(RHIE) Nonrenewable Resources Lesson

Nonrenewable Resources

A nonrenewable resource is a natural resource that can not be re-made or re-grown at a scale comparable to its consumption.

Coal, Petroleum and natural gas are considered nonrenewable because they can not be replenished in a short period of time. These resources are fossil fuels. Our lives would not be the same without them.

How is Coal Made?

It takes millions of years for coal to be produced.

That means what is in the ground now is all there is and we can't realistically make more.

Formation of Coal, description linked below

See description of diagram Links to an external site.

There are four main types of coal.

Surface Mining: Top soil Overburdened. Shallow coal seam. They are anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, and lignite. They all depend on types of carbon which contain an amount of heat energy. People use huge machines to dig out the coal from the ground. There are two types of coal mining; they are surface mining and underground mining. More than half of our coal comes from the surface.

The coal that we get from underground is called underground mining or sometimes also called deep mining. Underground mining is coal that is several hundred feet below surface. Some times the coal can be one thousand feet below surface. We use more surface mining because it is less expensive. Surface mining is coal found less than two hundred feet. Surface mining is produced in the United States. After the coal is digged out of the ground, it goes to a preparation plant which is in a mining site. They remove other rocks and dirt, ash, sulfur, and unwanted materials, increasing the heating value of the coal.

After all this cleaning is done, it is ready to ship to the market. This can cost more than mining the coal. 71% of the shipping includes travelling by train. Travelling by river barge is cheaper than travelling by train. But the problem is that it can't take the coal wherever it wants it to go. If the market is close to the coal mining site, it can be taken by truck.

 

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