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May 23, 2012 Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: Baghdad talks highlight Western naivete Putin's latest defiance shows Obama's whisper didn't work Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts Lisa Gerstner: 4 Money-Etiquette Questions Answered Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You Art Markman, Ph.D.: Get smart: How to bulk up your creativity muscles Israeli scientists use skin cells to help repair heart muscle Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right May 22, 2012 David S. Cloud and Kathleen Hennessey: Obama changes mind on Pakistan invite to NATO summit --- and then gets dissed by country's president US Senate approves new sanctions against Iran ahead of Baghdad talks Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide Supreme Court: Twins can't claim dead dad's benefits Thomas M. 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Jewish World Review How coal mining works By Marshall Brain http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) Have you ever held an actual lump of coal in your hands? It looks like a black rock. But the thing you immediately notice is its weight. Coal feels incredibly light compared to a normal rock. That's because coal is composed largely of carbon, which is the same lightweight element found in carbon fiber tennis rackets and bike frames. This simple black rock is surprisingly important to the United States. The carbon is what makes coal such a valuable source of energy. When the carbon combines with oxygen, it gives off heat. That heat is very handy for producing electricity. In the U.S., we burn more than 2 trillion pounds of coal every year to keep the power grid humming. About half of the electricity in the United States currently comes from coal. Where does all the coal come from? We mine it out of the ground using three different techniques: traditional underground mining, surface mining and mountaintop mining. Let's take a look at how they work. Underground mining is what we traditionally think of when we think of "coal mining." Miners dig tunnels down into the earth to find coal seams. A seam is layer of coal that can be hundreds of feet deep. Using automated equipment, miners then start digging caverns or rooms into the seam, leaving behind large pillars of coal to support the roof. This is called room and pillar mining. As the miners dig, a conveyor system carries the coal back to the surface. Once the miners have gone as far as they can with the room and pillar approach, they may begin taking out the pillars, starting at the back of the mine. As the coal in the roof collapses, the miners dig it out in a process called retreat mining. More than half of the coal mined worldwide comes from underground mining. However, working in the mines is not one of the safest ways to make a living. Mines collapse, and there are also problems with mine gases (which can suffocate miners or explode) and coal dust (which causes black lung). Coal seams are often close to the surface rather than deep underground. In that case, it is usually faster, safer and more economical to dig the coal out from the top. This process is often referred to as strip mining, although pit mines are also possible. Strip mining is faster than underground mining because miners can use lots more equipment. And the equipment is much larger than the equipment you see in an underground mine. After peeling away the layer of soil over the coal, miners start blasting and digging out the coal seam. Immense excavators shovel out the coal, or gigantic rotating disks lined with buckets chew through the coal at a rate of tons per second. The biggest dump trucks in the world haul the coal away. Each truck can carry hundreds of tons of coal per trip. One of the newer and more controversial techniques in coal mining is called mountaintop mining. It is common in West Virginia. This is one of the least popular techniques from an aesthetic standpoint because miners literally blast off the top of a mountain and then carry away the coal underneath. Hundreds of mountains have disappeared because of this practice. Once the mining is done, miners cover the base of the mountain with dirt and replant with trees. It may take a decade or more for the area to recover. If the United States digs out 2 trillion pounds of coal every year, you might be wondering how long the supply can last. It turns out that underground coal deposits are very common in the U.S. It is thought that there might be 500 trillion pounds of more left to mine - enough to last for hundreds of years at the current rate of consumption. Given that coal is so plentiful, so inexpensive to mine and so widely used, it seems like coal is the ideal energy source. The big problem is the pollution that comes from burning coal. There is direct pollution in the form of things like ash, sulfur and radiation. And then there is the greenhouse gas effect of all the carbon dioxide that burning coal emits. A concept called clean coal technology tries to address these concerns. Clean coal involves everything from scrubbing sulfur out of smoke stack gases to capturing all the carbon dioxide and burying it underground or in the ocean. We will have to see whether these newer technologies take root, or whether coal is replaced over time by greener technologies like solar and wind power. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Comment by clicking here. Previously: How an economic depression works How the liver works How 3D movies work How oil pipelines work How jet packs work How seismographs work How Olympic technology works How Personal Rapid Transit works How 3G works How the Global Position System (GPS) works How octane works How cruise missiles work How submarines work How miles work How octane works How food preservation works How beer works How holding your breath works How smoke detectors work How heat pumps work How your night vision works How concentrating solar collectors work How your key fob works How the common cold works How the Large Hadron Collider Works How making a TV show works How dry cleaning works How exoskeletons work How an oil refinery works How landfills work How the Orion spacecraft works The cutting edge in HDTV Redefining the CD How the HDMI cable scam works How glow-in-the-dark toys work How the subprime mortgage crisis works How gift cards work How Tasers work How giant TV screens work How foreclosure works How Air Force One works How wildfire fighting works How vitamins work How ejection seats work How reattaching limbs works How hot air balloons work How paparazzi work How counterfeiting works How CDs work How the Edsel worked How Stinger missiles work How hybrid cars work How sharks work How mosquitoes work How diesel engines work How water towers work How the Dawn mission works How Kassam rockets work How the North American Eagle works Why aren't we flying to work? How tofu and soy milk work How Colony Collapse Disorder works How airbags work How the U.S. income tax works How gum works How caffeine works How Daylight Saving Time works How a cruise missile works How snow making works © 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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