Coal PDF

 Peacock Coal for energy in the U.S. Coal is a black sedimentary rock that can be  Coal Cargo burned for fuel and used to generate electricity. Coal is the leading source of energy in the Anthracite is the highest ra...

 Peacock Coal for energy in the U.S. Coal is a black sedimentary rock that can be  Coal Cargo burned for fuel and used to generate electricity. Coal is the leading source of energy in the Anthracite is the highest rank of coal, United States. containing up to 97% carbon. Anthracite burns much more cleanly (with less soot) than other  Coal Seam coals, and is much more expensive. It is used mostly in stoves and furnaces, rarely to The wetland vegetation is buried under tons of generate electricty. China dominates anthracite sediment. Under intense heat and pressure, the production, where this electric train is hauling material undergoes a process called cars full of anthracite from Lanzhou to more carbonization. Eventually, it transforms into a urban population centers. distinct layer of dark, organic rock called a coal seam or coal bed. This coal seam sat on a  Lithium Battery butte near Glendive, Montana, United States, in 1910. Graphite, made up purely of carbon atoms, may be considered the final stage of the  Putting the 'Fossil' in Fossil Fuel carbonization process. Graphite conducts electricity well, and is commonly used in Sometimes, the vegetation is preserved in the lithium ion batteries, seen in an up-close view coal seam, making coal perhaps the most here. "fossil-y" of fossil fuels. Here, a group of coal miners crowd around a petrified tree stump in  Black Thunder Mine 1918. There are two major types of coal mines:  Irish Turf surface mines and underground mines. Strip- mining is a type of surface mining where coal Bogs have traditionally been harvested for peat, seams are located very near the surface and a fossil fuel used for heating and electrical can be removed in massive layers, or strips. energy. These stacks of peat (also called turf) The Black Thunder Mine, a strip-mine in the U.S. have been harvested from a bog in Ireland. state of Wyoming, above, is the largest coal They will be dried and sold as bricks for mine in the United States. heating.  Mountaintop Removal  Brown Coal North America's high level of industrialization Lignite, also called "brown coal," is the lowest has taken its toll on the environment. Today, rank of coal, meaning it has the lowest amount the coal industry uses mountaintop-removal of carbon. Lignite is mostly combusted mining to extract coal from the ancient (burned) to generate electricity. This massive mountains of Appalachia. Mountaintop- coal mine near Cologne, Germany, is one of the removal mining is just what it sounds largest lignite mines in the world. like—entire mountains are torn down to get at the coal beneath them.  Coal Mine China is the leading producer of both sub-  Coal Miners bituminous and bituminous coal, the next Most coal is extracted through underground ranks of coal. This enormous bituminous coal mining methods reaching as deep as 300 mine was excavated in 1944, and production meters (1,000 feet) beneath Earth's surface. has only increased since then. Bituminous coal Miners travel by elevator down a mine shaft to also accounts for almost half of the coal used reach the depths of the mine, and operate  heavy machinery that extracts the coal and  Coal Fire moves it above ground. Underground coal mines are much more dangerous for miners, Coal is extremely combustible, and under the such as these in Inverness, Nova Scotia, right conditions of heat, pressure, and Canada. ventilation, coal seams can self-ignite and burn underground for years. Coal fires emit tons of  Steam Power greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and can contribute to the destruction of local Although civilizations all over the world had habitats. This coal fire is burning in Amidon, been using coal as a heating source for a North Dakota, United Statrs. thousand years, coal production truly developed during the Industrial Revolution of  Burning Coal Western Europe in the 18th century. Coal provided the steam and power needed to mass Although coal is a controversial industry, it is -produce items, generate electricity, and fuel vital to economies and individuals all over the steamships and trains that were necessary to world. transport items for trade. The steam-powered locomotive, such as this one near Lanzhou, China, became the symbol of the Industrial WHAT IS COAL? Revolution itself.  Coal is a black or brownish-black sedimentary  Heating Fuel rock that can be burned for fuel and used to generate electricity. It is composed mostly of Although used as fuel to generate electricity, carbon and hydrocarbons, which contain coal is still a source of heating fuel around the energy that can be released through world. These workers in Harbin, China, are combustion (burning). selling coal to household consumers.  