How I Came To Be Coal

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In central Queensland all tracks lead to Gladstone. From here coal is shipped to Japan, China and India. And besides, she will add, what right have we to deny the Chinese and the Indians their industrialization? She has done her homework. New facilities for the storage and shipment of coal from Gladstone are continuously being built. Two giant terminals are under construction. Nobody here believes that the peak has been reached.

One of the city's major projects in recent years has been the dredging of the harbour basin, to increase the capacity of shipping in and out of the town. Seven years ago, the water was still crystal clear, and fishermen could see dolphins close to shore daily. Now there is no fishing in this area anymore.

The water is murky, seaweed dies, and the fish disappear, according to fishermen and environmentalists. It is common to think that capitalism in contrast is short-sighted and short-term. It's probably often true, but not when it comes to world markets for basic commodities. The coal industry is not about short-term profits but long-term planning. Major investments make it difficult to change course, and in Australia there is so much money, infrastructure and jobs in and around mining that a transition to a carbon neutral society would be a major feat.

At the same time, a growing number of Australians are expressing concern - farmers, tourist operators, activists and locals - that too much is happening too fast. Even the International Energy Agency IEA writes in its annual reports that it is time for a rethink and to think sustainably.

Some say that the peak has been reached, that with the current growth in consumption we will run out of fossil fuels within a few decades. But it is increasingly rare that this argument is employed. Both new discoveries and new methods have in recent years turned upside-down previous estimates of how much fossil energy the planet holds. In Australia attention is now focused on the Galilee Basin, further north in Queensland, a giant coal reserve that powerful Australian companies are now starting to mine.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer even has his own political party with two representatives in the Queensland Parliament. One of the world's richest women, mining heiress Gina Rinehart, is investing heavily, and she fumes loudly at the environmentalists snapping at her heels. You can smell the fortunes to be made. The recently announced winner of the Sophie Prize, climate activist Bill McKibben, noted during a visit to Australia recently that if the coal in The Galilee were dug up and exploited, we may as well just forget about global climate goals.

This is a major find, and on December 10th the Minister of the Environment! That's bad news for the Great Barrier Reef, the fishermen in the area and especially the global climate, but excellent for the mining companies making their plans for The Galilee. To escape our modern addiction to coal and other stored sunlight, political decisions must be taken. It is possible - but it takes courage - to do a u-turn. For employees Norwegian website. This is known as indirect coal liquefaction. If hydrogen is the desired end-product, however, the syngas is fed into the water gas shift reaction , where more hydrogen is liberated:.

Coal can be converted directly into synthetic fuels equivalent to gasoline or diesel by hydrogenation or carbonization.

Mixing in biomass and using CCS would emit slightly less than the oil process but at a high cost. Coal liquefaction may also refer to the cargo hazard when shipping coal. Chemicals have been produced from coal since the s. Coal can be used as a feedstock in the production of a wide range of chemical fertilizers and other chemical products. The main route to these products is coal gasification to produce syngas. Primary chemicals that are produced directly from the syngas include methanol , hydrogen and carbon monoxide , which are the chemical building blocks from which a whole spectrum of derivative chemicals are manufactured, including olefins , acetic acid , formaldehyde , ammonia , urea and others.

The versatility of syngas as a precursor to primary chemicals and high-value derivative products provides the option of using relatively inexpensive [ citation needed ] coal to produce a wide range of valuable commodities. Because the slate of chemical products that can be made via coal gasification can in general also use feedstocks derived from natural gas and petroleum , the chemical industry tends to use whatever feedstocks are most cost-effective.

Therefore, interest in using coal tends to increase for higher oil and natural gas prices and during periods of high global economic growth that may strain oil and gas production. Also, production of chemicals from coal is of much higher interest in countries like South Africa, China, India and the United States [ citation needed ] where there are abundant coal resources. The abundance of coal combined with lack of natural gas resources in China is a strong inducement for the coal to chemicals industry there.

Similarly, Sasol has built and operated coal-to-chemicals facilities in South Africa. Coal to chemical processes require substantial quantities of water. Much coal to chemical production is in China [50] [51] where coal dependent provinces such as Shanxi are struggling to control its pollution. Refined coal is the product of a coal-upgrading technology that removes moisture and certain pollutants from lower-rank coals such as sub-bituminous and lignite brown coals.

