Coal :: Energy Resources Fossil Fuels Essays

Coal In the world today, Coal is one of the most used Fossil Fuels in America. The black gold, which I like to call it, affects America in so many different ways. Have no worries coal is no where from becoming extinct or replaced. "Coal will be popular big time, in 2005," says Jim Thompson, who edits the weekly report U.S. Coal Review out of Knoxville, Tenn. "There will be more test bums than ever." In Wyoming alone they shipped out over four hundred million tons. I can’t even imagine how large that quantity is. Coal is so useful and America depends on coal greatly (Gransbery). Coal is utilized for combustion, which benefits the Residential areas and Power Plants. The coal used for that is known as Bituminous coal. That can be found in the Appalachian Mountains and even some central states. This type of coal is used due to its high heating value and high sulfur content Coal is also capable of being converted into gaseous or liquid fuel. Before any of thi s can happen, we need to find the mother load of the coal. Another word for that is the reserves. The major reserves in America for coal are found in the Northern Great Planes, Texas and Gulf of Mexico. Fossil Fuels are known for making a mess and causing a lot of environmental problems. They can create some serious pollution to the environment. One of the worse air pollution episodes occurred in 1948. In Donora, Pa twenty were found dead and over six thousand became quite ill quickly. The main cause of this disaster was the due to the high concentrations of SO2. That is why it is important to do whatever you can to eliminate as much as the pollution factor as you can. Cleaning the coal before combustion pretreatment will reduce pollution and even when your done cleaning you can clean the stack gases after combustion. This is an often-missed step in the pollution elimination process. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has a new idea why to clean the coal. This isn’t just for environment safety but he believes that it will be a major source of hydrogen in the years to come.