Power Plant  Coal is the largest source of energy for Coal-fired power plants are one of the most generating electricity in the world, and the popular ways to produce and distribute most abundant fossil fuel in the United States. electricity. In coal-fired power plants, coal is combusted and heats water in enormous boilers. The boiling water creates steam, which turns a turbine and activates a generator to  Fossil fuels are formed from the remains of produce electricity. This power plant in Sydney, ancient organisms. Because coal takes Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, millions of years to develop and there is a generates electricity for homes, businesses, limited amount of it, it is a nonrenewable schools, and hospitals. resource.  Blast Furnace Coal is also vital to the steel industry, including  The conditions that would eventually create this factory in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. A treated coal began to develop about 300 million years form of coal, called coke, heats iron ore to high ago, during the Carboniferous period. During temperatures in order to separate the iron from this time, Earth was covered in wide, shallow other minerals in the rock. Coke provides heat seas and dense forests. The seas occasionally and chemical properties that gives steel the flooded the forested areas, trapping plants and strength and flexibility needed to build bridges, algae at the bottom of a swampy wetland. Over skyscrapers, airports, and cars. time, the plants (mostly mosses) and algae  were buried and compressed under the weight extracted in the state. More than one-third of of overlying mud and vegetation. the nation’s coal comes from the Appalachian Coal Region, which includes West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Coal  As the plant debris sifted deeper under Earth’s extracted from Texas in the Interior Coal surface, it encountered increased Region supplies mostly local markets. temperatures and higher pressure. Mud and acidic water prevented the plant matter from coming into contact with oxygen. Due to this, Types of Coal the plant matter decomposed at a very slow rate and retained most of its carbon (source of energy).  Coal is very different from mineral rocks, which are made of inorganic material. Coal is made of fragile plant matter, and undergoes many  These areas of buried plant matter are called changes before it becomes the familiar black peat bogs. Peat bogs store massive amounts and shiny substance burned as fuel. of carbon many meters underground. Peat itself can be burned for fuel, and is a major  Coal goes through different phases of source of heat energy in countries such as carbonization over millions of years, and can Scotland, Ireland, and Russia. be found at all stages of development in different parts of the world.  Coal is ranked according to how much it has  Under the right conditions, peat transforms changed over time. Hilt's Law states that the into coal through a process called deeper the coal seam, the higher its rank. At carbonization. Carbonization takes place under deeper depths, the material encounters greater incredible heat and pressure. About three temperatures and pressure, and more plant meters (10 feet) of layered vegetation debris is transformed into carbon. eventually compresses into a third of a meter (one foot) of coal! Peat  Coal exists in underground formations called  Peat is not coal, but can eventually transform “coal seams” or “coal beds.” A coal seam can into coal under the right circumstances. Peat is be as thick as 30 meters (90 feet) and stretch an accumulation of partly decayed vegetation 1,500 kilometers (920 miles). that has gone through a small amount of carbonization.  However, peat is still considered part of the  Coal seams exist on every continent. The coal “family” because it contains energy that largest coal reserves are in the United States, its original plants contained. It also contains Russia, China, Australia, and India. high amounts of volatile matter and gases such as methane and mercury, which are environmentally hazardous when burned.  In the United States, coal is mined in 25 states  Peat retains enough moisture to be spongy. It and three major regions. In the Western Coal can absorb water and expand the bog to form Region, Wyoming is the top producer—about more peat. This makes it a valuable 40 percent of the coal mined in the country is environmental defense against flooding. Peat  can also be integrated into soil to help it retain  Most sub-bituminous coal in the U.S. is mined and slowly release water and nutrients. For this in the state of Wyoming, and makes up about reason, peat and so-called “peat moss” are 47 percent of all of the coal produced in the valuable to gardeners. United States. Outside the U.S., China is a leading producer of sub-bituminous coal.  