Coal our (very very very) old friend?

Posted on Mar 01, 2012 by Keith Heyde

Coal is immensely important. Within the U.S., roughly 50% of our electricity comes from coal sources. Furthermore, since the U.S. sits on close to 300 Billion tons of coal, it seems unlikely that the role of coal will diminish within the near future.
However, when most people think about coal, they imagine the black, greasy bricks that cook meat in their grill (unless of course they went propane).
Partially inspired by our article about the number of total coal reserves in the United States, we’ve chosen to write, today, about the coal industry in general. To give everyone a little bit of background about coal and its development within the energy industry.
Coal comes in four main types: lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. These types correspond to how old the coal is (in geological terms… we are talking thousands of years here, not a could hours). As the coal gets older, its carbon (and generally sulfur) content increases, creating a dirtier, yet more energy rich coal.
Over the past 30 years, with the rise of natural gas, coal consumption has somewhat subsided. However, that by no means implies that coal has taken a ‘back seat’. As said earlier, coal is overwhelmingly prominent within the United States and as such we have a coal-intensive electricity infrastructure.
Coal electricity plants operate on a basic chemical-thermal-mechanical-electrical conversion principal. Although efficiencies vary, most plants can only attain a roughly 40% efficiency rating off of the coal that they generate. Cogeneration techniques may increase this percentage, however due to the three energy ‘form’ shifts, it is hard to attain a much greater efficiency.
It should be noted that along with electricity, coal can be used to produce oil and essentially any hydrocarbon we desire. Through the chemical miracle of the Fischer-Tropsch process, we can generate essentially any alkene from any source of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. In South Africa, where they have a lot of coal but barely any oil, the Fischer-Tropsch process has already been scaled up to an industrial level and has been supplying hydrocarbons for the entire country.
As mentioned earlier, coal burns relatively dirty. This means that there is a lot of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfate compounds that emanate from traditional coal fired plants. A combination of on-site carbon sequestration techniques coupled with already established filters and air handlers can help repress coals (generally negative) environmental footprint.

To learn more about clean coal take a look at
Clean Coal

For more about liquidification of coal take a look at:
Liquid Coal

And for more about coal in general check out:
US EIA Coal Page

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