Excerpts from RockTalk Volume 8, Number 2, 2005

What is Coal? Coal is a solid but brittle,

carbonaceous black sedimentary rock that burns.
It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen, and lesser amounts of sulfur and other
trace elements. Coal is divided into four classes:
lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, and
anthracite. Of the commonly minable coals,
anthracite is the hardest and has the most carbon,
giving it a higher heat value. Lignite is the softest
coal and has the least amount of carbon. By
definition, coal is a combustible rock containing
more than 50 percent by weight carbonaceous
material formed from compaction of variously
altered plant remains originally derived from peat.


Coal Quality Not all coal is composed of the
same compounds. Different types of coal are
characterized by their unique properties, which
produce different results when burned. These
properties are empirically determined by coal
quality tests. The most basic test is the
Proximate Analysis, or chemical analysis that
determines the amount of moisture, volatile
matter, fixed carbon, and ash that are in coal.
Ash consists of the impurities in coal such as
silica, iron, alumina, and other incombustible
matter. Fixed carbon is the nonvolatile part of
the coal minus the ash. Volatile matter is the
gas in the coal, and moisture is the water in
coal. A typical Cretaceous coal in Colorado
might have values ranging from 5.48.1
percent ash, 3741 percent volatile matter,
5256 percent fixed carbon, 1921 percent
moisture. Another coal quality test is the
Ultimate Analysis, which indicates the
major elements in any sample of coal. Coal
is composed of many elemental compounds,
mostly carbon and oxygen. Ultimate
Analysis indicates that elements such as
silica and iron are also present in coal. Many
times, sulfur and heat value are added to the
test, with results like 0.40.7 percent sulfur
and 9,940 Btu/lb.
Subbituminous coal from the Laramie
Formation near Morrison, Colorado.
Diagram of coal rank in terms of carbon content (or
depth and time of burial )and heating value.
Go to the Coal Minining Glossary

How and when was coal formed? Coal is a hydrocarbon-rich, fossil-fuel resource, and
like other fossil fuels it was formed millions of years ago. Much of the coal in the eastern
U.S. comes from swamps that existed during the Carboniferous Period, 355 to 295
million years ago. However, in the western U.S. coal swamps formed between 100 and
55 million years ago, in the Middle to Late Cretaceous Period and the Paleocene Epoch
of the Tertiary Period. During this time, Colorado was situated along the shoreline of a
large, shallow seaway that extended from Canada to Mexico throughout the central U.S.
This shoreline moved back and forth during the course of time. Fresh-water swamps
formed along the coastal plains adjacent to the shoreline of this seaway. The climate was
very warm and humid, with abundant vegetation
on the coastal plain. During that period
Colorados environment looked similar to modern
day South Carolinas coastal plains and swamps,
but with dinosaurs. As the vegetation died and
sank to the bottom of the fresh-water swamps, it
built up large deposits of decomposed, spongy
organic matter called peat. This saturated peat
built up to form bogs that were a few feet to over
hundreds of feet thick. Over geologic time, sand
and clay sediments covered this peat. More and
more sediment was deposited on top of the peat
weighing it down and squeezing the water out of
the peat. Burial compacted the peat and eventually
turned the sediments into rock. High temperatures and pressures over millions of years
converted the peat into different types of coal. Generally, the greater the pressure, the
harder the type of coal that is formed. This entire process is called coalification.
Mountain-building processes also affect coalification. Thermal processes within the coal
beds can be initiated by igneous intrusive activity and deep-seated uplift. Tertiary-age
uplifts and intrusions into the coal-bearing rocks affected the coal beds. Generally, these
coal beds were thermally cooked, which upgrades the rank of the coal. Bituminous
coals can be upgraded to anthracite rank when thermally cooked by igneous intrusions.
The coalification process from swamp to
coal. Note how a thick section of peat is
compressed by heat and pressure into a thin
section of coal. Modified from the
Kentucky Geological Survey.


How much energy is in coal? The amount of energy given off by coal is defined by the
heat value measured in British thermal units, or Btus. A single Btu is the amount of heat
energy it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit at
sea level. One Btu is about equivalent to the amount of energy in a single match. It takes
about 2,000 Btus to make a pot of coffee. One pound of Colorado coal has about 10,000
Btus, or the equivalent of making five pots of coffee. Igneous dikes and sills also
crosscut and alter coal rank. Igneous sills even replace coal beds by injecting themselves
preferentially along weak horizontal coal bed layers and altering the surrounding rocks.
This process bakes coal into natural coke.

Why are trace elements in coal important? Trace elements such as arsenic, mercury,
cadmium and zinc have an affinity for sulfur and attach themselves to coal. Coal acts
like a sponge in groundwater and adsorbs like a charcoal filter. Much of the worlds coal
contains hazardous concentrations of mercury and sulfur. Coal-fired power plants are the
largest source of mercury emissions in the U.S. For this reason, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) is working on new rules to protect the environment from air
pollution stemming from coalfired power plants. In particular, mercury emissions from
coal-fired power plants are to be regulated. The new rules, adopted March 15, 2005, cap
and reduce mercury emissions from coalfired power plants. With enforcement by April
2008, the EPA goal is to reduce mercury emissions by nearly 70 percent.