Peat is an important source of energy in many countries, including Ireland, Scotland, and Finland, where it is dehydrated and burned for heat. Bituminous Coal  Bituminous coal is formed under more heat and pressure, and is 100 million to 300 million Lignite years old. It is named after the sticky, tar-like substance called bitumen that is also found in  Lignite coal is the lowest rank of coal. It has petroleum. It contains about 45-86 percent carbonized past the point of being peat, but carbon. contains low amounts of energy—its carbon content is about 25-35 percent. It comes from  Coal is a sedimentary rock, and bituminous relatively young coal deposits, about 250 coal frequently contains “bands,” or strips, of million years old. different consistency that mark the layers of plant material that were compressed.  Lignite, a crumbly brown rock also called brown coal or rosebud coal, retains more  Bituminous coal is divided into three major moisture than other types of coal. This makes types: smithing coal, cannel coal, and coking it expensive and dangerous to mine, store, and coal. Smithing coal has very low ash content, transport. It is susceptible to accidential and is ideal for forges, where metals are combustion and has very high carbon heated and shaped. emissions when burned. Most lignite coal is used in power stations very close to where it was mined.  Cannel coal was extensively used as a source  Lignite is mainly combusted and used to of coal oil in the 19th century. Coal oil is made generate electricity. In Germany and Greece, by heating cannel coal with a controlled lignite provides 25-50 percent of electricity amount of oxygen, a process called pyrolysis. generated by coal. In the U.S., lignite deposits Coal oil was used primarily as fuel for generate electricity mostly in the states of streetlights and other illumination. The North Dakota and Texas. widespread use of kerosene reduced the use of coal oil in the 20th century. Sub-Bituminous Coal  Coking coal is used in large-scale industrial  Sub-bituminous coal is about 100 million years processes. The coal is coked, a process of old. It contains more carbon than lignite, about heating the rock in the absense of oxygen. This 35-45 percent. In many parts of the world, sub- reduces the moisture content and makes it a bituminous coal is considered “brown coal,” more stable product. The steel industry relies along with lignite. Like lignite, sub-bituminous on coking coal. coal is mainly used as fuel for generating electricity.  Bituminous coal accounts for almost half of all the coal that is used for energy in the United  States. It is mainly mined in Kentucky, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Outside the U.S., nations such as Russia and Colombia rely on bituminous coal for energy and industrial Graphite fuel.  Graphite is an allotrope of carbon, meaning it is a substance made up only of carbon atoms. Anthracite (Diamond is another allotrope of carbon.) Graphite is the final stage of the carbonization  Anthracite is the highest rank of coal. It has the process. most amount of carbon, up to 97 percent, and therefore contains the most energy. It is harder,  Graphite conducts electricity well, and is more dense, and more lustrous than other commonly used in lithium ion batteries. types of coal. Almost all the water and carbon Graphite can also resist temperatures of up to dioxide have been expelled, and it does not 3,000°C (5,400°F). It can be used in products contain the soft or fibrous sections found in such as fire-resistant doors, and missile parts bituminous coal or lignite. such as nose cones. The most familiar use for graphite, however, is probably as pencil  Because anthracite is a high-quality coal, it “leads.” burns cleanly, with very little soot. It is more expensive than other coals, and is rarely used  China, India, and Brazil are the world’s leading in power plants. Instead, anthracite is mainly producers of graphite. used in stoves and furnaces. Coal Mining  Anthracite is also used in water-filtration  Coal can be extracted from the earth either by systems. It has tinier pores than sand, so more surface mining or underground mining. Once harmful particles are trapped. This makes coal has been extracted, it can be used directly water safer for drinking, sanitation, and (for heating and industrial processes) or to fuel industry. power plants for electricity.  Anthracite can typically be found in Surface Mining geographical areas that have undergone particularly stressful geologic activity. For  If coal is less than 61 meters (200 feet) example, the coal reserves on the Allegheny underground, it can be extracted through Plateau in Kentucky and West Virginia stretch surface mining. to the base of the Appalachian Mountains. Here, the process of orogeny, or mountain formation, contributed to temperatures and  In surface mining, workers simply remove any pressures high enough to create anthracite. overlying sediment, vegetation, and rock, called overburden. Economically, surface mining is a cheaper option for extracting coal than  China dominates the mining of anthracite, underground mining. About two and a half accounting for almost three-quarters of times as much coal can be extracted per anthracite coal production. Other anthracite- worker, per hour, than is possible with mining countries include Russia, Ukraine, underground mining. Vietnam, and the United States (mostly  overburden is greater than the investment in the mine.  