|
Coal-mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine is called a 'pit', and the above-ground structures are a 'pit head'. In Australia, "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine. Coal mining has had many developments in recent years, from the early days of men tunneling, digging and manually extracting the coal on carts to large open-cut and longwall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks and shearers. The coal mining industry has a long history of significant negative environmental impacts on local ecosystems, health impacts on local communities and workers, and contributes heavily to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Health And Environmental Impact Of The Coal Industry
The health and environmental impact of the coal industry includes issues such as land use, waste management, water and air pollution, caused by the coal mining, processing and the use of its products. In addition to atmospheric pollution, coal burning produces hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste products annually, including fly ash, bottom ash, and flue-gas desulfurization sludge, that contain mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and other heavy metals. Coal is the largest contributor to the human-made increase of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. There are severe health effects caused by burning coal. According to a report by the World Health Organization in 2008, coal particulates pollution are estimated to shorten approximately 10,000 lives annually worldwide. A 2004 study commissioned by environmental groups, but contested by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, concluded that coal burning costs 24,000 lives a year in the United States. More rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Mine Wyoming
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the steam engine, coal consumption increased. In 2020, coal supplied about a quarter of the world's primary energy and over a third of its electricity. Some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the steam engine, coal consumption increased. In 2020, coal supplied about a quarter of the world's primary energy and over a third of its electricity. Some iron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longwall Mining
Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice (typically thick). The longwall panel (the block of coal that is being mined) is typically long (but can be upto long) and wide. History The basic idea of longwall mining was developed in England in the late 17th century. Miners undercut the coal along the width of the coal face, removing coal as it fell, and used wooden props to control the fall of the roof behind the face. This was known as the Shropshire method of mining. While the technology has changed considerably, the basic idea remains the same, to remove essentially all of the coal from a broad coal face and allow the roof and overlying rock to collapse into the void behind, while maintaining a safe working space along the face for the miners. Starting around 1900, mechanization was applied to this method. By 1940, some referred to longwall mining as "the conveyor method" of mining, after the most prominent piec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil Fuel Phase-out
Fossil fuel phase-out is the gradual reduction of the use and production of fossil fuels to zero. It is part of the ongoing renewable energy transition. Current efforts in fossil fuel phase-out involve replacing fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources in sectors such as transport and heating. Alternatives to fossil fuels include electrification, green hydrogen and biofuel. Phase-out policies include both demand-side and supply-side constraints. Whereas demand-side approaches seek to reduce fossil-fuel consumption, supply-side initiatives seek to constraint production to accelerate the pace of energy transition and reduction in emissions. Scope While crude oil and natural gas are also being phased out in chemical processes (e.g. production of new building blocks for plastics) as the circular economy and biobased economy (e.g. bioplastics) are being developed to reduce plastic pollution, the fossil fuel phase out specifically aims to end the burning of fossil fuels and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bituminous Coal
Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It is typically hard but friable. Its quality is ranked higher than lignite and sub-bituminous coal, but lesser than anthracite. It is the most abundant rank of coal, with deposits found around the world, often in rocks of Carboniferous age. Bituminous coal is formed from sub-bituminous coal that is buried deeply enough to be heated to or higher. Bituminous coal is used primarily for electrical power generation and in the steel industry. Bituminous coal suitable for smelting iron (''coking coal'' or ''metallurgical coal'' ) must be low in sulfur and phosphorus. It commands a higher price than other grades of bituminous coal (thermal coal) used for heating and power generation. Within the coal mining industry, this type of coal is known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overburden
