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It's Not Just Something Santa Leaves in Your Stocking
It's Not Just Something Santa Leaves in Your Stocking
The word coal comes from an old English word, col, meaning mineral of fossilized carbon It is a combustible black/brown rock mainly composed of carbon along with hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen
Coal is very old rock Many moons ago, about 300 million years ago to be exact, the Earth was covered in dense forests in wetland areas Some of these forests became buried in soil due to natural flooding They were compressed together And as the buried forests sank deeper and deeper into the Earth, the temperature rose Under the high heat and pressure, the dead plant matter slowly converted into coal
Whats it for?
There are many
different uses for coal This depends on the type of coal Today its primary use is fuel, it can be used to create gasoline, heat, and electricity
Refers to technologies for reducing ash, sulfur, and heavy metal emissions that are produced from coal production It also refers to technologies that reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gasses that are produced from burning coal Also, clean coal=carbon capture and storage
This pumps and stores CO2 emissions
underground
Petroleum
It is made similarly to coal It is composed of large quantities of dead organisms, generally zooplankton and algae The remains settle on lake or sea bottoms and mix with sediments More layers of rock and debris settle on top of these layers They undergo intense heat and pressure as layers are pushed deeper into the Earths crust The organic matter changes into a liquid or gas
It may surprise you, but petroleum is in a lot of products that you wouldnt expect It is used for gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, plastics, and pharmaceuticals, and the wax used to package frozen foods