Research Paper On Coal

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.

Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. With all of the talk surrounding nuclear energy, hydropower and biofuels, you might be forgiven for thinking that grimy coal is finally on its way out. On the other hand, coal is no sooty remnant of the Industrial Revolution - it generates half of the electricity in the United States and will likely continue to do so as long as it's cheap and plentiful . Clean coal technology seeks to reduce harsh environmental effects by using multiple technologies to clean. Coal is a fossil fuel composed primarily of carbons and hydrocarbons. Its ingredients help make plastics, tar and fertilizers. A coal derivative, a solidified carbon called coke, melts iron ore and reduces it to create steel. But most coal - 92 percent of the U.S. supply - goes into power production .Electric companies and businesses with power plants burn coal to make the steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. When coal burns, it releases carbon dioxide and other emissions in flue gas, the billowing clouds you see pouring out of smoke stacks. Some clean coal technologies purify the coal before it burns. One type of coal preparation, coal washing, removes unwanted minerals by mixing crushed coal with a liquid and allowing the impurities to separate and settle. Other systems control the coal burn to minimize emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and

The process to mine the coal is quite complex. First, surveyors are called on site to document the layout of the land so that in can be restored to

Surface mining began to replace traditional underground mining around WWII (Bozzi 116). Rather than digging into the mountain to extract the coal, strip mining involves removing the overlying soil and rock that covers the coal deposits (Lutz 1). It seemed appealing at first because the previous known dangers of black-lung disease and cave-ins were now limited with the surface mining method (Bozzi 116). However, surface mining came with it’s own problems, a lot of them being more serious and irreversible than underground mining (Allen 182). This method of surface mining was the spark that created the trend of mountaintop removal (Bozzi 117). Mountaintop removal is the complete destruction of the mountain peak in order to reach coal

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

Traditional mining involves the sinking of a vertical shaft into the Earth to an appropriate depth. Then the shafts are driven into horizontal tunnels into the chalcopyrite ore. There is an open pit, as seen in Figure

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 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

Coal Bed Typically formed about 300 million years ago, flooding of dense forests and low-lying wetlands caused vegetation to be buried and over time, compressed. In combination with heat and protection from oxidation by more mud or acidic water the vegetation was converted to coal.

The U.S is a top net exporter of coal, meaning the U.S produces enough coal not only for its use but enough where it can supply the rest of the world as well. We use most of our own coal, however, some power plants along the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Ocean find it less costly to import coal from nearby countries than it is to import our own coal to those locations (“U.S Energy Information Administration”). Coal is a naturally-occurring resource formed by deposits of decaying plants from long ago which have undergone extreme heat and pressure. Surface mining and deep underground mining are the two most basic forms of mining coal. Surface mining is only economic when the deposits are near the surface, and usually 90% of the coal deposit is recovered. When there is an abundance of soil and rocks, it is broken up by using explosives. The resulting debris is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal is exposed, it is drilled, fractured, and carefully mined in strips. Lastly, the coal is loaded onto large trucks, shipped to the coal preparation plant, and then used or stored (“Coal Mining”). When mining deep underground, there are two methods that can be used, “room-and-pillar” and “longwall” mining. In room-and-pillar mining, miners cut a network of ‘rooms’ into the coal and leave behind ‘pillars’ of coal to support the roof of the mine (See Figure 2). These pillars can be up to 40% of 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.

There are numerous potential sources of energy, and they are most broadly categorized into two groups; renewable and nonrenewable. Renewable, of course, implies that the source can be renewed, while nonrenewable sources exist in limited numbers. Coal fits under the nonrenewable umbrella, and that, in itself, already puts it

Coal was formed during the Carboniferous Period, which was between 360- 290 million years ago. All of the coal originated from plant fossils. Around 400 million years ago plants once grew around fresh water swamps. As they eventually died, the plants fell and accumulate in the water. Many layers of sediments, mud and sand compressed the plants and allowed no oxygen, which results in no decomposition. Over time the layers get built up resulting in immense pressure and heat transforming each layer into different types of coal. For the substance to be considered coal it needed to contain less than 50% of ash- forming mineral matter. The four stages of coal are: Peat, Lignite (brown coal), Sub-bituminous coal, Bituminous coal and Anthracite.

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.

Surface mining is the coal mining process that accounts for around 60% of the United States’ coal. It tends to be very efficient, with a single worker recovering up to 30 to 40 tons of coal in a day. To begin surface mining coal, a drill must