It is one form of several precombustion treatments and processes for coal that alter coal's characteristics before it is burned. Thermal efficiency improvements are achievable by improved pre-drying especially relevant with high-moisture fuel such as lignite or biomass. Precombustion technology can sometimes be used as a supplement to postcombustion technologies to control emissions from coal-fueled boilers. Coal burnt as a solid fuel in coal power stations to generate electricity is called thermal coal.

Coal is also used to produce very high temperatures through combustion. Efforts around the world to reduce the use of coal have led some regions to switch to natural gas and electricity from lower carbon sources. When coal is used for electricity generation , it is usually pulverized and then burned in a furnace with a boiler.

A few integrated gasification combined cycle IGCC power plants have been built, which burn coal more efficiently. Instead of pulverizing the coal and burning it directly as fuel in the steam-generating boiler, the coal is gasified to create syngas , which is burned in a gas turbine to produce electricity just like natural gas is burned in a turbine. Hot exhaust gases from the turbine are used to raise steam in a heat recovery steam generator which powers a supplemental steam turbine. However these are not widely used due to lack of profit. The total known deposits recoverable by current technologies, including highly polluting, low-energy content types of coal i.

On the other hand, much may have to be left in the ground to avoid climate change, [64] [65] so maximum use could be reached sometime in the s. As of just over half is from underground mines. Not all countries publish mining accident statistics so worldwide figures are uncertain but it is thought that most deaths occur in coal mining accidents in China: China mines almost half the world's coal, followed by India with about a tenth.

The price of metcoal is volatile [70] and much higher than the price of thermal coal because metcoal must be lower in sulfer and requires more cleaning. When the price of higher quality thermal coal is high as in late [72] or when externalities are properly priced, in some countries new onshore wind and solar generation already costs less than coal power from existing plants.

China is also by far the largest consumer. Therefore, market trends depend on Chinese energy policy. Although the effort to reduce pollution means that the global long term trend is to burn less coal, the short and medium term trends may differ, in part due to Chinese financing of new coal-fired power plants in other countries. Countries with annual consumption higher than million tonnes are shown. Shares are based on data expressed in tonnes oil equivalent.

Exporters are at risk of a reduction in import demand from India and China. The use of coal as fuel causes ill health and deaths. The deadly London smog was caused primarily by the heavy use of coal.

UK runs without coal power for three days in a row

Globally coal is estimated to cause , premature deaths every year, [85] mostly in India [86] and China. Breathing in coal dust causes coalworker's pneumoconiosis which is known colloquially as "black lung", so-called because the coal dust literally turns the lungs black from their usual pink color. Coal ash and other solid combustion byproducts are stored locally and escape in various ways that expose those living near coal plants to radiation and environmental toxics. Huge amounts of coal ash and other waste is produced annually. Use of coal generates hundreds of millions of tons of ash and other waste products every year.

These include fly ash , bottom ash , and flue-gas desulfurization sludge, that contain mercury , uranium , thorium , arsenic , and other heavy metals , along with non-metals such as selenium. Coal smokestack emissions cause asthma , strokes , reduced intelligence , artery blockages, heart attacks , congestive heart failure , cardiac arrhythmias , mercury poisoning , arterial occlusion , and lung cancer.

And there would be a net economic benefit. Coal mining and coal fueling of power stations and industrial processes can cause major environmental damage. Water systems are affected by coal mining. Spills of fly ash, such as the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill , can also contaminate land and waterways, and destroy homes. Power stations that burn coal also consume large quantities of water. This can affect the flows of rivers, and has consequential impacts on other land uses.

In areas of water scarcity , such as the Thar Desert in Pakistan , coal mining and coal power plants would use significant quantities of water. One of the earliest known impacts of coal on the water cycle was acid rain. After release, the sulfur dioxide is oxidized to gaseous H 2 SO 2 which scatters solar radiation, hence its increase in the atmosphere exerts a cooling effect on climate. This beneficially masks some of the warming caused by increased greenhouse gases.