The environmental impacts of surface mining are dramatic. The landscape is literally torn  Open-pit mining is usually restricted to flat apart, destroying habitats and entire landscapes. After the mine has been ecosystems. Surface mining can also cause exhausted, the pit is sometimes converted into landslides and subsidence (when the ground a landfill. begins to sink or cave in). Toxic substances leaching into the air, aquifers, and water tables may endanger the health of local residents. Surface Mining: MTR  In the United States, the Surface Mining  During mountaintop removal mining (MTR), the Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 regulates entire summit of a mountain is stripped of its the process of coal mining, and is an effort to overburden: rocks, trees, and topsoil. limit the harmful effects on the environment. The act provides funds to help fix these  Overburden is often hauled to nearby valleys, problems and clean up abandoned mining earning the process the nickname “valley fill” sites. mining. After the summit is cleared of vegetation, explosives are used to expose the  The three main types of surface coal mining coal seam. are strip mining, open-pit mining, and mountaintop removal (MTR) mining.  After the coal is extracted, the summit is sculpted with overburden from the next mountaintop to be mined. By law, valuable Surface Mining: Strip Mining topsoil is supposed to be saved and replaced after mining is done. Barren land can be  Strip mining is used where coal seams are replanted with trees and other vegetation. located very near the surface and can be removed in massive layers, or strips.  Mountaintop removal began in the 1970s as a Overburden is usually removed with explosives cheap alternative to underground mining. It is and towed away with some of the largest now used for extracting coal mainly in the vehicles ever made. Dump trucks used at strip Appalachian Mountains of the U.S., in states mines often weigh more than 300 tons and including Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, have more than 3,000 horsepower. and Kentucky.  Strip mining can be used in both flat and hilly  MTR is probaby the most controversial coal landscapes. Strip mining in a mountainous mining technique. The environmental area is called contour mining. Contour mining consequences are radical and severe. follows the ridges, or contours, around a hill. Waterways are cut off or contaminated by valley fill. Habitats are destroyed. Toxic byproducts of the mining and explosive processes can drain into local waterways and Surface Mining: Open-Pit Mining pollute the air.  Open-pit mining is used when coal is located deeper underground. A pit, sometimes called a borrow, is dug in an area. This pit becomes the Underground Mining open-pit mine, sometimes called a quarry. Open-pit mines can expand to huge  Most of the world’s coal reserves are buried dimensions, until the coal deposit has been deep underground. Underground mining, mined or the cost of transporting the sometimes called deep mining, is a process  that retrieves coal from deep below the Earth’s  Longwall mining is one of the oldest methods surface—sometimes as far as 300 meters of mining coal. Before the widespread use of (1,000 feet). Miners travel by elevator down a conveyor belts, ponies would descend to the mine shaft to reach the depths of the mine, deep, narrow channels and haul the coal back and operate heavy machinery that extracts the to the surface. coal and moves it above ground.  Today, almost a third of American coal mines  The immediate environmental impact of use longwall mining. Outside the U.S., that underground mining appears less dramatic number is even higher. In China, the world’s than surface mining. There is little overburden, largest coal producer, more than 85 percent of but underground mining operations leave coal is exracted using the longwall method. significant tailings. Tailings are the often-toxic residue left over from the process of separating coal from gangue, or economically Underground Mining: Room and Pillar unimportant minerals. Toxic coal tailings can pollute local water supplies.  In the room-and-pillar mining method, miners carve a “room” out of coal. Columns (pillars) of  To miners, the dangers of underground mining coal support the ceiling and overburden. The are serious. Underground explosions, rooms are about nine meters (30 feet) wide, suffocation from lack of oxygen, or exposure and the support pillars can be 30 meters (100 to toxic gases are very real threats. feet) wide.  To prevent the buildup of gases, methane must  There are two types of room-and-pillar mining: be constantly ventilated out of underground conventional and continuous. In conventional mines to keep miners safe. In 2009, about 10 mining, explosives and cutting tools are used. percent of the U.S. methane emissions came In continuous mining, a sophisticated machine from ventilating underground mines; two called a continuous miner extracts the coal. percent resulted from surface mining.  