subject: Uses of coal in today's society [print this page] Uses of coal in today's society Uses of coal in today's society
"Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs."
Diamonds may be beautiful to look at, but you can't burn them for light and heat, and in more recent times, electricity. For thousands of years, coal has been used for lighting and heating homes. Later, coal was the harbinger of the Industrial Revolution that improved standards of living manifold by increasing productivity through the use of machines. Coal enabled men to cross oceans without being at the mercy of the winds. Genuinely, coal has been an necessary part of our lives through generations.
Even today, where electricity has taken over several functions performed by coal earlier, the black mineral is still an integral part of our lives. That is because coal is the main fuel used to produce electricity. Coal consumed in power generating plants is used to make steam which, in turn, operates turbines and generators to generate electricity.
Over the last sixty years, the amount of coal used in the United States for this purpose has practically doubled every decade. Actually, 90% of the nation's annual expenditure of coal of around 1 trillion tons is for electricity production. This accounts for around half the electricity generated annually.
At the same time, coal finds other uses as well, one of the most remarkable being steel production. Coal is commonly categorized into two categories, with steam coal (also known as thermal coal) being used for electricity generation, and coking coal (also known as metallurgical coal) being used for steel production. Coal is also used in the manufacture of paper and aluminum.
Coal is an important ingredient for numerous chemical and pharmaceutical industries. These include soaps, aspirins, solvents, dyes, plastics and fibres. Rayon and Nylon are two widely-used products derived from coal. Refined coal tar is used to create chemicals such as creosote oil, naphthalene, phenol, and benzene. Coal also finds its uses in some specific applications such as water filters, carbon fibers for strong and lightweight materials and artificial diamonds.
Although coal is a non-renewable resource, the earth has it in plenty and its use can only grow over time. Actually, world coal expenditure was about 6,743,786,000 short tons in 2006 and is expected to develop 48% to 9.98 billion short tons by 2030. At this moment, China is the world's top generator and consumer of coal, with the United States and India close behind.
As for the future, coal is the nation's most copious fossil fuel. The United States has more coal than the rest of the world has oil. There is still enough coal underground in this country to provide energy for the next 200 to 300 years.
However, there are some concerns with the use of coal for fuel, chiefly because of the production of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas. Environmental awareness has led to the development of a new industry - "clean coal technologies." Although coal usage will absolutely not fall, it will absolutely get more efficient and less polluting in future.