However, the sulfur is precipitated out of the atmosphere as acid rain in a matter of weeks, [] whereas carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

A long story

Release of SO 2 also contributes to the widespread acidification of ecosystems. Disused coal mines can also cause issues. Subsidence can occur above tunnels, causing damage to infrastructure or cropland. Coal mining can also cause long lasting fires, and it has been estimated that thousands of coal seam fires are burning at any given time. The production of coke from coal produces ammonia , coal tar, and gaseous compounds as by-products which if discharged to land, air or waterways can pollute the environment.

Thousands of coal fires are burning around the world. Fires can cause the ground above to subside, their combustion gases are dangerous to life, and breaking out to the surface can initiate surface wildfires. Coal seams can be set on fire by spontaneous combustion or contact with a mine fire or surface fire. Lightning strikes are an important source of ignition.

The coal continues to burn slowly back into the seam until oxygen air can no longer reach the flame front. A grass fire in a coal area can set dozens of coal seams on fire. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, and it continues to burn underground to this day. The Australian Burning Mountain was originally believed to be a volcano, but the smoke and ash come from a coal fire that has been burning for some 6, years. At Kuh i Malik in Yagnob Valley , Tajikistan , coal deposits have been burning for thousands of years, creating vast underground labyrinths full of unique minerals, some of them very beautiful.

The reddish siltstone rock that caps many ridges and buttes in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and in western North Dakota is called porcelanite , which resembles the coal burning waste "clinker" or volcanic " scoria ". In the Powder River Basin approximately 27 to 54 billion tons of coal burned within the past three million years.

The largest and most long term effect of coal use is the release of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change and global warming. In world gross carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage were Historically, the primary focus was on SO 2 and NO x , the most important gases which caused acid rain ; and particulates which cause visible air pollution, illness and premature deaths. Particulates can be removed with electrostatic precipitators.

Although perhaps less efficient wet scrubbers can remove both gases and particulates. Satellite monitoring is now used to crosscheck national data, for example Sentinel-5 Precursor has shown that Chinese control of SO 2 has only been partially successful. A few Integrated gasification combined cycle IGCC coal-fired power plants have been built with coal gasification. Although they burn coal more efficiently and therefore emit less pollution, the technology has not generally proved economically viable for coal, except possibly in Japan although this is controversial.

Although still being intensively researched and considered economically viable for some uses other than with coal; carbon capture and storage has been tested at the Petra Nova and Boundary Dam coal-fired power plants and has been found to be technically feasible but not economically viable for use with coal, due to reductions in the cost of solar PV technology. In the long term coal and oil could cost the world trillions of dollars.

China is the largest producer of coal in the world. However two fifths of China's coal power stations are estimated to be loss-making. Air pollution from coal storage and handling costs the USA almost dollars for every extra ton stored, due to PM2. Broadly defined total subsidies for coal in have been estimated at around 2. Some coal-fired power stations could become stranded assets , for example China Energy Investment , the world's largest power company, risks losing half its capital. Countries building or financing new coal-fired power stations, such as Japan, face mounting international criticism for obstructing the aims of the Paris Agreement.

Allegations of corruption are being investigated in India [] and China. Opposition to coal pollution was one of the main reasons the modern environmental movement started in the 19th century. In order to meet global climate goals and provide power to those that don't currently have it coal power must be reduced from nearly 10,TWh to less than 2,TWh by Of the three fossil fuels, coal has the most widely distributed resources.

Coal is mined on all continents except Antarctica. However many such resources have no economic value much value has been destroyed by shale gas fracking. Nowadays "peak coal" means the point in time when consumption of coal reaches a maximum. As of global peak coal consumption is predicted to occur by the early s at the latest.

Coal-fired generation puts out about twice the amount of carbon dioxide—around a tonne for every megawatt hour generated—than electricity generated by burning natural gas at kg of greenhouse gas per megawatt hour. The use of coal in the United Kingdom declined as a result of the development of North Sea oil and the subsequent dash for gas during the s. In Canada some coal power plants , such as the Hearn Generating Station , switched from coal to natural gas.

Some coal-mining regions are highly dependant on coal. A line chart plotting coal production from the eastern vs western US. The Clean Air Act, especially after amendments passed in , drove a shift toward low-sulfur coal as one of the main methods of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions from coal plants. Since the predominantly subbituminous coal west of the Mississippi emits much less sulfur per unit of energy, this trend favored western surface mines as a dominant source of new coal production.

