Coal is one of the oldest and longest used fuels. Perhaps, before charcoal, only firewood was used. Nowadays coal is gradually losing ground – after all, it is not very ecological, and coal deposits are not infinite. Nevertheless, it can be confidently asserted that coal will be in demand for more than a decade due to its low cost.
Coal is the remains of plants, unbelievably for a long time lying deep under the earth, under conditions of monstrous pressure and without access of oxygen. The latter factor is key – it was the lack of oxygen that prevented plants from rotting.
Coal mining in the territory of modern Russia began in the 15th century.
It is in the depths of Russia, by the way, that about a third of the world’s coal reserves are stored – about 4 trillion tons, plus or minus.
If you saturate the coal with hydrogen, you can get from it liquid fuel, which in its properties is almost identical to oil.
The oldest coal mine in the world is located in the Netherlands. It was opened in 1113, and at the same time it still functions.
At the Chinese coal field in Luhuanggou, a fire burned for 130 years, which was extinguished only in 2004. Annually, the fire destroyed about 2 million tons of coal.
Coal is rapidly losing ground – according to statistics, in 1960 it was coal that accounted for half of all energy produced in the world, but literally in ten years only half of them remained. Currently, coal is even less popular, but, nevertheless, it is still used today.
The age of the most ancient coal rocks is about 300-400 million years.
