ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF COAL MINING AND COAL UTILIZATION IN NIGERIA

Coal is the earliest known fossil fuel which played a prominent role in economic development before the production of crude oil began in Nigeria in 1958. Coal mining and utilization cause a number of harmful effects to both environment and human health. The paper discusses the current consumption of coal in Nigeria together with the probable environmental impact as well as the health hazard that could be caused by coal mining, coal processing and coal utilization for combustion and power generation. Methods that could be applied to minimize the environmental impacts of coal combustion are also described in this paper. Contaminants are identified to be oxides of Nitrogen complex (NO_x), oxides of Sulphur complex (SO_x), fine particulates, photochemical oxidant and acid precipitation.