Coal
Coal can bring power but it can also bring pollution. Coal is found in around 70 different countries. It is estimated that there is 861 billion tons of proven coal. That is enough to last another 112 years. Coal is formed from remains of vegetation that grew over 300 million years ago. This was when the earth was covered in swampy forest. Coal has many uses, its main uses include steel production, cement manufacturing and liquid fuel. Some other uses coal has is alumina refineries, paper manufactures and chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Coal is a sedimentary rock. Its colour it usually black but every so often it is a brown colour. There are four main types or ranks that come with coal: Lignite, which is brown coal, can be quite soft and its colour goes from a dark black to different shades of brown. Lignite can transform into a type of coal known as Sub- Bituminous. These coals than become harder and blacker. They are then called Bituminous coals. They then can be converted into Anthracite if under the right conditions.
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Coal plays an important role in electricity. The coal-fired power plants fuel around 41% of electricity globally. In some countries the coal fuels at a higher percent. In Australia, coal fuels 78% of Australian electricity. First the coal is milled into power and this is done so the coal burns quicker. It is then blown into the combustion chamber of the boiler and at a high temperature, burned. The gas and heat energy that was created, converts into water and then into steam. It then passes into a turbine with thousands of blades which causes the turbine shaft to rotate at high speed. The generator has wire coils and when they are rotated in a strong magnetic field, electricity is