When was coal first used

Improvements to steam technology and industry were all powered by coal and quickly surface deposits were used up. This led to coalmines becoming deeper and more dangerous. Miners risked their lives on a daily basis and faced threats from explosive and poisonous gasses. Despite this myriad of dangers, coal production increased dramatically. The dangers of coal mining prompted Parliament to release a list of all the ways a miner could meet his end in the pits.

These included:. Coal played a major role in the advancement of Britain and powered its empire. These days it has seen its role decline thanks to cleaner alternatives. With government commitments to cut carbon emissions to net-zero by , coal usage will likely end altogether in Britain.

Last year also saw Britain go coal-free for hours, a sharp rise from s hours. With coals days seemingly numbered in Britain, we should never forget how important the black rock was to our history and development. Types of Electricity Production — Energy Generation. I s Green Energy really good for the environment? Dyball Associates are proud to help new supply businesses successfully launch in the UK market. For more information, get in contact with us today.

Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep up to date with the latest news and updates in the energy industry. Dump trucks used at strip mines often weigh more than tons and have more than 3, horsepower. Strip mining can be used in both flat and hilly landscapes. Strip mining in a mountainous area is called contour mining. Contour mining follows the ridges, or contours, around a hill.

A pit, sometimes called a borrow, is dug in an area. This pit becomes the open-pit mine , sometimes called a quarry. Open-pit mines can expand to huge dimensions, until the coal deposit has been mined or the cost of transporting the overburden is greater than the investment in the mine. Open-pit mining is usually restricted to flat landscapes. After the mine has been exhausted, the pit is sometimes converted into a landfill.

After the summit is cleared of vegetation, explosives are used to expose the coal seam. After the coal is extracted, the summit is sculpted with overburden from the next mountaintop to be mined. By law, valuable topsoil is supposed to be saved and replaced after mining is done. Barren land can be replanted with trees and other vegetation. Mountaintop removal began in the s as a cheap alternative to underground mining.

It is now used for extracting coal mainly in the Appalachian Mountains of the U. MTR is probaby the most controversial coal mining technique.

The environmental consequences are radical and severe. Waterways are cut off or contaminated by valley fill. Habitats are destroyed. Toxic byproduct s of the mining and explosive processes can drain into local waterways and pollute the air. Miners travel by elevator down a mine shaft to reach the depths of the mine, and operate heavy machinery that extracts the coal and moves it above ground. The immediate environmental impact of underground mining appears less dramatic than surface mining.

There is little overburden, but underground mining operations leave significant tailings. Tailings are the often-toxic residue left over from the process of separating coal from gangue , or economically unimportant minerals. Toxic coal tailings can pollute local water supplies. To miners, the dangers of underground mining are serious. Underground explosions, suffocation from lack of oxygen, or exposure to toxic gases are very real threats.

To prevent the buildup of gases, methane must be constantly ventilated out of underground mines to keep miners safe. There are three major types of underground coal mining: longwall mining, room-and-pillar mining, and retreat mining. Underground Mining: Longwall Mining During longwall mining , miners slice off enormous panels of coal that are about 1 meter 3 feet thick, kilometers The panels are moved by conveyor belt back to the surface. The roof of the mine is maintained by hydraulic supports known as chock s.

As the mine advances, the chocks also advance. The area behind the chocks collapses. Longwall mining is one of the oldest methods of mining coal. Before the widespread use of conveyor belts, ponies would descend to the deep, narrow channels and haul the coal back to the surface. Today, almost a third of American coal mines use longwall mining. Columns pillars of coal support the ceiling and overburden.

The rooms are about 9 meters 30 feet wide, and the support pillars can be 30 meters feet wide. There are two types of room-and-pillar mining: conventional and continuous. In conventional mining, explosives and cutting tools are used. In continuous mining, a sophisticated machine called a continuous miner extracts the coal. In developing countries, room-and-pillar coal mines use the conventional method.

Underground Mining: Retreat Mining Retreat mining is a variation of room-and-pillar. When all available coal has been extracted from a room, miners abandon the room, carefully destroy the pillars, and let the ceiling cave in.

Remains of the giant pillars supply even more coal. Retreat mining may be the most dangerous method of mining. A great amount of stress is put on the remaining pillars, and if they are not pulled out in a precise order, they can collapse and trap miners underground.

How We Use Coal People all over the world have been using coal to heat their homes and cook their food for thousands of years. Coal was used in the Roman Empire to heat public baths. In the Aztec Empire, the lustrous rock was used for ornaments as well as fuel. The Industrial Revolution was powered 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-produce items, generate electricity, and fuel steamships and trains that were necessary to transport items for trade. Today, coal continues to be used directly heating and indirectly producing electricity. Coal is also essential to the steel industry.

Fuel Around the world, coal is primarily used to produce heat. Coal can be burned by individual households or in enormous industrial furnace s. It produces heat for comfort and stability, as well as heating water for sanitation and health. Electricity Coal-fired power plants are one of the most popular ways to produce and distribute electricity. In coal-fired power plant s, coal is combusted and heats water in enormous boilers.

The boiling water creates steam, which turns a turbine and activates a generator to produce electricity. Poland, China, Australia, and Kazakhstan are other nations that rely on coal for electricity. Coke Coal plays a vital role in the steel industry.

In order to produce steel, iron ore must be heated to separate the iron from other minerals in the rock. In the past, coal itself was used to heat and separate the ore. However, coal releases impurities such as sulfur when it is heated, which can make the resulting metal weak. As early as the 9th century, chemists and engineer s discovered a way to remove these impurities from coal before it was burned.

