Is coal dirty? In a word, yes. Coal is a black or brownish sedimentary rock formed over millions of years of decaying plant and other biological matter. Time and weight on top of dead things make coal, so yes it can be considered dirty at its very roots.
Our earth that we live on is a working recycling machine. We, it, or something dies and a while later the earth gives us a resource from it. That is the very definition of a perfect recycle process. Not to be all indignant to religion, but when we die, we are giving back. Coal is classified as a non renewable resource by the EIA because it takes millions of years to form… How short sighted are we. Coal, Oil, and Gas are really the ONLY renewable resources. They are in continuous formation by our earth. Peat is the perfect example of that truth. Peat is coal half formed.
It takes millions of years to form. Yes that is a true statement. That does not mean its finite. What it means is that Coal will continue to form until this planet we live on ceases to exist. Now I do not know about you, but I think that may be a long, long time. Coal has been vilified as so dirty its killing all of us and the planet. I have one question for that, how can something our planet produced kill it? The very process by which it is formed is the very process that happens every day, every minute, every second. I suggest because it is not readily visible, we just do not believe it. It is very easy to vilify something we see especially when it is continuously attacked by those that are in a position of power or position of expertise, self proclaimed or not.
Our lives depend on energy. There is a lot of energy in our world, and in many forms. We constantly use it. Our current environment demands an insane amount of energy.
In 2021 our Nation consumed 295 Million Btu’s of mechanical energy, and another 8.6 million Btu’s of food energy consumed by the 331 million folks that live here.
The point of all this is one simple fact. Energy density and energy capacity is very important. Consider Energy Capacity to be the same as Food. Which gives you more go, a steak or a salad? Calories. Steak has fuel, ice berg lettuces do not. Most people will tell you that wind, solar, and hydrogen are perfect because they do not pollute. Well that statement is a lie. Pollution is in the eye of the beholder. All three of those sources demand extensive hydrocarbon usage and production. Green Hydrogen is the biggest lie of the them all.
Hydrogen cannot be produced in enough density to replace the wind energy it takes to produce it. Coal averages between 8000 and 13,000 btu’s per pound, Hydrogen averages 61,000. That is a huge difference correct? So it would seem Hydrogen is better. Until you have to produce it. Coal is easy, you dig it from the earth. Hydrogen is far trickier. You either have to strip it from produced oil and gas, or you have to do it through electrolysis. (Boiling water with electricity). Then you have to store it, transport it, and Hydrogen is a fickle gas. It likes to burn. It burns very easily, often when you do not want it to.
I really did not mean to go so far on Hydrogen, but I felt I must, because it is not our savior from the big green monster that is climate change. Nothing actually can save us from a changing world, our world will continue on its path whether we are hear or not. Whether we are here or not is a thing. This path we are on will toss us back 200 years or more.
Coal is in fact clean, in the olden days when coal and wood stoves put all their flue gases into the environment of every town in the country, they stank and they were polluted by the gases. This is very true. That is not the case now. We have figured out how to do it better, It is a thing, doing better is something man does. For many reasons. Today coal fired power plants produce energy next to households and they have zero negative impact on them, but great benefit.
The energy in coal gave the oil industry the ability to ship oil. FACT, with out electricity, pipelines do not work. This is true for Natural Gas as well. Neither of them can exist without a base of energy, so using gas to fire gas to transport gas, is completely foolish and it is what we are doing.
Coal, that dirty black rock that is three times cheaper than gas. Just as clean and more hated. Not hating on oil, gas, nuclear, or most. Just wondering why we are being so stupid. We have enough coal to fuel us for 500 years even with the growing demand. Not making use of that resource is incredibly stupid. Yet stupid abounds these days.
Carbon is not bad, Most people are good, and we will strive to move forward and do it right.
Spud.
Great teaching and comparison and contrast to hydrogen