Coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.

Industry: Energy

Add a new term

Contributors in Coal

Become a Contributors

Coal

lignite

Energy; Coal

Lignite is a soft brown type of coal, with characteristics that places it somewhere between hard coal and peat. Lignite has a lower energy content and different characteristics than the ...

zechstein

Energy; Coal

Formations containing salt that were laid down in the second part of the Permian Period, the salt has risen up under or through the overlying formations in many places, producing a salt pillow and/or ...

coal measures

Energy; Coal

The various strata which contain seams of coal.

Tavan Tolgoi

Energy; Coal

Situated at South Gobi desert in Mongolia, Tavan Tolgoi is the world's largest untapped coking coal reserve with an estimated deposit of 6 billion metric tons of steelmaking coal. The mine was ...

ethanol 95 (E95)

Energy (non-renewable); Coal

A fuel containing a mixture of 95 percent ethanol and 5 percent gasoline

acid deposition

Energy; Coal

Refers to both wet deposition and dry deposition. Both occur as a result of ammonium, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur mixing with water molecules to create a higher acidity than the average pH of 5.2 ...

acid mine drainage or acid rock drainage

Energy; Coal

Acidic water from metal or coal mines, but also including places where the ground has been disturbed as a result of construction or other means. Water, whether from rain or the location being ...