My Northeast Project

1. My Northeast Project By Andre Andrews Wednesday, November 28, 2012

2. What is Coal? Coal is a rock that burns and formed from incompletely rotten plant matter that collected in a dirty swamp which was later subjected to heat over time. Because all of this happened millions of years ago, it is called a fossil fuel. Oil and natural gas are the other fossil fuels. There are different types of coal depending on the unit of measurement, amount of heat, and time such as peat, lignite, subbituminous coal, bituminous coal and anthracite coal. Coal is describe by rank and grade. Rank is the percent of carbon it present such as subbituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. Grade is the amount of ash that forms while burning such as low, medium, and high ashes.

3. How is coal produced? Coal is produced by bringing out from the ground which is coal mining either underground by shaft mining or at ground level by open pit mining extraction. Surface mining procedure are accounted for 60 percent of coal produced in the United States and 75 percent in the Western States where some are deposited up to 100 feet thick. When an area is to be mined, topsoil and subsoil are removed first and set aside to be used later back on earth. Then special machines such as draglines, wheel excavators or large shovels remove the rock and other material to expose the bed of coal. Once the coals are removed, the area is put back together as it was before.

4. Where, who and what kind of coals can be found in the northeastern region? Northeastern Pennsylvania in the Central Appalachian Mountains comprising of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northumberland and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin Counties are places where anthracite coals can be found which is in the northeast region. Necho Allen, a hunter, discovered anthracite coals in Schuylkill County in the northeast region. Anthracite coals can be found in the northeast region.

5. What is coal used for? Coal is used mainly for energy source, either for heat or electricity. It was once heavily used to heat homes and to power machines, moving vehicles, and factories. Black coal is also known as bituminous coal which is also used to produce coke for making steel and other manufacturing process heating. Coal gasification and coal fluid matter are also possible uses of coal for producing artificial fuel. Approximately 4% of the coal that is dig up in the United Sates are being sold or traded abroad and most of the sold or traded abroad coals are used for making steel.

6. How is electricity generated from coals? Electricity is generated from coals by mining coal which is delivered to coal fired power plants, where electricity is generated. At the power plant, the coal is burned to boil water and produce steam to operate a conventional steam turbine and generator which produces electricity. The electricity is sent to users through a transmission system that consists of electric transmission lines, towers, substations and other components.

7. Bibliography "Coal." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coal>. "Coal." What Is Coal? Natural Science Program, University of Wyoming, 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.wsgs.uwyo.edu/coalweb/library/science/what.aspx>. "Coal and It's Uses." Tribal Energy and Environment Information Clearinghouse. Environmental Resources for Tribal Energy Development, 2012. Web. 27 Nov.2012.  <http://teeic.anl.gov/er/coal/restech/uses/index.cfm>. "How Coal Is Produced." How Coal Is Produced. American Coal Foundation, 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ket.org/trips/coal/agsmm/agsmmproduced.html>.