I've always been interested in coal stoves. Coal heating is the most inexpensive heating fuel out there, especially in rural areas. They are very common in the Finger Lakes and Pennsylvania. The great thing is they are like wood stoves but don't constantly have to be perked up and be fed more wood like wood stoves. Anthracite is largely mined around Scranton, which is in part and explanation of the popularity of these stoves.
Because of less coal consumption as well as coal capacity retirements over the past three years, the days of burn of U.S. coal remain within the typical range, even though total stocks are low. For bituminous coal plants, largely located in the eastern United States, the average number of days of burn was 88 days in September, a slight increase from the 86 days of burn recorded in August. The average number of days of burn for subbituminous units, most of which are in the western United States, was 82 days in September 2021.
Given the long-term trend of declining coal consumption, many U.S. mines have begun to close. Reduced production capacity and supply chain disruptions have created some concerns about the ability of coal-fired generators to replenish stockpiles to last through the winter (October–March).
Electric grid operators are closely monitoring coal inventories this winter. PJM, the grid operator for the largest electric system in the United States, instituted temporary changes to rules governing minimum inventory requirements to provide more flexibility for coal-fired generators, given low stockpiles at some plants and supply chain disruptions.
Anthracite coal home heating, aka smokeless coal is fairly common in Northern Pennsylvania. Bitmous coal for rural home heating is much more common in Southern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Bitmous coal is pretty nasty fuel to burn with a home coal stoves, it burns black and sooty like some plastics until its up to temperature when you can see the blue color of the sulfur in the white smoke. Makes wood smoke look clean.
U.S. coal production totaled 535 million short tons (MMst) in 2020, a 24% decrease from the 706 MMst mined in 2019 and the lowest level of coal production in the United States in any year since 1965.
The decline of U.S. coal production in 2020 was largely the result of less demand for coal internationally and less U.S. electric power sector demand for coal. Lower natural gas prices made coal less competitive for power generation. U.S. coal-fired generation fell 20% from 2019. Natural gas prices started 2020 relatively low because mild winter weather led to less natural gas demand for space heating, and prices remained low as the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced both natural gas production and consumption.
U.S. coal exports were 26% lower in 2020 than they were in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed global demand for coal, and some U.S. coal mines were idled for extended periods to slow the spread of the virus among workers. Coal exports decreased significantly in April 2020 as the United States and countries around the world responded to the pandemic.
The Clean Air Act of 1970 restricted sulfur emissions from new coal-fired power plants. One way for coal plants to meet the emissions regulations was to use subbituminous coal, which has a lower sulfur content than other coal types. This change, along with the oil shortages and the resulting high oil prices of the 1970s that made coal more economical, contributed to the expansion of mining and the development of large, open-pit coal mines in the Powder River Basin (located in Northeast Wyoming and Southeast Montana), where the majority of subbituminous coal in the United States is found. One of the largest U.S. coal-producing mines by volume, Black Thunder, opened in Wyoming in 1977. Today, the Powder River Basin accounts for approximately 43% of all coal produced in the United States.
2020 was a good year for the War on Coal. Must be because Trump Digs Coal.
Michigan has small deposits of coal, although many of our coal deposits are in thin seams, and not economically valuable for that reason.
The swamp forests of the Pennsylvanian stored many forms of usable wealth. The sands at the bottom of the swamp, now hardened into the Parma sandstone, are a prominent reservoir for fresh water in central Michigan counties; in a small area natural gas has been obtained from it. The trees of the forest died, were buried, and became the coal of the Saginaw valley, Grand Ledge, Shiawassee, Ingham, and Jackson counties. The coal is a bit difficult to use in the ordinary furnace, but with the proper type furnace and proper firing methods, it burns well.
What was the Pennsylvanian environment, during which these coal deposits formed, like? Slow, gentle crustal movements caused the Mississippian seas to almost retreat from Michigan, leaving a shallow pool in the central part of the basin and cut off from the outside sea. The time was the Pennsylvanian, the last 45 million years of the Carboniferous, and the time of the great coal swamps. Sedimentation was partly marine, partly fresh or brackish water in swamps. A layer of sparkling sand was first spread over the last Mississippian limestone and above this in the shallow waters a luxuriant swamp forest flourished --- but the trees were quite unlike our modern trees. They were giant fern trees, ground pines, and horsetail rushes that grew to 10 meters or more in height. No birds or butterflies or flowers were there, but dark loathsome amphibians and the earliest known reptiles crawled in the muds; giant scorpions and dragonflies flew about. The climate was warm and moist. The swamp vegetation died and fell to the swamp floor, layer upon layer of plant remains accumulated, changed to peat, were buried under a blanket of dark muds which slow streams brought from forest covered lands. Thus protected from oxygen, they have become the coal beds and shales of the central counties.
