Coal is known as a solid fuel that is composed of sedimented rocks rich in carbon and that is usually very easily identifiable by its characteristic black color. Over the years, coal has served multiple purposes, and today, it is one of the most widely used fossil fuels even though it is not renewable.
Currently, coal continues to have a lot of presence in our lives. 25% of the energy consumed in the world is coal, only surpassed by oil, which became the main source of energy for our planet . The main use that mineral coal receives is for the generation of electrical energy, for which pulverized coal is used.
Coal types
Not all coals are the same and there are some differences between them.
- Peat: usually has a yellowish brown or black color. It is organic material although it is usually of poor quality and has little caloric effect.
- Footprint: it is the mineral coal with the highest combustion that exists in the world. This quality is thanks to the large presence of carbon it has, around 75% to 90% . The rest of the element is usually located at 20%, where sulfur is usually the most common. Currently it is used in thermal power plants, but before, when it was discovered, it was the main element in the steel industry, until oil came on one side and natural gas later.
- Anthracite: it is the least polluting of the types of coal that exist and we know. It is the element with the highest quality of all, since it has a low presence of carbon and a low percentage of volatile material and ash. It is the hardest that exists and its color is usually black with a gloss.
- Lignite: it is not a good fuel given the large presence of water that it has among its components. It has a lot of carbon and, although it is still used in some thermal power plants, the truth is that its combustibility is low.
Some data
As we say, throughout history coal has been used for many purposes, although it lost strength with the arrival of other materials such as oil. It is mainly used for the generation of electricity, the production of steel, the manufacture of cement and the production of liquid fuels.
For example, almost half of the electricity consumed in the United States is generated by coal, and the country has some 261 billion tons of coal reserves.
