Science and Coal

Posts Tagged ‘way’

One never knows what tomorrow might bring. A good student prepares his work, and submits essay writing on time. The responsible student plans his work schedules carefully, both for school, and for any outside employment he or she might have.

When the unexpected happens, it may feel like the student is being robbed of time. Suddenly his planning needs to be revised. Unfortunately, sometimes this will not guarantee that the student can complete all of the assignments by their due dates.

Writing custom essays is a difficult, multi-part process. If a student is called away before an essay is completed, he can retain peace of mind – and a good grade – by employing an essay writing service to help finish the report. Even if it is something that is due in a day or two, and a student hasn’t even begun to write when a personal calamity occurs, the help of a writing service can make sure that all is accomplished. Read the rest of this entry »

A large section of the Fifth Estate, that world company of scientists, climbed the Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh last week. They knew soft coal, what it was and what could profitably be done with it and were answering the call to the Second International Conference on Bituminous Coal made by President Thomas Stockham. Baker of Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Coal Situation. Of U. S. coal companies, only the Island Creek Coal Co. admits that it is making satisfactory profits. Practically all the rest claim that they are losing money. Certainly most are. They have millions of tons of coal mined and ready .for : sale at low, unprofitable prices. But sales have fallen off. Electricity, gas and oil are supplanting coal. This economic shift is inevitable.

The way to coal profits—President Baker emphasized when he opened last week’s conference—is to teach consumers how to use coal in new ways and to teach coal men how to “unlock the riches that lie hidden” in coal (i.e., to produce synthetic goods).
C-O-H-N & Synthetics. When Carnegie Tech’s President Baker asked Director Edwin Emery Slosson of Science Service to speak at this bituminous coal conference, he did not expect Dr. Slosson “to make any serious contribution to the practical and technical problems” which engaged the attention of the Congress. So Dr. Slosson, learned journalist, made a brilliant survey of synthetic chemistry, in which soft coal is the great raw material. Read the rest of this entry »

Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. With all of the hoopla surrounding nuclear energy, hydropower and biofuels, you might be forgiven for thinking that grimy coal is finally on its way out.

But coal is no sooty remnant of the Industrial Revolution — it generates half of the electricity in the United States and will likely continue to do so as long as it’s cheap and plentiful [source: Energy Information Administration]. Clean coal technology seeks to reduce harsh environmental effects by using multiple technologies to clean coal and contain its emissions.

Coal is a fossil fuel composed primarily of carbons and hydrocarbons. Its ingredients help make plastics, tar and fertilizers. A coal derivative, a solidified carbon called coke, melts iron ore and reduces it to create steel. But most coal — 92 percent of the U.S. supply — goes into power production [source: Energy Information Administration]. Electric companies and businesses with power plants burn coal to make the steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. Read the rest of this entry »

New research, reported this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, contaminated the Arctic and potentially affected human health and ecosystems in and around Earth’s polar regions.

The study, titled “Coal Burning Leaves Toxic Heavy Metal Legacy in the Arctic,” was conducted by the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reno, Nev. and partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

Detailed measurements from a Greenland ice core showed pollutants from burning coal–the toxic heavy metals cadmium, thallium and lead–were much higher than expected. The catch, however, was the pollutants weren’t higher at the times when researchers expected peaks.

“Conventional wisdom held that toxic heavy metals were higher in the 1960s and ‘70s, the peak of industrial activity in Europe and North America and certainly before implementation of Clean Air Act controls in the early 1970s,” said Joe McConnell, lead researcher and director of DRI’s Ultra-Trace Chemistry Laboratory. Read the rest of this entry »