The population of the world continues to grow, as does the average
standard of living, increasing demand for food, water and energy and placing
increasing pressure on the environment. The population of the world doubled
from 3.2 billion in 1962 to 6.4 billion in 2005 and is forecast to grow to 9.2
billion in 2050.
Supplies of oil, gas, coal and uranium are forecast to peak as reserves
are depleted. At the same time, fear of climate change is putting pressure on
the energy sector to move away from carbon burning to nuclear, solar and other
environmentally friendly energy sources.
Coal was created by the fossilised remains of plants and has high
carbon content. Coal is the world's most abundant and widely distributed fossil
fuel. Coal is still the primary energy source for several countries world-wide
and provides between 25% and 28% of the world's primary energy. Worldwide, coal
is the main fuel for the generation of electricity as the price of coal is
cheap compared to other fuels. It is also the highest polluting source of
electricity. The other major uses of coal are in the production of steel and
synthetic fuels.
Coal is classified by rank, which is a measure of the amount of
alteration that the coal has undergone (i.e. amount of heat and pressure that
the coal has undergone during formation). The increase in rank describes an
increase in temperature and pressure which results in the coals having a lower
volatile content, therefore increased carbon content.
Coal is also classified according to its sulphur, phosphorous, volatile
and ash contents, whose proportions generally vary according to its rank.
Consecutive stages in evolution of rank, from an initial peat stage, are brown
coal (or lignite), sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, and anthracite.
Coking coal is used in the steel making industry where the coal requires
specific qualities such as low sulphur and phosphorous contents. Approximately
630 kg of coal are used for every ton of steel produced. Electricity generation
uses thermal coal, which is ground to a fine powder prior to combustion.
According to the 2007 BP Statistical Energy Survey, in 2006 the world
had coal reserves of 909 billion tonnes. Other sources show world recoverable
coal was an estimated 998 billion tons.
Both North America and Asia have over 25% each of total reserves. While
the reserves in North America are almost equally split between bituminous coal
and sub-bituminous/lignite, Asia has a significantly higher proportion of
reserves in the bituminous classification, accounting for around 35% of total
bituminous reserves worldwide.
Total coal reserves held by Europe were slightly over 30% of the world
total, while the individual categories show a higher share of world
sub-bituminous and lignite reserves and a lower proportion of bituminous (22%).
European reserves are dominated by two countries: Germany (21%) and the Russian
Federation (50%). In respect of bituminous reserves, Germany, Poland, Russian
Federation and the Ukraine account for over 95% of the European reserves.
Africa has less than 6% of total reserves with these reserves
concentrated in the bituminous category and dominated by South Africa with an
estimated 90% of the continent's reserves. Botswana and Zimbabwe have the only
significant reserves outside South Africa. South America is the continent with
the least coal reserves with only 2.2% of total reserves and only 1.5% of the
bituminous reserves.
The countries with the largest coal reserves are, in order, Russia,
China, India, Australia, South Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
According to the 2007 BP Statistical Energy Survey, world 2006 coal
production was 6.2 billion tonnes. The world's largest coal producers were, in
order, China, the USA, India, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Germany,
Indonesia and Poland.
Global hard (black) coal production has grown by over 46% in the last 25
years to 3837 million tonnes in 2002 (3801 million tonnes in 2001). Major
producers include China 1326 million tonnes, USA 916.7 million tonnes, India
333.7 million tonnes, Australia 276.0 million tonnes, South Africa 223.0
million tonnes, Russia 163.6 million tonnes, Poland 102.6 million tonnes,
Indonesia 101.2 million tonnes, Ukraine 82.9 million tonnes, and Kazakhstan
70.6 million tonnes.
Brown coal / lignite production totalled 876.5 million tonnes in 2002
compared with 896.9 million tonnes in 2001. Approximately 14% (almost 528
million tonnes) of total hard coal production is currently utilised by the
steel industry - almost 66% of total global steel production is dependent on
coal.
According to the 2007 BP Statistical Energy Survey, world 2006 coal
consumption was 3 billion tonnes oil equivalent. The countries consuming the
largest quantities of coal were China, the USA, India, Japan, Russia, South
Africa and Germany. 40% of the world's electricity is derived from coal.
The IEA's World Energy Outlook 2006 forecast coal use could grow 32% by
2015 and by 59% by 2030. More than 85% of the expected increase in demand is
expected to come from China. Another forecast predicts usage of coal to rise by
1.4% per year until 2030, with two thirds of demand coming from China and
India.
In May 2007, the EIA predicted coal will provide 28% of world energy
needs in 2030, compared to 26% in 2004. Coal consumption is forecast to grow at
2.2% pa, though Europe and Japan will see a decline. The global market for
thermal coal is expected to grow from the current 515 million tons per annum to
800 million tons per annum in 2020.
Coal prices stayed in the range US$ 30 to US$ 60 per tonne between 1980
and 2002 before climbing by between 50% and 100% with Japanese imported coking
coal reaching US$ 90 per tonne.
In May 2007, the EIA forecast that global CO2 emissions will increase
59% between 2004 and 2030, with 43% of the 42.88 billion tonnes coming from
coal. In December 2006, the TUC claimed clean coal, using super-efficient
boilers and carbon capture and storage could reduce CO2 emissions by 90%.
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