Coal - Origins Of Coal, Composition Of Coal, Properties And Reactions, Environmental Problems Associated With The Burning Of Coal

Coal - Origins Of Coal

Coal forms primarily from ancient plant material that accumulated in surface environments where the complete decay of organic matter was prevented. For example, a plant that died in a swampy area would quickly be covered with water, silt, sand, and other sediments. These materials prevented the plant debris from reacting with oxygen and decomposing to carbon dioxide and water, as would occur under…

Coal - Composition Of Coal

Coal - Properties And Reactions

Coal - Environmental Problems Associated With The Burning Of Coal

The complete combustion of carbon and hydrocarbons described above rarely occurs in nature. If the temperature is not high enough or sufficient oxygen is not provided to the fuel, combustion of these materials is usually incomplete. During the incomplete combustion of carbon and hydrocarbons, other products besides carbon dioxide and water are formed, primarily carbon monoxide,hydrogen, and other …

Coal - Coal Mining

Coal is extracted from the earth using one of two major techniques, sub-surface or surface (strip) mining. The former method is used when seams of coal are located at significant depths below the earth's surface. The first step in sub-surface mining is to dig vertical tunnels into the earth until the coal seam is reached. Horizontal tunnels are then constructed laterally off the vertical tu…

Coal - Resources

Coal is regarded as a non-renewable resource, meaning that it was formed at times during the earth's history, but significant amounts are no longer forming. Therefore, the amount of coal that now exists below the earth's surface is, for all practical purposes, all the coal that humans have available to them for the foreseeable future. When this supply of coal is used up, humans will …

Coal - Uses

For many centuries, coal was burned in small stoves to produce heat in homes and factories. Today, the most important use of coal, both directly and indirectly, is still as a fuel. The largest single consumer of coal as a fuel is the electrical power industry. The combustion of coal in power generating plants is used to make steam which, in turn, operates turbines and generators. For a period of m…

Coal - Conversion Of Coal

A number of processes have been developed by which solid coal can be converted to a liquid or gaseous form for use as a fuel. Conversion has a number of advantages. In a liquid or gaseous form, the fuel may be easier to transport, and the conversion process removes a number of impurities from the original coal (such as sulfur) that have environmental disadvantages. One of the conversion methods is…