Coal

I can recall how bewildered I was the first time I visited Cancun, Mexico ... The standard first question from the locals was “where you from” which I responded with: Kentucky, in the USA ... their response was always: “ah! Kentucky Fried Chicken!” immediately followed by the question “and what do you do there”... More than once, I responded that I participated in the production of coal.

In hindsight I guess I was just naïve to think such a comment could remotely relate to the typical native of Cancun; the information requested (what do you do in the land of Kentucky Fried Chicken) should have been more general perhaps. After all it was obvious these people possessed above average intelligence. Among other things, the majority of the locals were multi-lingual, which in its-self sparked or implied a certain amount of intelligence beyond the average to me.

Knowing this, surely you can identify with my somewhat amused surprise that on the occasions in which I responded to the second question with the term “coal” the third question from the local, in all of my personal experience, was “what is coal”.

Regardless, I soon learned that the best reply to the “what do you do” question was that I participated in the production of energy which in its self could mean several things.  You see I didn’t have a good definition of coal that I considered sufficient to relate the full essence of the product. So, at this late date, I will try:

According to the free dictionary. com the definition of coal is as follows:

A. “A natural dark brown to black graphite like material used as a fuel, formed from fossilized plants and consisting of unstructured carbon with various organic and some inorganic compounds.” or

B.“A piece of this substance.” ... Which makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

In my view, a better definition is offered by Wikipedia.org: “a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, with smaller quantities of sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen.”

Coal is primarily used as a solid fuel to produce electricity and or heat through combustion. When coal is used for the generation of electricity, it is generally pulverized and then combusted or burned in a furnace with a boiler which contains water. The furnace heat converts boiler water into steam; the steam is then used to spin turbines, which turns generators to create electricity.  At least 40% of the world's electricity derives from such coal fired utility plants, in the United States that percentage is now more than 49%.

Among other things, coal can also be converted into liquid fuels such as gasoline or diesel fuel by several different processes; generally termed Coal liquefaction.  In 2008, estimates for the cost of producing liquid fuels from coal indicated that for coal based fuel production to be cost effective or cost competitive with fuel deriving from a petroleum base, then oil prices would need to exceed $35.00 per barrel, with the $35.00 being the break-even cost.  

As oil prices were increasing during the first half of 2009, coal liquefaction projects in China (who is by a wide margin the largest coal producer in the world) were boosted, and these projects were profitable when oil was priced at $40.00 a barrel.

Of the three fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas), coal has the largest and the most widely distributed reserve base; coal is mined in more than 100 countries, and on every continents except Antarctica. The largest proven reserves are found in the USA, Russia, China, India and Australia. Plus there is an estimated recoverable reserve based upon current use, of nearly 150 years.

In further defense of those folks I described in Cancun, Mexico ... There’s not a lot of coal produced in the country, the tonnage that is produced there is of high ash content and is produced in the North Eastern section of the country, which I would guess is more than 2000 miles distant from Cancun.

I was not successful in locating a single coal powered utility / electricity plant in southern Mexico, although there are at least seven hydroelectric plants in the region. In short summation, considering the warm climate, why would the average citizen of Cancun need / want to know about coal any way.

Sources ...

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/coal                           

http://www.mbendi.com/indy/ming/coal/am/mx/p0005.htm                                        

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal                                    http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/mexico/Aguascalientes-M-xico/Chiapas.html