The second edition provides significant information on the major power generation technologies that utilise coal more efficiently, and with less environmental impact. With increased coal combustion ...comes heightened concerns about coal's impacts on human health and climate change, so the book addresses the reduction of both carbon footprints and emissions of pollutants, such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and mercury.
Winner of the 2012 Evans Biography and Handcart Award, Coal in Our Veins employs historical research, autobiography, and journalism to intertwine the history of coal, her ancestors' lives mining ...coal, and the societal and environmental impacts of the United States' dependency on coal as an energy source. In the first part of the book, she visits Wales, native ground of British coal mining and of her emigrant ancestors. The Thomases' move to the coal region of Utah, where they witnessed the Winter Quarters and Castle Gate mine explosions two of the worst mining disasters in American history and the history of coal development in Utah are explored in the second part.
While much has been written about immigrant traditions, music, food culture, folklore, and other aspects of ethnic identity, little attention has been given to the study of medical culture, until ...now. In Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region, 1880–2000, Karol Weaver employs an impressive range of primary sources, including folk songs, patent medicine advertisements, oral history interviews, ghost stories, and jokes, to show how the men and women of the anthracite coal region crafted their gender and ethnic identities via the medical decisions they made. Weaver examines communities’ relationships with both biomedically trained physicians and informally trained medical caregivers, and how these relationships reflected a sense of “Americanness.” She uses interviews and oral histories to help tell the story of neighborhood healers, midwives, Pennsylvania German powwowers, medical self-help, and the eventual transition to modern-day medicine. Weaver is able to show not only how each of these methods of healing was shaped by its patrons and their backgrounds but also how it helped mold the identities of the new Americans who sought it out.
The porous structure of coal directly determines its gas transport property. The fluid flow behavior of coal is one of the key science questions that will influence the coal energy industry. In this ...study, the influence of real coal macropore structure on the fluid flow through coal was studied through 3-D coal structure reconstruction by the CT images. Based on the reconstructed coal structure, the micron-scale structure parameters were quantitatively analyzed. A newly programmed Matlab code was established to find the volume fractal dimension, obtain the relationship between porosity/permeability of coal and volume fractal dimension, and estimate the tortuosity fractal dimension by using the 3-D box dimension algorithm. The results show that the volume fractal dimensions of 6 coal samples range from 2.25 to 2.79 and the tortuosity fractal dimensions of capillaries range from 2.15 to 2.73. The 3-D coal structure cannot only quantitatively estimate the real porosity of the coal, but it can be used to characterize the complexity of coal's porous structure through mean deviation of surface porosity. It can be clearly seen from the reconstructed coal that coal specimen-C3 is highly heterogeneous because it has complex pore structure as well as wider pore size distribution and the highest mean deviation of the surface porosity. The volume fractal dimension can be used to quantitatively define the complexity of pores. The larger the porosity of coal, the greater the fractal dimension. The permeability and porosity of coal are negatively correlated with the volume fractal dimension. The tortuosity fractal dimension can effectively characterize coal permeability, but it weakly correlates with coal porosity. The outcome of this study helps to understand the structure-based flow characterization and gas transport behavior in heterogenous coal which will have the implication of the gas extraction from coalbed methane reservoirs and coal mine gas drainage.
Coal mines have sudden, usually unexpected expulsions of gas in conjunction with coal into the mine workings. The gas is mainly consisted of methane making this so-called coal and gas outburst a ...major hazard affecting the safety and productivity of an underground coal mine. Several parameters affect this outburst hazard. In this study, a statistical method namely structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to identify the relationships between the parameters affecting the coal and gas outbursts for an underground coal mine in Turkey and to analyze multiple interactions between them. The model includes main factors (mining depth, coal seam gas content and moisture content) and contributor factors (seam thickness, seam inclination and distance from fault). The results indicate that mining depth is the most efficient factor in main factors and distance from fault is the most significant contributor to outburst.