It also increased the use of mountaintop-removal mining in Central Appalachia for the same reasons—a classic example of unintended consequences. The nation's worst ever black water spill happened on October 11, , near Inez, Kentucky.

Coal - Wikipedia

Just after midnight, million gallons of coal sludge , laced with coal cleaning chemicals and the heavy metals present in coal, leaked from a coal slurry impoundment at a Martin County Coal Company mountaintop removal site. The sludge streamed into an underground mine before bursting out two exit portals into two nearby creeks.

Thirty times more liquid were released than the Exxon Valdez accident. Before coal is shipped long distances, it undergoes a process of preparation to lower shipping costs and prepare it for use in power plants. Preparation generally includes crushing the coal and removing heavy, extraneous non-coal materials. If coal is high in sulfur or other impurities, it is washed with a water or chemical bath, removing up to 40 percent of inorganic sulfur in the coal.

Not all coal is prepared using the same process. High-sulfur coal commonly undergoes washing to meet environmental regulations, while low-sulfur coal is often crushed and resized without being washed. There are over such reservoirs in Appalachia alone, holding hundreds of millions of gallons of mine waste. Contaminants from these reservoirs can easily leach into surface and groundwater supplies; in extreme cases, the dams holding these reservoirs can fail, flooding local waterways and putting both wildlife and downstream communities at risk. The volume of waste from processing coal can be substantial; 35 — 40 percent of the raw coal going into a typical washing plants was left behind as waste in [11].

About thirty percent of US freight train traffic comes from coal. Because coal is only mined in a few regions of the country, it typically needs to be transported before being burned in a power plant. Barges and trucks move another 11 percent, with the rest delivered mainly by tramway, conveyor belt, or slurry pipeline.

To give a sense of scale: These trains, as well as the trucks and barges, run on diesel—a major source of air toxins, nitrogen oxide, and soot. A common method for lowering transportation costs is to build power plants directly adjacent to mines, using conveyer belts to move the coal. In , 37 states were net importers of coal and 82 percent of the imported coal originated from just three states Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky [10]. A UCS study showed how importing coal caused these 37 states to send billions of dollars out of state, instead of investing the money in local economies.

A coal-fired power plant. In addition to carbon dioxide, discussed below, coal plants all produce the following pollutants:.

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After the coal is burned, the remaining ash and sludge is often disposed of in unlined and unmonitored landfills and reservoirs. Heavy metals and toxic substances contained in this waste can contaminate drinking water supplies and harm local ecosystems, and failed reservoirs can flood coal waste into surrounding areas. Of the many environmental and public health risks associated with coal, the most serious in terms of its universal and potentially irreversible consequences is global warming.

Global warming impacts include seal level rise and coastal flooding; more frequent and intense heat waves; and widespread ecological damage, including forest death and species loss, among others.

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Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of CO2 emissions in the US power sector, and accounted for 24 percent of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in [14]. China, India, and many other industrialized nations rely on massive reserves of coal for power production. Despite taking important steps to improve its energy efficiency and invest in renewable sources of power, China has passed the United States in annual CO2 emissions, and could expand its coal production much further.

These trends underscore the need for the United States to invest in low-cost alternatives to coal and increase their availability internationally. A portion of existing plants and all new ones offer some pollution control technologies to reduce their emissions, especially sulfur dioxide and particulates. Common pollution control methods include scrubbers and filters. Scrubbers use a wet limestone slurry to absorb pollution as it passes through. Filters are collections of large cloth bags that catch particulates as they travel through the cloth.

Smaller particulates are less likely to be absorbed, and can pass out the smokestack into the air. A diagram of how geological sequestration of carbon dioxide works.

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IGCC technology is more expensive than pulverized coal technology, but offers certain environmental advantages. While modern pollution controls for nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter can dramatically reduce emissions from pulverized coal plants by 90 to 99 percent , IGCC plants are capable of even greater reductions.

It is also easier and less costly to capture and dispose of mercury from an IGCC plant than from a pulverized coal plant, which became increasingly important after mercury restrictions came into effect in [12].

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