In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tailings, the material that remains after economically valuable components have been extracted from the generally finely milled ore. Overburden is removed during surface mining, but is typically not contaminated with toxic components. Overburden may also be used to restore an exhausted mining site during reclamation. Interburden is material that lies between two areas of economic interest, such as the material separating coal seams within strata.Peng, Syd S. (1986) ''Coal Mine Ground Control'' (2nd edition), Wiley, New York, page 303, Analogous uses Overburden is also used for all soil and ancillary material above the bedrock horizon in a given area. By analogy, overburden is also used to describe the soil and other material that lies ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Preparation Plant
300px, A coal "washer" in Eastern Kentucky A modern coal breaker in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania combines washing, crushing, grading, sorting, stockpiling, and shipping in one facility built into a stockpile of anthracite coal below a mountain top strip mine A coal preparation plant (CPP; also known as a coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP), coal handling plant, prep plant, tipple or wash plant) is a facility that washes coal of soil and rock, crushes it into graded sized chunks (sorting), stockpiles grades preparing it for transport to market, and more often than not, also loads coal into rail cars, barges, or ships. The more of this waste material that can be removed from coal, the lower its total ash content, the greater its market value and the lower its transportation costs. Run-of-mine (ROM) coal The coal delivered from the mine that reports to the coal preparation plant is called run-of-mine, or ROM, coal. This is the raw material for the CPP, and consists of co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tagebau Hambach
The Tagebau Hambach is a large open-pit coal mine (german: Tagebau) in Niederzier and Elsdorf, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany. It is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite. The mine is on the site of the ancient Hambach Forest, which was purchased by RWE in 1978. The company then cut most of the forest down and cleared it to mine. Only 10% of the forest area remains. RWE planned to clear half of the remaining area between 2018 and 2020. This plan was met with massive protests in the autumn of 2018 and was temporarily stopped in October 2018 by the supreme administrative court of North Rhine–Westphalia (Oberverwaltungsgericht für das Land Nordrhein-Westfalen). Begun in 1978, the mine's operation area currently (as of end of 2017) has a size of 43.8 km2, with the total area designated for mining having a size of 85 km2. It is the deepest open pit mine with respect to sea level: the bottom of the pit, with up to from the surface, is below sea level, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal In India
Coal in India has been mined since 1774, and India is the second largest producer and consumer of coal after China, mining in FY 2022. Around 30% of coal is imported. Due to high demand and poor average quality, India imports coking coal to meet the requirements of its steel plants. Dhanbad, the largest coal producing city, has been called the coal capital of India. State-owned Coal India had a monopoly on coal mining between its nationalisation in 1973 and 2018. Most of the coal is burned to generate electricity and most electricity is generated by coal, but coal-fired power plants have been criticised for breaking environmental laws. The health and environmental impact of the coal industry is serious, and phasing out coal would have short-term health and environmental benefits greatly exceeding the costs. Electricity from new solar farms in India is cheaper than that generated by the country's existing coal plants. History The Indira Gandhi administration nationalized co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal In China
China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world. It is also the largest user of coal-generated electricity, with over a thousand coal-fired power stations. The share of coal in the energy mix declined during the 2010s, falling from 80% in 2010 to 58% in 2019. China emits over 10% of global greenhouse gas. China's large demand was in part responsible for the delay in peak global coal production, coal production reached a record high in December 2021 and coal consumption in China is forecast to reach a record high in 2021. Overall electricity consumption continued to rise in the 2010s, and new coal-fired power plants were constructed to help meet demand. But to curtail the pace of coal-fired power station construction, the National Energy Administration in 2017 canceled coal-fired power plant permits that would have amounted to 120 GW of future capacity. However, local authorities seeking to create jobs resisted the efforts of central authorities to cut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Industry
The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy industry is a crucial part of the infrastructure and maintenance of society in almost all countries. In particular, the energy industry comprises: * the fossil fuel industries, which include petroleum industries (oil companies, petroleum refiners, fuel transport and end-user sales at gas stations) coal industries (extraction and processing) and the natural gas industries ( natural gas extraction, and coal gas manufacture, as well as distribution and sales); * the electrical power industry, including electricity generation, electric power distribution and sales; * the nuclear power industry; * the renewable energy industry, comprising alternative energy and sustainable energy companies, including those involved in hydroelectric power ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