In the U.S., most room-and-pillar mining uses a  There are three major types of underground continuous miner. In developing countries, coal mining: longwall mining, room-and-pillar room-and-pillar coal mines use the mining, and retreat mining. conventional method. Underground Mining: Longwall Mining Underground Mining: Retreat Mining  During longwall mining, miners slice off  Retreat mining is a variation of room-and-pillar. enormous panels of coal that are about When all available coal has been extracted onemeter (three feet) thick, three to four from a room, miners abandon the room, kilometers (2-2.5 miles) long, and 250-400 carefully destroy the pillars, and let the ceiling meters (800-1,300 feet) wide. The panels are cave in. Remains of the giant pillars supply moved by conveyor belt back to the surface. even more coal.  The roof of the mine is maintained by hydraulic  Retreat mining may be the most dangerous supports known as chocks. As the mine method of mining. A great amount of stress is advances, the chocks also advance. The area put on the remaining pillars, and if they are not behind the chocks collapses. pulled out in a precise order, they can collapse and trap miners underground.  How We Use Coal produce electricity.  People all over the world have been using coal to heat their homes and cook their food for  Almost all the electricity in South Africa (about thousands of years. Coal was used in the Roman Empire to heat public baths. In the 93 percent) is generated by coal. Poland, China, Aztec Empire, the lustrous rock was used for Australia, and Kazakhstan are other nations ornaments as well as fuel. that rely on coal for electricity. In the United States, about 45 percent of the nation’s  The Industrial Revolution was powered by coal. electricity is driven by coal. It was a cheaper alternative than wood fuel, and produced more energy when burned. Coal provided the steam and power needed to mass Coke -produce items, generate electricity, and fuel steamships and trains that were necessary to  Coal plays a vital role in the steel industry. In transport items for trade. Most of the collieries, order to produce steel, iron ore must be heated or coal mines, of the Industrial Revolution were to separate the iron from other minerals in the in northern England, where more than 80 rock. In the past, coal itself was used to heat percent of coal was mined in the early 18th and separate the ore. However, coal releases century. impurities such as sulfur when it is heated, which can make the resulting metal weak.  As early as the 9th century, chemists and  Today, coal continues to be used directly engineers discovered a way to remove these (heating) and indirectly (producing electricity). impurities from coal before it was burned. Coal Coal is also essential to the steel industry. is baked in an oven for about 12-36 hours at about 1,000-1,100°C (1,800-2,000°F). This drives off impurities such as coal gas, carbon Fuel monoxide, methane, tars, and oil. The resulting material—coal with few impurities and high  Around the world, coal is primarily used to carbon content—is coke. The method is called produce heat. It is the leading energy choice coking. for most developing countries, and worldwide consumption increased by more than 30  Coke is burned in a blast furnace with iron ore percent in 2011. and air that is about 1,200°C (2,200°F). The hot air ignites the coke, and the coke melts the iron  Coal can be burned by individual households or and separates out the impurities. The resulting in enormous industrial furnaces. It produces material is steel. Coke provides heat and heat for comfort and stability, as well as chemical properties that gives steel the heating water for sanitation and health. strength and flexibility needed to build bridges, skyscrapers, airports, and cars. Electricity  Many of the biggest coal producers in the world (the United States, China, Russia, India)  Coal-fired power plants are one of the most are also among the biggest steel producers. popular ways to produce and distribute Japan, another leader in the steel industry, electricity. In coal-fired power plants, coal is does not have significant coal reserves. It is combusted and heats water in enormous one of the world’s largest coal importers. boilers. The boiling water creates steam, which turns a turbine and activates a generator to  Synthetic Products  The gases that are released during the coking Other Toxic Emissions process can be used as a source of power.  Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are also Coal gas can be used for heat and light. Coal can also be used to produce syngas, a released when coal is burned. These contribute combination of hydrogen and carbon to acid rain, smog, and respiratory illnesses. monoxide. Syngas can be used as a  Mercury is emitted when coal is burned. In the transportation fuel similar to petroleum or atmosphere, mercury is usually not a hazard. In diesel. water, however, mercury transforms into  In addition, coal and coke byproducts can be methylmercury, which is toxic and can used to make synthetic materials such as tar, accumulate in fish and organisms that fertilizers, and plastics. consume fish, including people.  