In China, use cleaner techniques of coal burning to cut smog

Smog from coal is one of the major problems facing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as he tries to wage a "war on pollution". Already, smog in Beijing and Shanghai has become untenable, mostly due to pollution from old factories, coal and cement plants and steel mills in Hebei, Shanxi and other provinces. This pollution is exacerbated by inefficient cook stoves, dilapidated and poorly maintained vehicles and the like.

Pollution is often exacerbated by socio-political factors such as poverty and corruption. From a technical perspective, the cause of smog is incomplete and improper combustion of fossil fuels such as diesel, coal and bunker oil. In China's case, a lot of the smog is caused by the burning of coal.

Contrary to what some people may think, coal is not just used for power generation. If that were the case, a lot of coal usage could be replaced by renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

The problem is that many industrial processes need heat, which often comes from burning fuel. Heat can be used to create steam for power generation, for melting steel and other materials, for brewing beer and cooking food and for drying, cleaning and sterilising products and containers, which is typically done with steam.

Remember how you sterilised your infant's baby bottles with a steamer?

In the food industry, many processes, such as the dehydration of liquid milk to make the powdered variety, cleaning beer bottles and brewing, require a lot of heat.

A plant can try using electric heating, but this requires a large amount of electricity, which may end up being sourced from fossil fuels anyway.