Lecture # 01

COAL

Coal is the vegetable material compressed and mineralized, and it occurs in stratified fossil
deposits. It is a fossil fuel because it is formed when plant remains were preserved by water
and mud which have become hard and turned into rock. Coal is a combustible black or
brownish black sedimentary rock, but its harder form such as anthracite coal can be
considered as metamorphic rock because of latter exposure of elevated temperature and
pressure.
It is a naturally occurring combustible material, consisting primarily of carbon along with low
percentage of solid, liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons and other materials such as compounds
of nitrogen and sulfur. The chemical changes reduce the oxygen contained consequently
increasing percentage of carbon.
Coal is the largest single source of fuel for the generation of electricity worldwide as well as
the largest source of carbon dioxide emission which is responsible for the climate change and
global warming. In terms of the carbon dioxide emissions, coal is slightly ahead of the
petroleum and about the double of the natural gas.

Origin of Coal

Coal forms primarily from ancient plant materials that accumulated in surface environment,
where the complete decay of organic material was preserved. For example a plant that dies in
the swampy area would quickly be covered with water, sand, silt and other sediments. These
materials prevented the plant debris from reacting with oxygen and decomposing to produce
carbon dioxide and water, as this would occur in normal circumstances. Anaerobic bacteria
attacked the plant debris and get converted it into simpler forms. Primarily pure carbon and
simpler compounds of carbon and hydrogen are formed because of the way it is formed;
hence it is so called fossil fuel.

The initial stage of the decay of a dead plant is a soft woody material known as peat. In some
parts of the world peat is still collected from the boggy areas and used as a fuel. It is not a
good fuel, however, as it burns poorly and with the great deal of smoke. If peat is allowed to
remain in the ground for the longer period of time, it eventually compacted as layers of
sediments known as over-burden, deposited above it. The additional temperature and heat of
over-burden gradually converts peat into another form of coal known as lignite or brown coal.
Continuous compaction due to over-burden converts lignite into bituminous or soft coal and
then finally into anthracite or hard coal.

Coal has been formed at many times in the past but most abundantly during the carboniferous
age (about the 300 million years ago) and again during the upper cretaceous age (about 100
million years ago). Today coal formed by these processes is often found in layers of
sedimentary rocks. In some cases the coal layers may lies very near to the earth’s surface.
Coal seams range from 3-197ft (1-60m) in thickness. The location and configuration of seams
determines the method by which the coal will be mined.