A Carbon Based Fuels And Uses Essay

Coal is a fossil fuel, because it was formed from the remains of vegetation that grew as long as 400 million years ago. A fossil fuel is a naturally occurring fuel of organic nature, such as coal, crude oil and natural gases. It is often referred to as “buried sunshine” because the plants which formed coal captured energy from the sun through photosynthesis to create the compounds that makes up plant tissue. Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants convert light to energy by transforming carbon dioxide and water into carbon hydrates. There are about 267 billion tons or, thirteen percent, of known American reserves in the United States. The most important element in the plant material is carbon, which gives coal most of its energy. Most of the coal today was formed about 300 million years ago, when steamy swamps covered most of the earth. As plants and trees died, their remains sank to the bottom of the swampy areas, accumulating layer upon layer and eventually forming a soggy dense material called peat. Peat is a

The energy we get from coal today comes from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. When an area is to be mined, topsoil and subsoil are removed from the rock and so is another material, call overburden, to expose the bed of coal. All living plants give solar energy through photosynthesis. When plants die the energy gets out as the plants decay. The whole decaying process gets interrupted which prevents the release of the stored solar energy, then the energy stays locked in the coal. The plant material gets subjected to high temperatures and pressures which causes physical and chemical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into peat and then into coal. The formation of peat is the first step in the geological formation of fossil fuels such as coal. Peat plants is not only the first step for formation but they also capture CO2 itself. There are many effect to the environment when it comes to coal; an example is AMD which stands for Acid mine drainage; it includes the outflow of acidic water from coal mines or metal mines. Mines exposed rocks containing pyrite which reacts to water and air to form acid and dissolved iron and can easily wash into rivers and streams. Coal is a huge impact when it comes to hurting our

, It is A hydrocarbon deposit, derived from the accumulated remains of ancient plants and animals during very old ages of history, may be many millions of years which is used as fuel. During burning this fuel to generate electricity, Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are also generated and considered by many scientists to be one of the principal causes of global warming.

Biofuels are fuels made from biomass, which is the organic physical material of an organism that is or was alive. Biomasses can be separated into two categories - liquids and solids. Liquid biomass fuels include biodiesel and ethanol. Solids include charcoal, garbage, wood, and manure. The majority of organic matter contains carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, the same elements that make up fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal. Biomass can be burned as is or converted into a different fuel that burns more efficiently. The use of biomass for fuel is not a new idea, as humans long ago used whatever could help them survive. Solid biofuels like wood, manure, and charcoal have been used ever since man discovered

Fuels such as natural gas (methane) contain hydrocarbons. These are compounds of hydrogen and carbon only. When they burn, the carbon yields

After it is brought out of the ground, the coal is then transported by either a train or a barge to refineries. Upon arriving at the refineries, the coal is either washed by water, or put through a chemical bath to remove some impurities. At the power plant, the coal is then pulverized to a powder just before being burned. The coal powder is then pushed into a furnace where it ignites while still airborne. This fuels the fire which heats up pipes with water running through them. The water begins to boil, and under pressure, the water evaporates and becomes steam, this steam rises and goes through turbines which rotates a generator, and creates electricity. Part or the water is then condensed and put back into the pipes to repeat the process, although much water is lost in the process. During the burning process, the coal powder under goes a chemical reaction that releases its chemical properties into the air. Some of these elements that can be released are sulfur, nitrogen, carbon, arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and some traces of uranium. After the coal has been burned, the emissions are then pumped through filters and scrubbers. Scrubbers use limestone to catch and filter out as much sulfur as possible. After the power has been made in the power plant and the coal has been used, it is then

The fossil fuel coal is a burnable bituminous black rock that is consisting mainly of carbonized plant matter which is mainly found underground in seams and is also used as a fuel. In time, material that had been plants became coal. The main use for coal today is for generating electricity from one stop to another, cement manufacturing, steel products and as well as a liquid fuel. Coal is formed by plant decay which then turns into peat, the peat will than change to lignite which is a soft brown coal then after that a bituminous coal is formed which is black and brittle but also very polluting, after which an anthracite coal is formed, the anthracite coal contains the highest amount of carbon making it the cleanest and safest to burn. There are two ways coal can be

From 2011 to 2014, five thousand eight hundred coal mining jobs have been stopped for a period of time or closed for good. Coal is a black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance consisting of carbonized vegetable matter, used as fuel for energy. That energy is for heating something or creating electricity. Coal is a very important resource; it provides billions of people with heat for their homes, electricity for lights, great paying jobs, and many other things.

Coal is a sedimentary rock that is composed with carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Coal comes from energy that was stored in giant plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago in swamp forests, even before the dinosaurs! When these giant plants and ferns died, they formed layers at the bottom of the swamps. Water and dirt began to pile up on top of the

Coal is a black sedimentary rock which is highly flammable, non-renewable and is mostly made of organic carbon, which is made of dead plant and animals. Coal is formed by high pressures and temperatures caused by chemical and physical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into coal.

Coal has been one of the main and most used resources of energy, although it is a non-renewable resource and is a fossil fuel. Most countries depend on the combustion of coal when it comes to generating electricity. Burning coal has its advantages, like efficiently releasing energy in the form of heat, but it also has its disadvantages. The combustion of coal contributes to many environmental issues like climate change and acid rain, which lead to many health problems. One of the main polluting products of coal combustion is

nitrogen. Known also as a fossil fuel, coal is made from a dead plant matter that converts into the

Coal is a fossil fuel like oil and gas. Fossil fuels are all formed out of organic matter deposited, decomposed and compressed, storing all the carbon involved under the earth's surface for millions of years.

Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal.

Lignite is the softest coal. Further compression and aging caused the lignite coal to change into bituminous coal. Bituminous is a soft, black, brittle material that is extremely flammable and produces a lot of ash and sulfur when burned. This is the type of coal that is mined in the Appalachian Mountains, Great Plains, and the Colorado Plateau. Heat and pressure then turn bituminous into anthracite. Anthracite is the final stage of coal, and is composed almost entirely of carbon. Lignite and bituminous coal are sedimentary, while anthracite is metamorphic. Anthracite is only found where pressure and heat were very great. It doesn’t produce as much heat as bituminous coal, but it burns longer without as much residue. There are anthracite fields in Pennsylvania and Great Britain (U.S Energy Information Administration).