February 06, 2014
Media Advisory – Coal ash contamination
Coal ash is a by-product of burning coal to produce electricity. And 82,000 tons of it, mixed with 27 million gallons of contaminated water, is leaking from a power plant in North Carolina. Contaminants in the mixture could threaten water supplies across state lines. Questions are just beginning.
Tomasz S. Wiltowski, director of the Coal Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, can offer some perspective. Wiltowski, professor of mechanical engineering and energy processes, an award-winning scholar and internationally acknowledged authority, is available to lend his expertise to members of the media in the wake of this ongoing event.
Wiltowski is the recipient of approximately 40 state, federal and private grants totaling more than $8.5 million. He explores issues in coal transformation and gasification, alternative energy sources, hydrogen production from coal, and nanomaterials synthesis and characterization. Wiltowski holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from the Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow. He has served on several international advisory committees, including, most recently, the International Conference on Advanced Energy Research in Mumbai, India. He speaks five languages, including fluent English.
Tomasz Wiltowski can be reached by email at tomek@siu.edu or by cell phone at 618/521-3548.