Coal in pictures

Starting at the end of the 17^th century in Europe,

coal

Coal is ranked by its degree of transformation or maturity, increasing in carbon content from...

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mining provided the basis for the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. It deeply marked countries' social history and its attendant firedamp explosions were tragic, recurring features in the lives of miners and their families. The Jabin mine (shown here) in France's Loire basin was the site of two successive disasters: in 1871 (70 fatalities) and in 1876 (186 fatalities). Underground mining accidents still claim hundreds of casualties each year.

Coal has a very high carbon content and is crushed and burned at 1,200°C. It then combines with oxygen and emits CO₂, one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for

global warming

Global warming, also called planetary warming or climate change, is the rise in the average t...

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. In late 2021, coal-fired power generation was the primary source of carbon emissions worldwide according to the International Energy Agency. A coal plant emits twice as much CO₂ as a gas plant. The picture shows the chimney of the Onyx Power coal plant in Rotterdam (the Netherlands).

Thermal power plants and the use of coal in the industry, particularly in places where plants are in disrepair, cause air pollution due to fine particles, which are a real health hazard. In addition to the issue of CO₂, the need to improve air quality is driving the Chinese authorities to modernize their plants and to find alternative energy sources.

Open-pit mines are organized in terraces, rather like a sports stadium. Once the earth above the first

coal seam

Term for a coal bed in a sedimentary series.

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has been removed, coal extraction can begin. After the seam has been depleted, miners dig down to the next layer. The photo shows the Morwell mine in Victoria State, Australia, where the fourth layer is being mined.

Huge excavators extract the coal. Some of them are over 200 meters long and higher than a thirty-story building. The buckets on the excavators can hold up to 300 metric tons of rock.

Coal is very often mined underground. Vertical shafts are dug to reach the deposits. In each coal seam a series of large pillars are placed at regular intervals to support the mine roof. The shafts connect to a grid of huge galleries (10- to 20-square-meter sections) that can extend over dozens of kilometers.

Another technique involves using a machine called a

shearer

Mechanical cutting machine used to extract coal in underground mines.

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that looks like a huge plow. The shearer slowly pushes and cuts through the coalface. It recovers the loosened ore as it advances and lets the roof collapse behind it. This is called caving. However the technique can weaken the subsurface and produce surface disruptions.

China consumes as much coal as all other countries combined. Even though it is a leader in

renewable energy

Energy sources that are naturally replenished so quickly — sometimes immediately — that they ...

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development, China continues to add to the number of coal plants – admittedly with more modern and effective units – to meet its substantial energy requirements to sustain its strong growth. China also relies on imports and its main ports (here the port of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province) welcome ships from Australia and Russia. India and South Africa are also large consumers of coal.

The United States is the world's second largest coal producer, ahead of India and Australia. But while American coal represented nearly 50% of the energy consumed to produce electricity in 2007, its share had fallen to 20% by 2022. This is attributable to the emergence of

shale gas

Shale gas is found in deeply buried clayey sedimentary rock that is both the source rock and ...

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production, which boosted the share of gas in American electricity generation from 20% to 36%. Renewable energies (hydraulic, wind, solar) have progressed a great deal (24%). In the photo, a mine in Wyoming.

By depriving Germany of Russian gas, the war in Ukraine indirectly revived coal production in the country, which had in fact been maintained to mitigate the phase-out of

nuclear energy

Energy produced in nuclear power plants. The enormous amount of heat released during fission ...

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. Among other things, German plants use

lignite

Rock whose properties are somewhere between peat and coal. It has a carbon content of about 7...

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, a material somewhere between peat and coal. Lignite is produced in open-pit mines that spread over hundreds of hectares, sometimes leading to the demolition of villages, such as the Garzweiler mine in Western Germany. Environmental activists gathered near the giant excavators, with a wind farm in the background.