Fly ash (which floats away with other gases during coal combustion) and bottom ash Coal and Carbon Emissions (which does not float away) are also released when coal is combusted. Depending on the composition of the coal, these particulates can  Burning coal releases gases and particulates contain toxic elements and irritants such as that are harmful to the environment. Carbon cadmium, silicon dioxide, arsenic, and calcium dioxide is the primary emission. oxide.  Carbon dioxide is an essential part of our  In the U.S., fly ash must be captured with planet’s atmosphere. It is called a greenhouse industrial “scrubbers” to prevent it from gas because it absorbs and retains heat in the polluting the atmosphere. Unfortunately, fly atmosphere, and keeps our planet at a livable ash is often stored in landfills or power plants, temperature. In the natural carbon cycle, and can drain into groundwater. As a response carbon and carbon dioxide are constantly to this environmental hazard, fly ash is being cycled between the land, ocean, atmosphere, used as a component of concrete, thereby and all living and decomposing organisms. isolating it from the natural environment. Carbon is also sequestered, or stored underground. This keeps the carbon cycle in balance.  Many countries do not regulate their coal industries as strictly as the U.S., and emissions pollute air and water supplies.  However, when coal and other fossil fuels are extracted and burned, they release sequestered carbon into the atmosphere, Coal Fires which leads to a build-up of greenhouse gases and adversely affects climates and  Under the right conditions of heat, pressure, ecosystems. and ventilation, coal seams can self-ignite and burn underground. Lightning and wildfires can also ignite an exposed section of the coal seam, and smoldering fire can spread along  In 2011, about 43 percent of the electricity in the seam. the U.S. was generated from burning coal. However, coal production was responsible for 79 percent of the country’s carbon emissions.  Coal fires emit tons of greenhouse gases into associated with coal include geologists, miners, the atmosphere. Even if the surface fire is engineers, chemists, geographers, and extinguished, the coal can smolder for years executives. Coal is an industry that is critical to before flaring up and potentially starting a countries in both the developed and developing wildfire again. world.  Coal fires can also begin in mines as a result of Disadvantages an explosion. Coal fires in China, many ignited  Coal is a nonrenewable source of energy. It by explosions used in the extraction process, took millions of years to form, and a finite may account for 1% of the world’s carbon amount of it exists on our planet. Although it is emissions. In the U.S., it is more common for a consistent and reliable source of energy at abandoned mines to catch fire if trash is this point in time, it will not be available forever. burned in nearby landfills.  Once coal catches fire and begins smoldering, it is extremely difficult to extinguish. In  Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in Australia, the coal fire at “Burning Mountain” the world. The health hazards to underground has been burning for 5,500 years! miners include respiratory illnesses, such as “black lung,” in which coal dust builds up in the lungs. In addition to disease, thousands of Advantages and Disadvantages miners die every year in mine explosions, collapses, and other accidents. Advantages  Burning coal for energy releases toxins and  Coal is an important part of the world energy greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. budget. It is relatively inexpensive to locate and These have an immediate impact on the local extract, and can be found all over the world. air quality, and contribute to global warming, Unlike many renewable resources (such as the current period of climate change. solar or wind), coal production is not dependent on the weather. It is a baseload fuel, meaning it can be produced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  Surface mining permanently alters the landscape. In mountaintop removal, the  We use and depend on many things that coal landscape itself is obliterated and ecosystems provides, such as heat and electricity to power are destroyed. This increases erosion in the our homes, schools, hospitals, and industries. area. Floods and other natural hazards put Steel, vital for constructing bridges and other these areas at great risk. buildings, relies on coke for almost all production.  