Four eastern Kentucky Pennsylvanian coals (from oldest to youngest, the Manchester, Pond Creek, Fire Clay, and Hazard coals) were examined for their total rare earth element (REY) concentration and ...the possible mechanisms for enrichment of the rare earths. Based on previous studies, four possible modes are considered: terrigenous, tuffaceous, infiltrational, and hydrothermal, with the Dean coal, a correlative of the Fire Clay coal, considered to be a typical example of the tuffaceous mode. The Fire Clay owes much of its high REY content to the presence of a volcanic-ash-fall tonstein, with REY-bearing zircon and phosphates in the coal in numerous locations. Some of the original REY elements may have components of the detrital minerals deposited in the peat. Leaching of REY from the tonstein into the surrounding coal and the hydrothermal overprint of mineralizing fluids associated with the northwestwardly movement of the Pine Mountain thrust sheet contributed to the total REY signature in the Fire Clay coal. Not all coals are going to have the complex history of the Fire Clay coal, but it should be considered that the total history of REY enrichment by multiple mechanisms is what gives us both the total REY concentration and the relative distribution of the individual lanthanide elements.
Strontium isotope data of the Gondwana, Oligocene, and Palaeocene-Eocene coals of India has been compiled for the first time in this report. The Gondwana coals of peninsular India from the Talcher, ...Ib, Rajmahal, Wardha, and Korba coalfields have the highest mean 87Sr/86Sr value of 0.731762 ± 0.000034 (2σ). Compared with the high radiogenic 87Sr content of the non-marine Gondwana coals, the Oligocene coals from the Makum coalfields in Assam and the Palaeocene-Eocene coals of Meghalaya in North East India had mean 87Sr/86Sr values of 0.708998 ± 0.000029 (2σ) and 0.716335 ± 0.000032 (2σ) respectively. The Sr concentration (mg/kg) of the three types of coal decreased in the order of Oligocene (170.6 mg/kg) > Palaeocene-Eocene (45 mg/kg) > Gondwana (35.6 mg/kg). The one-way ANOVA test done on the strontium data of the three types of coal showed significant differences (at p < 0.05) in the mean 87Sr/86Sr values of the Gondwana and Palaeocene-Eocene coals but homogeneity in the Oligocene coals. The high 87Sr/86Sr and low Sr content in the Gondwana coals can be attributed to silicate weathering products in these coals. In the coals of Meghalaya, the 87Sr/86Sr ratios are influenced by both silicates and carbonates. The Rb/Sr versus 87Sr/86Sr plots for both the Gondwana and Palaeocene-Eocene coals showed a weak positive correlation in contrast to the Oligocene coals. The mean 87Sr/86Sr value of the Oligocene coals was similar to the range of 87Sr/86Sr values obtained in marine-derived gypsum in the Miles coal of China and therefore, provides an opportunity for the construction of a strontium isotope chronometer.
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•The first report on the Sr isotopic composition of the Gondwana, Oligocene, Palaeocene-Eocene coals of India.•Gondwana coals have the highest mean 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.713762 ± 0.000034 (2σ) among than the three types of coal.•The lowest mean 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.708998 ± 0.000007 (2σ) was found in the marine-influenced Oligocene coals in Assam.•The 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the Palaeocene-Eocene coals in Meghalaya were influenced by both silicates and carbonates.•The Oligocene coals can be used in Sr-based chronostratigraphic studies in the future.
African nations share a common situation in that they pollute little in terms of CO2s globally speaking, but at the same time global warming may have terrible consequences for the continent, set to ...face a sharp population increase. They have now access to few energy resources, which is conducive to their poverty. New renewables belong to the future (solar, wind, geo-thermal), whereas old renewables – wood coal – are a thing of the past. The coal or oil and gas dependent giants must start energy transformation, as must the many countries relying upon traditional biomass. The use of wood coal is simply too large for the survival of the African forest. Under the COP21, African countries have right to financial assistance, especially for more electricity to connect its rural and also many urban people to heating, air-conditioning and the electronic high ways. Without the COP21 promises, decarbonisation will be impossible in Africa, and thus its large need for more energy will lead to more CO2s.
The fluid flow in fracture porous media plays a significant role in the assessment of deep underground reservoirs, such as through CO2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and geothermal energy ...development. Many methods have been employed—from laboratory experimentation to theoretical analysis and numerical simulations—and allowed for many useful conclusions. This Special Issue aims to report on the current advances related to this topic. This collection of 58 papers represents a wide variety of topics, including on granite permeability investigation, grouting, coal mining, roadway, and concrete, to name but a few. We sincerely hope that the papers published in this Special Issue will be an invaluable resource for our readers.
