The Chemical Composition of Coal and Its Negative Impact

by Scott Sklar, The Stella Group, Ltd.

Q: My friend and I are unable to find the exact chemical composition of coal in either books or the Internet and were wondering if you could please help us? Also if you know any information that would help us out regarding fossil fuels and their negative effects, it would be greatly appreciated. -- Amelia R., Queensland, Australia
A:

Amelia, you ask a good question, because while many people are preoccupied with the carbon output of coal use, coal's composition causes lots of other bad consequences that tend to be hidden from public view. An Australian website that lays out the basics states it this way:

"Coal is a combustible carbonaceous rock, formed from accumulated vegetable matter that has been altered by decay and various amounts of heat and pressure over millions of years. Inter-layered with other sedimentary rocks,...Coal varies widely in its composition. It is composed chiefly of rings of six carbon atoms joined together in an extremely complex composition of layered arrangements that have in them, not only hydrogen but significant amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. The structure also includes varying amounts of sulphur and other environmental pollutants. Up to one tenth of the total mass of coal can be material with no fuel value...Coal is usually analysed for moisture, volatile matter, fixed carbon and ash. The sulphur and nitrogen content are important as emissions of their chemical oxides during coal burning can cause acid rain. Uncontrolled emissions resulted in widespread damage to forests and lakes in Europe, the USA and Canada."

Mountaintop removal is a form of strip mining that already covers 800 square miles just in just the eastern USA. A direct consequence of this type of mining is that there have been 6,000 "valley fills" of debris from mountain tops in West Virginia and Kentucky. Since 1980, according to the National Mining Association, only 5% of the destroyed land has been returned to some kind of "economic development" such as wildlife habitat.

"Sludge impoundment" is the way that some coal companies deal with the waste that is generated from washing coal. The solid waste (rocks and soil) is used to damn the liquid waste in former valleys. These impoundments have been known to become a source of toxic leaks. Further, dam failure is an historic fact. Another way to deal with sludge is to put it into old underground coal mines, however, this contaminates ground water for drinking. Other issues that pose risks involving coal are processing — very poisonous — and transport.

According to the environmental groups in my state of Virginia, "The largest source of mercury pollution in Virginia is coal-fired power plants. In fact, according to the EPA, 19 Virginia power plants were responsible for 69 percent of in-state mercury emissions, far above the national average. The big utilities' coal fired power plants are the largest single source of toxic mercury in Virginia. Already, 1 in 4 women tested in Virginia had high enough levels of mercury to put a child at risk for neurological development problems.

According to an East Coast utility quoted in a Washington Post article, "Between 1999 and 2005, Pepco officials point out, the price of coal climbed 150 percent, oil prices rose 300 percent and natural gas costs jumped 400 percent."

I always point out that even before climate change entered our global awareness, we knew that burning coal emits carcinogens, mercury and regulated emissions under the Clean Air Act (NOx, SO2, and particulates) in addition to carbon. Processing coal requires lots of energy and water and the impact to the land is devastating. While mining deaths are always evident, U.S. taxpayers still underwrite part of the costs of brown and black lung disease. I personally have met miners and seen the immediate impacts of mountaintop removal in terms of devastating streams and rivers, farmland, and homes and communities. When I hear clean coal advocates, even among the environmental community, I remind them they are only focusing on carbon, not the myriad of these other adverse impacts.

In my talks, I pass out coal, this combustible carbonaceous composite of rock we mine and burn and dump the waste produced by doing that. The more we expose ourselves and our kids to its make up and understand how its use and conversion negatively impact human health, the environment and our global climate, the quicker we realize that we should rush to ease ourselves off of this resource as fast as humanly possible.
 

Reader Comments

The numerous pollutants expelled by the burning of coal have indeed been largely kept hush hush by the general media. Most of the searches I've done on "clean coal" lead to carbon sequestration type solutions. I did however find one company that seems to be on the right track. If I'm reading their website correctly, they claim to be able to remove up to 90% of the pollutants from the coal via a process that takes place before burning. The company name is Clean Coal Technologies, Inc. at http://www.cleancoaltechnologiesinc.com/

It would be great if Renewable Energy World could check them out and tell us what they think.

Cheers from The Big Apple,
Ned

There is no such thing as clean coal. It's dirty when you mine it, it's dirty when you burn it, it's dirty when you breathe it, and it's dirty when you sequester it somewhere that we don't understand the effects of carbon sequestration.

Do not settle for the industries lies and malevolence when addressing clean coal. The mountain top removal mine 1 mile from my house is NOT clean, and never will be.

Coal being a natural material varies in composition depending upon its origin, history of formation and the geographical region and the presence of other minerals such as sulphur, phosphorus and others. So little wonder coal does not have a specific composition. In general it is carbon and some of the carbon will be in the form of volatiles which evaporate readily as in coking. There is also inert material either mineral or within the carbon which forms ash. Complex chemical compounds are also formed during coal formation and some of these may have toxic properties. Coal technology is therefore quite complex and important in its utilisation.

Regards toxicity and environmental pollution, present day technology is well developed in reducing impacts to within acceptable levels.

Renewables will never replace all the energy requirements of the world. What the alternatives

Mr. Sklar and others have covered many of the talking points concerning coal. What you have to realize is that the coal industry is run by very old, very rich organizations of men. They take millions of cubic yards of overburden off of the coal. They collect millions of tons of coal and put it on trains. The trains haul the coal for hundreds of miles where it is burned and makes millions of tons of stuff in the air. It is an old system, and everyone, everyone in that system makes a sure profit.

Energy systems take energy. It takes energy to remove the overburden. It takes energy to run the huge shovels and trucks. It takes energy to make the electricity to run the conveyor systems to load the trains. It takes energy to move and unload the trains. It takes energy to put the trains back at the coal mine. It takes energy to load the coal into the furnaces that make electricity, etc., etc.

It is a big, expensive system that works.

It may take decades for us to successfully replace it with renewable energy sources. It may break tomorrow, and we will have to learn to survive without it.

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