Coal

Coal

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world. The process that forms coal is ongoing, and coal is currently taking shape in swamps and marshy areas around the world, but since the process takes an enormous amount of time coal is classified as a non-renewable resource. Coal is formed when heat and pressure are applied over millions of years to partially decomposed remains of plant material accumulated in ancient swamps and lagoons. There are three main types of coal, and their formation depends on the amount of heat and pressure experienced by the original material. The lowest grade of coal, which experienced the least pressure and heat, is lignite or brown coal, and it contains the lowest amount of carbon and has the lowest heat value. The majority of coal found in the United States is bituminous, and it is also called soft coal and falls in the middle of the scale of carbon content and heat value. Anthracite, also known as hard coal, contains the highest amount of carbon and has the highest heat value.

Coal was first used for fuel in the 12th or 13th century in England when it was discovered that black rocks found on beaches could be burned. This led to mining for the purpose of heating homes, and it later fed the Industrial Revolution in both the United States and England (Chiras and Reganold 545). In the United States coal is used primarily for generating electricity, but it is also used in steel making and other industrial processes. According to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. government, ninety percent of the coal mined in the country is used to generate electricity, and more than half of the electricity generated here comes from coal. To generate power, coal is burned in a large furnace, which heats water to create steam that turns the blades of a turbine attached to a generator. In making steel, coal is baked in furnaces to create coke, a form of coal that will burn much hotter that ordinary coal, and the coke is used in smelting iron ore to produce the iron that is necessary for steel production. Large amounts of coal are used in the concrete and paper industries, and certain ingredients of coal are used in the production of plastics, tar, synthetic fibers, fertilizers and medicines. Some coal is also exported to other countries such as Canada, Brazil and parts of Europe, and most exports are used in steel production (Energy Information Administration 2005). In addition to traditional coal-fired power plants and industrial uses, there are other existing uses for coal including fluidized bed combustion, coal gasification and coal liquefaction. In fluidized bed combustion, crushed coal and limestone are pushed into a furnace by a strong air current and burned at a lower temperature than conventional coal plants. This method burns more efficiently and emits less carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide than traditional methods. Coal gasification refers to one of several processes by which coal is manipulated to create a combustible gas that is not unlike natural gas. As with fluidized bed combustion, emissions are lower and combustion is more efficient than in conventional coal burning plants. In coal liquefaction, hydrogen is added to coal to produce oil that can be refined and used in similar ways to crude oil (Chiras and Reganold 548-549).

As mentioned above, coal is the most abundant of the fossil fuels. There are nearly eight hundred billion metric tons of coal remaining worldwide: this is enough to last about two hundred years if the world consumption of coal continues at its present rate. Some believe that undiscovered reserves exist that would stretch the world's coal supply to nearly two thousand years at current consumption rates. That fact alone makes coal a very valuable resource, since reserves of competing resources such as oil and natural gas are not projected to last more than one hundred years at current levels of use. Of the world's known remaining coal, the United States has about thirty percent, and Russia, with sixteen percent, and China, with twelve percent, also have significant reserves. In the U.S. West Virginia is second only to Wyoming in coal production (EIA 2005). Accessibility of coal depends on its location. Obviously, coal located close to the surface of the earth is much more accessible than coal that is buried deep underground. Coal is accessed in one of two ways: underground and surface mining. In surface mining there are contour mines and strip mines. Contour mining is used mostly in the eastern U.S. and in this process the tops of hills and mountains are removed with dynamite and heavy machinery so that all of the coal can be exposed and taken away. Strip mining follows a similar process except that it is generally employed in flatter areas of the Midwestern and Western U.S. Underground mining is used when the coal seam is buried too deep to be accessed by simply removing the rocks and soil above. This is a much less efficient and more dangerous method of mining coal as it only removes about half of the available coal and is prone to cave-ins, poisonous gases and explosions. Environmental laws like the Clean Air and Water Acts attempt to control pollution by coal-fired power plants and acid mine drainage from underground mines. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, passed in 1977 and put into place in 1979, requires coal companies to return surface mined areas to a condition resembling what it originally looked like. The companies are required to restore the topsoil, vegetation and original contours of the land and to control erosion and contamination of nearby bodies of water (Chiras and Reganold 545-550).

While coal is the most abundant of fossil fuels, it is also the dirtiest: both burning coal to produce electricity and mining of any type have huge environmental impacts. Prior to the passage of laws that require coal companies to reclaim surface mined land, overburden, or the topsoil, rocks and