What is the coal industry?

coal industry is a global group of businesses involved in coal mining and processing and its subsequent use. Coal is a naturally occurring mineral found in many places around the world. It burns easily, so it is widely used in energy production. Coal and its by -products have many other industrial uses such as steel production. The coal industry is controversial in many areas due to pollution and other environmental problems. These processes take millions of years and at that time many coal bearings were left on or near the ground. These deposits, called coal seams, were easily accessible by humans, first by growing exposed seams and later mining for buried coal. Coal has been burned like fuel for thousands of years. When the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, coal was used by tprimar fuel used for power factories and machines.

Modern coalThe industry includes hundreds of companies in countries around the world involved in coal mining. The coal is removed from the underground seams either by mining open pit, resulting in gigantic openings on the ground, or shaft mining, a dangerous process that sends miners to tunnels that are sometimes deep kilometers. Once coal is used, it is used in various industrial processes, including energy production. Power plants around the world burn coal to produce steam that activates turbines and produces electricity. Approximately 40 percent of the world's strength has been created in this way since 2011.

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coal industry also produces various other fuels, including ethanol, diesel fuel and liquid fuel called coal gas. The main by -product of coal is coke, a substance used in the production of cast iron and steel. Other by -products of the coal -air and coal tar, which is used in industrial, chemical and even medical applications.

Unfortunately, coal combustion produces Uhl oxideIntroduction, greenhouse gas, which is assumed to contribute to global warming. There are methods of making so -called pure energy coal, but the process of changes to these methods was slow due to the high cost of converting existing power plants. Other disadvantages of the coal industry include the risk of coal mining. Many generations of miners suffered from a condition called black lungs due to constant inhalation of coal dust. Highly flammable coal and coal dust also created underground fires and explosions; For example, in April 2010, 29 miners were killed by explosion of coal mines in West Virginia.