Coal Fuel And Natural Gas

When asked to think of coal mining, what comes to mind? A mountain with a hole cut into the side of it with a set of railroad tracks disappearing into it? Maybe an old mine car or two full of some rocks or coal, with a pickaxe and shovel leaning against it. A few guys with hard hats covered in a black powder coming walking out of the mine pushing a car or two full of coal. The technology has advanced but the process is basically still the same as well as the outcome. Coal is retrieved from underground and taken to factories to be burnt to create electricity or to fuel the steel mills.

A controversial topic commonly debated among society is the construction of coal mines. Although they potentially contain great economic promise and access to more resources, they also harm the surrounding environment and increase carbon dioxide emissions.

Coal has been around for 250 million years, but only has been used since the 1800’s first by trains and now for energy all around the world and many other things that people couldn't think of! Coal is a combustible sedimentary organic rock which is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is formed from vegetation which has been consolidated between two other rock strata and altered by the combined effects of pressure and heat over millions of years to form coal seams. There are over 174,000 jobs in the U.S associated with coal and 83,000 of them are mining jobs, Coal miners have found many ways to extract coal from the ground which includes, surface mining, longwall mining, room and pillar mining, and underground mining. “Surface

Coal contains a lot of energy and is abundant. Next, the technological demands are low, as well as the cost. It is easy to manage and needs little purification before

Natural gas is another means of energy source that provides heating and electricity to many individuals. It is a natural mixture of methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide. Natural gas was first found back in 1626 when the French found the natives lighting gas seeping in and out of the ground around Lake Erie. When natural gas was first introduced into civilization as a means of energy source it was not efficient nor was it environmentally friendly. It was first in the United States in Baltimore, Maryland in 1816 when it was used to light the street lamps. The first well that was dug for Natural Gas purposes was in 1821 in Fredonia, New York by William Hart. He is known as the “father of natural gas: in

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.

For many centuries coal has been used to generate energy, steel production, cement manufacturing and liquid fuel (Uses of Coal, n.d.). To access the coal, humans mine areas that have a big resource of the rock. Studies have shown the decrease of coal mining in the economy, the people not agreeing with their land being used due to the culture of the land that the coal is on and the harmful effects that coal mining causes to the environment.

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.

Coal, a mineral I have discussed previously, is necessary to our everyday lives. Coal is an incredible source of energy; it heats our houses and buildings, and also fuels stoves. You may often wonder where this extremely useful mineral comes from. Coal does not just appear; it needs to be mined through a process which results in our being able to utilize it. Coal mining is fairly inexpensive, is carried out on a large scale and can be mined in either underground or surface mines.

Fossil fuels are essential to life on earth as we know it today. Our world would certainly be much different if it weren’t for such seemingly simple things such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These basic elements of life on earth may not seem like a major concern to some people until we put into perspective how they have shaped our world today. Civilizations have been built, economies have risen and crumbled, and even wars have been fought over these precious fossil fuels. However, these fossil fuels serve us in ways we may never truly appreciate, as long as we use them as recklessly as we do now. The major entity about fossil fuels is concerning their longevity and permanence in our world, and we all know, they will be around forever.

It has been long recognized that there are many environmental consequences by extracting, using and disposing of coal. Due mainly to the nature of the coal deposits which are typically full-size, covering huge regions including more than one seams extending over big vertical durations. Coal mining in all likelihood consequences in an extra disturbance to the geologic conditions of an area than any other form of mining(Ehlen, Haneberg & Larson, 2005, p. 79).

With approximately 25 million tonnes of steel making coal produced in 2013, Teck Coal Limited is the largest producer of steelmaking (coking) coal in North America and the second largest exporter of steelmaking coal with approximately 95% of the coal produced being exported to various countries in Asia, Europe and South America. China, Japan & Korea form the bulk of the countries who import steelmaking coal from Teck Coal Limited (Teck Resources Limited, 2013). Figure 1 below shows a breakdown of the world coal reserves according to the type of coal and the potential use.

Furthermost significant coal areas lie in the states of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal. The lignite feature of coal is bring into being in Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Jammu, Rajasthan and Kashmir. At the moment the Coal India Limited (CIL) & Singarene Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) govern the coal business in India. Petroleum manufacturing in India was mostly organized by the Foreign Corporations straightaway after freedom. It is merely in the past years that the manufacturing has become a significant Community Sector established in India. India’s petroleum business is at this time as good as any other country in the world. Natural gas and Oil are in the middle of the most vital energy

The second graph shows us the increase in exports of Russian Coal in 2015. This suggests that Russia is a potential supplier of Coal to different countries.

In India, 80% of mining is done in coal and the rest balance 20% is done in various metals and other raw materials such as gold, iron, lead, copper, zinc and uranium. Coal has been a major contributor in ensuring energy security during the last century. But it is not a renewable energy resource. Coal is the most important and abundant fossil fuel in India and accounts for approximately 55% of India 's total energy need. India 's industrial heritage was based upon indigenous coal, largely mined in the eastern and the central regions of the country. Coal has been recognized as the single most important source of energy for electricity generation in India. About 75% of the total coal produced is consumed in the power sector. In addition, several industries like steel, cement, paper, fertilizers, chemicals and thousands of medium and small scale industries are dependent on coal for their energy requirements. In the transport sector, the energy requirement for electric traction is still dependent on coal converted into electric power.