Smokestack_industry
Smokestack industry
Pollution-generating basic industry
A smokestack industry is a basic, usually cyclical, manufacturing industry.[1] The factories stereotypically used in such industries that have flue gas stacks, hence the name, and produce a high volume of pollution. During the earliest era of electric power development, coal fired electric stations in urban areas were common prior to the use of Alternating current for lighting as Direct current electricity could only travel short distances.[2]
Example industries include:
Smokestacks are large industrial chimneys used in the process of combusting mostly fossil fuels in furnaces with the goal of producing steam to drive generators for electricity, for the smelting ores, or as a separation or refinery process. The carefully constructed circular stacks were used to both increase the flow of combustible air but also isolate exhaust gases, carbon dioxide and pollutants from ground level releases during ever larger industrial activities. The difference in temperature between the bottom inside and outside of the stack helped to increase the rate air flow through the furnace known as the stack effect.