Coal mining can impact local water supplies in  Coal byproducts, such as syngas, can be used several ways. Streams may be blocked, to make transportation fuels. increasing the chances for flooding. Toxins  Coal mining also provides economic stability often leach into groundwater, streams, and for millions of people worldwide. The coal aquifers. industry relies on people with a wide range of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Jobs  Coal is one of the most controversial energy U.S. state of Wyoming is the world’s largest sources in the world. The advantages of coal coal mine. The open-pit mine has shipped mining are economically and socially more than 1.4 billion tons of coal since significant. However, mining devastates the opening in 1983. environment: air, land, and water.  GLOSSARY Fast Fact  Acid rain - precipitation with high levels of  Carbon Fiber nitric and sulfuric acids. Acid rain can be manmade or occur naturally. Carbon fiber, used in everything from lightweight bicycles to bullet-protecting Kevlar  algae - (singular: alga) diverse group of vests, is a type of graphite, the highest rank of aquatic organisms, the largest of which are coal. seaweeds.  allotrope - one of several forms of a chemical element. Not all elements have  Clean Coal allotropes. “Clean coal” is a term used for any technology  anthracite - most valuable type of coal, that reduces the carbon emissions of coal containing high carbon content. Also called combustion. Clean coal usually refers to the hard coal, black coal, and stone coal. process of carbon capture, where emissions are trapped and stored underground.  aquifer - an underground layer of rock or earth that holds groundwater.  baseload - type of power plant that runs at  Coal Fossils near-full capacity 24 hours a day, every day. Coal puts the “fossil” in “fossil fuel.”  bitumen - black, sticky, tar-like organic Paleontologists have discovered brilliantly liquid. preserved fossils of some of the world’s oldest tropical rainforests in coal seams.  bituminous - type of coal containing bitumen, an organic, tar-like substance.  black lung - (coal worker's pneumoconiosis)  Top Coal Producers (in 2020 and 2021) respiratory disease caused by prolonged China exposure to coal dust. India  bog - wetland of soft ground mostly made of partially decayed plant matter called peat. Indonesia  bottom ash - residue left in an industrial United States furnace or incinerator. Australia  byproduct - substance that is created by the production of another material.  It’s the Pits  carbon cycle - series of processes in which carbon (C) atoms circulate through Earth's land, The North Antelope Rochelle Complex in the ocean, atmosphere, and interior.  carbon emission - carbon compound (such  diesel - liquid fuel (usually a type of petroleum) as carbon dioxide) released into the used to propel diesel engines. Also called atmosphere, often through human activity such diesel oil and diesel fuel. as the burning of fossil fuels such as coal or gas.  ecosystem - community and interactions of living and nonliving things in an area.  carbonization - process of organic matter turning into carbon, usually under high  electricity - set of physical phenomena temperatures and pressure. associated with the presence and flow of electric charge.  chock - roof support.  energy budget- relationship between the  climate - all weather conditions for a amount of energy taken in by an organism or given location over a period of time. area, and the amount of energy used by the organism or area. Individual energy budgets  coal - dark, solid fossil fuel mined are usually measured in calories from the earth.  erosion - act in which earth is worn away,  coal oil - oil (petroleum) extracted from often by water, wind, or ice. cannel coal through heating, mostly used for 19th-century lighting.  fibrous - containing or resembling fine, threadlike material (fiber).  coal seam - coal deposit. Also called a coal bed.  filtration - process of separating solid material from liquids or gases.  coke - process or product involving heating coal to remove impurities, producing industrial  finite - limited and not renewable. fuel with a high carbon content.  fly ash - fine debris emitted as a  colliery - coal mine. byproduct of coal combustion.  combust - to burn.  fossil fuel - coal, oil, or natural gas. Fossil fuels formed from the remains of ancient  compress - to press together in a smaller plants and animals. space.  fragile - delicate or easily broken.  concrete - hard building material made from mixing cement with rock and water.  furnace - device used for heating by burning a fuel, such as wood or coal.  consequence -result or outcome of an action or situation.  gangue - rock left over from ore after the valuable mineral has been extracted.  controversial - questionable or leading to argument.  generator - machine that converts one type of energy to another, such as mechanical  dense - having parts or molecules that energy to electricity. are packed closely together.  global warming - increase in the average  devastate - to destroy. temperature of the Earth's air and oceans.  developing world - nations with low per-  graphite - soft, common allotrope of capita income, little infrastructure, and a small carbon that is the highest rank of coal. Also middle class. called black lead.  greenhouse gas - gas in the atmosphere,  lustrous - shiny or bright. such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and ozone, that absorbs solar heat reflected by  mineral - inorganic material that has a the surface of the Earth, warming the characteristic chemical composition and atmosphere. specific crystal structure.  