any given time, the current supply is down to just a few day of reserves. This is because the plant recently had to share some of it’s reserves with other plants that had a shortage, the coal mining labor situation is much more stable now than it was years ago, and the utility is trying to be cost conscious by buying only to meet demand. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Michael Thomas adjusts the bushings around the shaft of a turbine during a routine overhaul of an electrical generator and turbine unit at the Conesville Power Plant on Friday February 16, 2001. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Workers perform a routine overhaul of an electrical generator and turbine unit at the Conesville Power Plant on Friday February 16, 2001. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Workers perform a routine overhaul of an electrical generator at the Conesville Power Plant on Friday February 16, 2001. From left to right – Joe Ritter, Bill Bickford, and John Foster. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Workers perform a routine overhaul of an electrical generator at the Conesville Power Plant on Friday February 16, 2001. From left to right – Joe Ritter, Bill Bickford, and John Foster. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Coal is carried from semis and directly via conveyor belts from a nearby mine to the storage facility at the Conesville power plant. Although the plant has a capacity to store a reserve of more than 90 days of coal at any given time, the current supply is down to just a few day of reserves. This is because the plant recently had to share some of it’s reserves with other plants that had a shortage, the coal mining labor situation is much more stable now than it was years ago, and the utility is trying to be cost conscious by buying only to meet demand. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Conesville Power plant Manager Daniel Lambert describes some of the processes involved in using coal as a power source. Behind him in the dark rectangular ponds is a slurry of slag and fly ash from the plants boilers and scrubbers. Fly ash, a complex composition of silicon and aluminum oxides together with oxides of iron, calcium, titanium, potassium and trace metals, originates from residual inorganic matter contained in coal. When coal is burned in steam generators, the matter is fused and carried with flue gas as the carbon is consumed by oxidation. The flue gas cools as it flows out of the steam generator, and the molten ash takes the form of ceramic particles. The ash particles are collected in electrostatic precipitators. In the green circular tanks is Calcium Sulfate, a product of the smoke stack scrubber used at the plant to limit air pollution. Scrubbers operate by spraying a mixture of pulverized limestone and water into the exhaust gas of the generating units. Inside the scrubber vessels, calcium in the limestone reacts with the gaseous SO2 to form calcium sulfate, commonly know as gypsum. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]

Coal trucks line up to enter the Conesville Power Plant Friday February 16, 2001. (© James D. DeCamp | http://www.JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366) [Photographed with Canon EOS D30 cameras with L series lenses.]