This drives off impurities such as coal gas, carbon monoxide, methane, tars, and oil. The resulting material—coal with few impurities and high carbon content—is coke. The method is called coking. The hot air ignites the coke, and the coke melts the iron and separates out the impurities. The resulting material is steel. Coke provides heat and chemical properties that gives steel the strength and flexibility needed to build bridges, skyscrapers, airports, and cars.

Many of the biggest coal producers in the world the United States, China, Russia, India are also among the biggest steel producers. Japan, another leader in the steel industry, does not have significant coal reserves. Synthetic Products The gases that are released during the coking process can be used as a source of power. Coal gas can be used for heat and light. Coal can also be used to produce syngas , a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Syngas can be used as a transportation fuel similar to petroleum or diesel. In addition, coal and coke byproducts can be used to make synthetic materials such as tar, fertilizers, and plastics. Coal and Carbon Emissions Burning coal releases gases and particulate s that are harmful to the environment.

Carbon dioxide is the primary emission. It is called a greenhouse gas because it absorbs and retains heat in the atmosphere, and keeps our planet at a livable temperature. In the natural carbon cycle , carbon and carbon dioxide are constantly cycled between the land, ocean, atmosphere, and all living and decomposing organisms. Carbon is also sequester ed, or stored underground. This keeps the carbon cycle in balance.

However, when coal and other fossil fuels are extracted and burned, they release sequestered carbon into the atmosphere, which leads to a build-up of greenhouse gases and adversely affects climate s and ecosystems. Other Toxic Emissions Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are also released when coal is burned. These contribute to acid rain , smog , and respiratory illness es. Mercury is emitted when coal is burned.

In the atmosphere, mercury is usually not a hazard. In water, however, mercury transforms into methylmercury, which is toxic and can accumulate in fish and organisms that consume fish, including people. Fly ash which floats away with other gases during coal combustion and bottom ash which does not float away are also released when coal is combusted. Depending on the composition of the coal, these particulates can contain toxic elements and irritants such as cadmium, silicon dioxide, arsenic, and calcium oxide.

Unfortunately, fly ash is often stored in landfills or power plants, and can drain into groundwater. As a response to this environmental hazard, fly ash is being used as a component of concrete , thereby isolating it from the natural environment. Many countries do not regulate their coal industries as strictly as the U. Coal Fires Under the right conditions of heat, pressure, 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 the seam.

Coal fires emit tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Even if the surface fire is extinguished, the coal can smolder for years before flaring up and potentially starting a wildfire again. Coal fires can also begin in mines as a result of an explosion. Trains switched from coal power to diesel fuel. Even homes that used to be heated by coal turned to oil or gas furnaces instead. Coal production reached its low point in the early s. Since then, coal production has steadily increased, reaching record highs again.

Today coal supplies 22 percent of the nation's energy needs. Its major use today is for electricity production. Mining, Processing, and Transporting Coal.

There are two ways to remove coal from the ground: surface mining and underground mining. Surface mining is used when a coal seam is relatively close to the surface, usually within feet. The first step in surface mining is to remove and store the soil and rock covering the coal called the "overburden". Workers use a variety of heavy equipment--draglines, power shovels, bulldozers, and front-end loaders-to expose the coal seam for mining.

After surface mining, workers replace the overburden, grade it, cover it with topsoil, and fertilize and seed the area. These steps help restore the biological balance of the area and prevent erosion. The land can then be used for croplands, wildlife habitats, recreation, or as sites for commercial development. Although only about 32 percent of the nation's coal can be extracted by surface mining, some 63 percent of all U. Because surface mining is typically much cheaper than underground mining.

Underground mining is used when the coal seam is buried several hundred feet below the surface. In underground mining, workers and machinery go down a vertical "shaft" or a slanted tunnel called a "slope" to remove the coal. Mine shafts may sink as much as 1, feet deep. One underground mining method is called room-and-pillar mining. With this method, much of the coal must be left behind to support the mine's roofs and walls.

Sometimes as much as half the coal is left behind in large column formations to keep the mine from collapsing. A more efficient and safer underground mining method, called longwall mining, uses a specially shielded machine which allows a mined-out area to collapse in a controlled manner.

This method is called "longwall" mining because huge blocks of coal up to several hundred feet wide can be removed.

After coal comes out of the ground, it typically goes on a conveyor belt to a preparation plant that is located at the mining site.

A "prep" plant cleans and processes coal to remove dirt, rock, ash, sulfur, and other impurities. Removing the impurities increases the heating value of coal. After the coal is mined and processed, it is ready to go to market. Transportation is a very important consideration in coal's competitiveness with other fuels because sometimes transporting the coal can cost more than mining it.

Underground pipelines can easily move petroleum and natural gas to market. But that's not so for coal. Huge trains transport most coal almost 60 percent for at least part of its journey to market.

It is cheaper to transport coal on river barges, but this option isn't always available. Coal can also be moved by trucks and conveyors if the coal mine Is close by. Ideally, coal-fired electric power plants are built near coal mines to minimize transportation costs. Coal Reserves, Production and Use. When scientists estimate how much coal, petroleum, natural gas, or other energy sources there are in the United States, they use the term reserves.

Reserves are coal deposits that can be mined using today's mining methods and technology. Experts estimate that the United States has about billion tons of coal reserves. If we continue to use coal at the same rate as we do today, we will have enough coal to last years. This vast amount of coal makes the United States the world leader in known coal reserves.