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What else could the coal be used for? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#Production_of_chemicals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#Production_of_chemicals On

• fencepost 9y ago
  Coal as a dense carbon source may be useful for plastics or other high-carbon production, but producers may also be looking at whether they can get incentives by sourcing carbon in ways that may qualify as sequestration.
• philipkglass 9y ago
  It makes economic sense to produce olefins (building blocks for plastics and many other chemicals) from coal in China, because China's domestic fossil fuel resources are mostly coal. Gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons are better feedstocks to start from if they're affordable/abundant, like in North America. If fracking output stays high, it won't make sense to invest in new American facilities for power-from-coal or chemicals-from-coal.
• hwillis 9y ago
  Coal is used to make synthetic graphite and that's about it- coal is basically used to make more coal. And that's only extremely high quality coal that isn't far off from natural graphite already. Even carbon fiber is made from propene and ammonia instead of coal. Hell, (char)coal can be made from regular organic material, with the bonus that the process of driving off non-carbon atoms produces flammable energy-containing gases.
• stevenwoo 9y ago
  The initial scenarios IIRC for the known reserves of the USA, Saudi Arabia and Russia were to run out in about 50 years, at that point if we haven't found a better power source our grandkids could use coal to make petroleum like Germany in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_to_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_to_oil On the otherhand fracking probably changed that timeline for Canada and the USA with the tradeoff of freshwater for oil so we'll have to wait and see how that turns out and moves the end date for our estimated petroleum reserves.
  • mobilefriendly 9y ago
    Oil reserve estimates are always wrong because they don't dynamically account for even slightly higher prices spurring innovation and exploration. The world has more oil reserves today than at any time in history. Oil won't be displaced by "running out" but by even faster innovation in renewables. (And by carbon taxes.)
• georgecmu 9y ago
  Coal has plenty of uses. It can be used to make precursors for everything from plastics to carbon fiber. In fact in the 19th century it was the original source of chemicals and materials from dyes to aspirin to tarmac. In the beginning of 20th century it started to be displaced by the cheap and abundant oil. Coal's major role in electric power generation is relatively recent. Although coal continued to be a major source of important petrochemicals such as benzene into the 60s, the coal industry underwent a major crisis in the beginning of the 20th century and in the US in particular was saved by the country's electrification. I expect that this pendulum will swing the other way. Coal is posed to become a major source of materials and chemicals once again. Some helpful links: https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/37_2_SAN%20FRANCISCO_04-92_0524.pdf https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/37_... https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/39_1_SAN%20DIEGO_03-94_0113.pdf https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/39_... http://www.ogc.co.jp/e/products/carbon-f/ http://www.ogc.co.jp/e/products/carbon-f/ https://eic.rsc.org/section/feature/feture-pain-relief-from-coal-tar-to-paracetamol/2020140.article https://eic.rsc.org/section/feature/feture-pain-relief-from-...
  • c12 9y ago
    I seem to remember gas works in England would convert coal into gas too. No that this is something that would be done today given natural gas being cheaper.
• Tsagadai 9y ago
  Steelmaking. That is one of the largest commercial uses after electricity.