Coal, together with oil and natural gas belongs to fossil fuels.
Coal was formed about 300 million years ago.
Coal is a combustible mostly black sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons.
Coal takes a million years to create and therefore it belongs to non-renewable energy sources.
Coal mining uses two methods: surface or underground mining where surface mining is more dominant method because it is less expensive than the underground mining.
Coal is mostly transported by train.
Coal as the other fossil fuels as well isn't ecologically acceptable because of CO2 and global warming.
Coal is classified into four main types: lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, anthracite and the coal value is determined by the amount of the carbon it contains.
Coal is mined in 27 US states.
Coal is mainly used for generating electricity (more than 90 % of US coal).
Coal usually has a negative impact on environment, mining can damage ground and surface waters and when coal burns as the fuel it releases CO2 which is the main greenhouse gas that causes global warming.
Coal is so called "dirty" energy source because of its negative effect on environment.
Coal could be the world's most attractive fuel in years to come thanks to the methods of coal purification which are resulting in more cleaner coal, removing sulfur and other dangerous elements.
Coal is used on the large scale in China and USA.
Coal can be answer for future only if technology will enable "ultra-clean" coal.
Coal must be relatively dry before it can be burned successfully.
World coal consumption is more than 5.3 billion tons annually of which three quarters are used for generating electricity.
Coal was already used in the Bronze age (Britain).
Coal's share in the total world electricity production is about 40 %.
Coal reserves by country (click on picture to enlarge).
Coal deposits could be enough to satisfy current world energy needs for the next 300 years.
Coal is getting more attention because of the increased prices of oil and natural gas.
Coal can be converted like to gasoline or diesel by couple of different processes like for instance the Fischer-Tropsch process, Bergius process and Karrick process.
Coal is the official state mineral of the Kentucky and official and the official state rock of Utah.
Coal total reserves are approximately about 1 × 1015 kg or 998 billion tons.
Coal is mined in more than 100 countries.
Major coal exporter is Australia with more than 240 million tonnes annually.
Coal is the main reason for China's economic boost as for China's environmental problems.
Coal is still very "dirty" energy source and therefore rich countries are looking for alternatives (for instance highly developed Germany cut coal use by a 41 percent from 1990 to 2001).