Coal a human history

Mar 12, Leo Walsh rated it really liked it Overall, Coal: A Human History is a fascinating and balanced look at the enormous and often unsung impact that this little black rock has had on our lives. Without it, there would have been no British empire. Nor would there have been an Industrial Revolution.

Electricity generationClean coal technologyGlobal warmingand List of coal power stations Coal burnt as a solid fuel to produce 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.

When coal is used for electricity generationit is usually pulverized and then burned in a furnace with a boiler. Instead of pulverizing the coal and burning it directly as fuel in the steam-generating boiler, the coal is gasified see coal gasification to create syngaswhich 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 Coal a human history powers a supplemental steam turbine. On the other hand, much may have to be left in the ground to avoid climate change, [44] [45] so maximum use could be reached sometime in the s.

History of coal mining - Wikipedia

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. In Canada some coal power plantssuch as the Hearn Generating Stationswitched from coal to natural gas.

Coke fuel Coke oven at a smokeless fuel plant in WalesUnited Kingdom Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from coking coal a low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal, also known as metallurgical coalwhich is used in manufacturing steel and other iron products.

Metallurgical coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Coking coal should be low in ash, sulfurand phosphorusso that these do not migrate to the metal.

However, the alternative route is direct reduced ironwhere any carbonaceous fuel can be used to make sponge or pelletised iron. Coke from coal is grey, hard, and porous and has a heating value of Some cokemaking processes produce byproducts, including coal tarammonialight oils, and coal gas.

Petroleum coke petcoke is the solid residue obtained in oil refiningwhich resembles coke but contains too many impurities to be useful in metallurgical applications. Coal gasification and Underground coal gasification Coal gasification, as part of an integrated gasification combined cycle IGCC coal-fired power station, is used to produce syngasa mixture of carbon monoxide CO and the hydrogen H2 gas to fire gas turbines to produce electricity.

The versatility of syngas also allowed it to be converted into transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, through the Fischer-Tropsch process ; alternatively, syngas can be converted into methanolwhich can be blended into fuel directly or converted to gasoline via the methanol to gasoline process.

Alternatively, the hydrogen obtained from gasification can be used for various purposes, such as powering a hydrogen economymaking ammonia, or upgrading fossil fuels. During gasification, the coal is mixed with oxygen and steam while also being heated and pressurized.

During the reaction, oxygen and water molecules oxidize the coal into carbon monoxide COwhile also releasing hydrogen gas H2. This process has been conducted in both underground coal mines and in the production of town gas which was piped to customers to burn for illumination, heating, and cooking.

If hydrogen is the desired end-product, however, the syngas is fed into the water gas shift reactionwhere more hydrogen is liberated.

Coal liquefaction Coal can also be converted into synthetic fuels equivalent to gasoline or diesel by several different direct processes which do not intrinsically require gasification or indirect conversion.

These temperatures optimize the production of coal tars richer in lighter hydrocarbons than normal coal tar.You just clipped your first slide!

Clipping is a handy way to collect important slides you want to go back to later. Now customize the name of a clipboard to store your clips. Mrs. Freese talked about her book Coal: A Human History, published by Perseus Publishing.

The book examines the role that coal has played in human history. The . Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese in EPUB, RTF, TXT download e-book.

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As Freese explains in both her book, "Coal: A Human History" and in our interview, coal not only became the fuel that powered the industrial revolution, but more importantly, it triggered a series of inventions that would spark that revolution, starting in Britain, which had an abundance of coal.

By the mid-to-late 's, the island was running out of trees with which to construct its navy and heat its hearths. Jan 07,  · This isn't a history of coal. OK, it is about coal, but a book written by a environmental lawyer isn't a history, it's a critique.

Coal: A Human History - free PDF, EPUB, RTF, TXT

Which really is too bad, because the history of coal is about the triumph of human ingenuity and will over scarcity and poverty/5. It is a pleasurable read, full of innumerable factoids and insights about how coal has affected human history. It also adds information about the transition from England to the U.S., one that involves coal, wood and the increasing thrust for power/5(84).