Mining Methods Coal is either mined from the surface or underground. The particular
mining method chosen depends on surface terrain conditions, coal layering, access,
and/or reclamation laws. Surface mining is regulated by a set of rules governing the
recovery and revegetation of original topography, while underground mining is mostly
regulated by safety concerns. If the coal seams are shallow and close together, then
surface mining is considered. However, if the seams are thick (greater than five feet
thick), and deeper (between 200 and 2,500 feet deep), then underground mining is
considered.
Surface mining vs. underground mining methods.

Underground Mining A deep coal seam is accessed by an opening to the surface called
a portal. The portal openings are called drift, slope, or shaft mines. Drift mines cut down
the coal bed from the outcrop, slope mines cut through overburden rock at an angle to get
to the coal, and shaft mines access the coal through a vertical shaft. Mining begins with a
cutting machine called a continuous miner creating a box work called room and pillar
mining. As the rooms are cut, the coal is loaded onto a shuttle car and carried to a
conveyor belt that carries it to the surface. As the mining advances, the pillars remain to
support the openings. Roof bolts are placed in the ceiling to stabilize the roof. The larger
underground mines use a large coal-cutting machine called a longwall miner. This
automated machine is 1,000 feet long and has moveable three-foot-wide cutting teeth that
cut away at the face of the wall of coal. This 36-inch diameter rotating shearer cuts the
coal, where it drops onto a conveyor which hauls to the surface. Because this machine
cuts a continuous 1,000-foot-long swath into the coal seam, there are no pillars left to
support the roof. So moveable metallic roof shields are installed all along the 1,000 foot
zone that will be cut. This keeps the roof from collapsing near the cutting machine. After
each 1,000-foot-long cut (each three feet deep), the metal shields are moved forward
allowing the roof to collapse behind.

Surface Mining If the coal beds are relatively close together and less than 200 feet from
the surface, then surface mining is considered. The types of surface mining include area,
mountaintop removal, and contour mining. Huge dragline shovels (1227 cubic yard
buckets) first remove rock overburden to get to the coal. These machines stockpile the
overburden until it is time to reclaim the pit. The coal is excavated from the pit floor with
truck shovels and front-end loaders and then hauled to the loading area with large trucks.
As the pit widens and deepens, the walls become steeper. The wall in the pit where the
coal is mined is called the highwall. The back side of the pit is filled with waste rock. The
highwall is benched to mine the upper coal beds, and then the underlying rock is blasted
with explosives for easier removal. When the pit walls are too high and steep, surface
miners try to remove coal remaining in the highwall without further excavation. Two
methods of mining can achieve this feat, auger and highwall mining. Auger mining
employs a 6-foot diameter horizontal auger to drill out the remaining coal. This methods
works well on flat-lying coal beds. When the coal beds dip or roll, the highwall miner is
used. This new technology machine excavates a rectangular hole into the coal outcrop
with a rotating continuous miner head. As the laser-guided machine extracts coal from
the hole, conveyor belts transport the coal back to the surface while the mining machine
advances. The remote-control machine can extract coal up to 1,200 feet into the highwall.
This method can safely remove coal without using miners underground.


Diagrammatic representation of an underground longwall miner.

























Cretaceous coal strata exposed in a bench cut of the Williams Fork Formation atthe Kennecott Corp. Colowyo surface
coal mine in Moffat County, Colorado. Note how the coal beds split and roll.



Block diagram of a highwall miner operating in cross-sectional viewin a surface mine operation.


What is coal rank? The degree of heat value is a measure to which the peat has
undergone thermal alteration to form coal. This rank, as it is called, is based on the
carbon content in the coal measured as the heat value per pound (or Btu). Rank is
categorized by varying coal rock types from peat to anthracite (Fig. 5). Anthracite is the
hardest coal and gives off the most amount of heat when it burns. The reserves for
anthracite are small. Because it is hard to crush and burn, anthracite is not used much as
steam coal.

What are macerals? When coal is observed under a microscope, various forms or parts
of plants can be seen. Since trees are the primary vegetation in swamps much of the
macroscopic fossil material looks similar. But under the microscope, there are smaller
ancient plant and tree parts that make up coal on the microscopic level called macerals,
which are considered the basic building blocks of coal. Macerals are characterized in
three major groupings:
Vitrinite, the most common maceral, is the decomposition product of plant cell walls
like cellulose and lignin.
Exinite is composed of spores, cuticles, resins and waxes like the outer surfaces of
leaves.
Inertinite is charcoal from fires that occurred in the peat bogs during early deposition.