Nonrenewable Resources

Coal
Student’s name
Institution

Abstract
Coal refers to a type of fossil fuel which forms through a series of geological and biological processes. It starts when plant matter is heaped and turned into peat. The peat turns into another compound known as lignite which subsequently gets converted into sub-bituminous coal. The sub-bituminous coal undergoes various geological and biological processes to turn into bituminous coal which subsequently turns into anthracite. The whole process from plant matter to anthracite lasts millions of years. As a non-renewable source of energy, coal is used in the generation of energy to power various industrial processes. Based on its non-renewability and its high pollution capacity, the use of coal as a source of energy raises a lot of environmental concerns. This paper discusses coal as a source of energy by exploring how it is formed, the location of its major reserves, environmental impacts of its extraction, and the process of energy production.

Coal is non-renewable energy, and generally, it is a combustible brownish-black or black sedimentary rock that is mostly composed of hydrocarbons and carbon. Coal is formed of the remains of the ancient plants and trees that grew in swampy jungles in moist and warm climates in ancient time millions and millions of years ago. The organic and chemical processes that the dead organism undergoes to form coal is referred to as carbonization (Funke, & Ziegler, 2010). The longer the carbonization period, the higher the rank of the coal.

Anthracite is an example of coal that is ranked high. Peat on the other hand, is ranked low due to the fact that it does not undergone an extensive carbonization period.
Almost every country worldwide has coal reserves. However, the biggest reserves of coal are in Russia, the USA, India, European Union (leading producer: Germany), Australia and China (Shafiee, & Topal, 2009). Coal is extracted from earth either through underground mining or surface mining. When coal is extracted, it may be used directly for industrialized processes such as heating, or it may be used to fuel power plants for electricity production. Surface mining is used to extract coal if it is within less than 200 feet (61 meters). Some of the environmental impacts associated with surface mining include removal of the overlying landscape thus destroying habitats as well as the entire ecosystem. This can also cause subsidence and landslides besides, toxic substance leaching into water tables, aquifers and air may endanger the health of residents. Underground mining is the other method of coal extraction. The environmental impact of this method is that it leaves significant tailings. These are toxic residues that can pollute water supplies.
References
Funke, A., & Ziegler, F. (2010). Hydrothermal carbonization of biomass: a summary and discussion of chemical mechanisms for process engineering. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 4(2), 160-177.
Shafiee, S., & Topal, E. (2009). When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished?. Energy policy, 37(1), 181-189.