groundwater - water found in an aquifer.  mountaintop removal mining (MTR) - method of coal mining where the peak of a mountain is  habitat - environment where an organism removed to get at the coal beneath. lives throughout the year or for shorter periods of time.  nonrenewable resource - natural resource that exists in a limited supply.  Hilt's law - geological guideline which holds that the deeper the coal seam, the higher the  obliterate - to destroy completely. rank of coal.  open-pit mine - place where rocks, sand,  hydraulic - having to do with water or other or minerals are extracted from the surface of liquids in motion. the Earth.  hydrocarbon - chemical compound made  ore - deposit in the Earth of minerals entirely of the elements hydrogen and carbon. containing valuable metal.  Industrial Revolution - change in economic and  orogeny - the way mountains are formed. social activities, beginning in the 18th century,  overburden - earth, plant, and rock covering a brought by the replacement of hand tools with mineral deposit. machinery and mass production.  particulate - microscopic solid or liquid  industry - activity that produces goods particle, often suspended in the atmosphere as and services. pollution.  integrate - to combine, unite, or bring  peat- layers of partially decayed organic together. material found in some wetlands. Peat can be  landfill - site where garbage is layered dried and burned as fuel. with dirt and other absorbing material to  petroleum - fossil fuel formed from the prevent contamination of the surrounding land remains of ancient organisms. Also called or water. crude oil.  landscape - the geographic features of a  pollute - to introduce harmful materials region. into a natural environment.  landslide - the fall of rocks, soil, and other  power plant - industrial facility for the materials from a mountain, hill, or slope. generation of electric energy.  leach - to separate materials by running  pyrolysis - process of heating biomass to water or another liquid through them. very high temperatures with a limited amount  lignite - lowest rank of coal, usually of oxygen. burned in power plants to generate electricity.  quarry - site where stone is mined.  longwall mining- underground mining method  regulate - to determine and administer a where a long wall of coal is extracted in a set of rules for an activity. single slice.  residue - material left over after  syngas - (synthesis gas) gas containing something has been removed. carbon monoxide and hydrogen, used in chemical processing and creating synthetic  respiratory illness - disease of the lungs. natural gas (SNG).  retreat mining - final stage of the "room  tailings - residue or material left over and pillar" underground mining method, where from a mining process, after valuable minerals the "pillars" of ore are carefully removed, have been separated from raw ore. Also called allowing the ceiling to collapse and allowing leavings, mine dumps, and slickens. more ore to be extracted.  turbine - machine that captures the  room-and-pillar mining - underground energy of a moving fluid, such as air or water. mining method where miners remove a "room" of ore (usually coal) but leave "pillars" of the  valley fill - depression in the earth where ore to support the ceiling. mining waste (overburden) is dumped.  sanitation - promotion of hygiene, health,  vegetation - all the plant life of a specific and cleanliness. place.  scrubber - device or method used to  ventilation - movement or circulation of remove air pollutants from industrial exhaust. fresh air in a closed environment. Also called air circulation.  sedimentary rock - rock formed from fragments of other rocks or the remains of  volatile - able to easily change from liquid plants or animals. to vapor.  sequester - to isolate or remove.  water table - underground area where the Earth's surface is saturated with water. Also  smog - type of air pollution common in called water level. manufacturing areas or areas with high traffic.  weather - state of the atmosphere,  soot - sticky black particles produced as including temperature, atmospheric pressure, some fuels, such as coal and wood, are burned. wind, humidity, precipitation, and cloudiness. Also called black carbon.  wetland - area of land covered by shallow  steel - metal made of the elements iron and water or saturated by water. carbon.  strip mining - surface mining method where ore is extracted by removing a thick layer (strip) of soil, rock, and vegetation (overburden).  sub-bituminous coal - low rank of coal, mainly used to generate electricity in power plants.  subsidence - sinking or lowering of the Earth's surface, either by natural or artificial processes.  summit - highest point of a mountain.  susceptible - able to be influenced to behave a certain way.