Abstract
Fossil fuels, coal in particular, are indispensable sources of energy necessary for today's technological and economical progress throughout the world. Their burning releases numerous environmental contaminants, like CO2, SO2, and a range of organic and inorganic compounds. Arguably, however, and despite the fact that these emissions have resulted in air pollution and regional acid rain problems, there is no evidence yet of their usage completely replaced by a low-CO2–producing energy source. Coal, due to its unique composition and characteristics, has been actively investigated by scientists and technologists from various disciplines in a search for economically valuable metals and medically active substances. Also, coal is used universally for the fabrication of new nanomaterials in laboratories, and utilized in waste-treatment and clean-coal technologies. The aim of the paper was to focus on the latest advancements in coal research of leading international scientists from India, China, and USA. Also, the paper is briefly presenting selected papers of several Indian and Croatian research groups addressing environmental issues and emerging waste-treatment technologies. Although the two countries are different from the geographical, historical, economical, and industrial point of view, the both have been linked with the coal extraction and its usage in power generation and associated heavy industries.
Highlights
Coal is the most abundant specimen among the fossil fuels, i.e. the coals, oil shales, oil, and gas deposits of Earth
The objectives of this paper are to present the latest advancements in coal research, carried out by leading international scientists from India, China, and the USA, and to outline selected Indian and Croatian studies addressing environmental contamination and waste-treatment technologies
In China, the coal consumption for power generation had increased from 196 Mtce in 1991 to 684 Mtce in 2005, and the ratio of coal used for power generation relative to the total coal consumption increased from 26.0% to 44.6% in the same period (Chen and Xu, 2010)
Summary
Coal is the most abundant specimen among the fossil fuels, i.e. the coals, oil shales, oil, and gas deposits of Earth. It is the deposit of organic matter – the remains of dead plants and animals – entrapped in sedimentary rocks at the site of organic matter growth many millennia ago. Coals generally contain 10-30% of inorganic material made up of clay minerals, quartz silt, and sand, contributing to metal emission load upon their combustion (Saikia et al, 2009; Singh et al, 2015a; Dai et al, 2016). The fuel burning emissions are the largest source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosols (Kumar et al, 2017a). Some European and Asian countries have experienced devastating damage to the environment and to the human health owing to many years of intensive coal mining/burning and associated metallurgy in the past
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