In praise of coal

Ask someone in the street if they have cash on them and the odds are high that they won’t, such is the ‘cash-less electronic’ society that we currently live in.  In fact, next time you order coffee, pay with cash and you’re bound to catch the retail assistant off-guard, and they will undoubtedly have to cancel the Eft-Pos transaction.  It’s not the first time a cash-less environment has taken place.  I recall my late grandmother saying that as a girl growing up in Christchurch early in the 20^th century, she never saw cash.

You see, her father, Billy Rowe, was a blacksmith and ran his business in Lincoln Road, Christchurch. He shoed horses for the local baker, butcher, general store and so on.  They all kept accounts which were added up and settled at the end of each month.  Little or no cash involved.

Billy’s father was also a blacksmith while his son-in-law was a local coal merchant with his premises also in Lincoln Road.

In those days, coal was a crucial part of home and industry in Christchurch.  It was used for heating fires in homes while industry used it to fuel furnaces or as in the case of a blacksmith, his forge which was used for forming and shaping metals.

I remember, as a young lad, shifting from Dunedin to Christchurch in the early 1970s and the smog that hung on a cold and still winters night in the city.  Predominantly from open fires burning coal, one never went running at night as you were more than likely to return home coughing your lungs out.  It took a while for the banning of both open fires and use of coal for domestic heating for the city to clean up its act.

Globally, coal it is still a major fossil fuel used for both the generation of electricity and the manufacture of steel.  In fact, it is reported that approximately 70% of steel manufacturing uses coking coal.  The other 30% uses a much more expensive electric arch.

Almost all steel is now produced using iron oxide and “coking” coal. Mined coal is put in ovens at temperatures of 1100 degrees Celsius to remove water and other chemicals. In the end, it produces a pure-carbon source called coke that is ultimately used to make steel.

It’s interesting to note that NZ Steel will receive a NZ Government grant of $140million to transition away from burning coal (apparently equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road) and move to electric arch. While the focus in the media has been on the Government grant and the reduction of emmissions, no one appears to have asked about both the new cost of producing steel and the increased demand on the country’s electricity grid?

While steel manufacturing has existed for millennia, the commercialisation of it didn’t take place until well into the 19^th century and was an essential part of the industrial revolution.  Coal and steel have been important ingredients in modern advancement and still are to this day.

It’s not something that is widely proclaimed, that is singing the praises of coal.  It is now a dirty word.  Yes, it is dirty to handle and emits unwanted greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, mercury compounds, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides). Yet, it is one of the cheapest forms of energy, there is plenty of it, it’s easy to store and has a high calorific value (the measure of the amount of energy produced from a unit of weight when combusted in oxygen). 

While it is currently out of favour, we cannot forget that it has been a fuel that has helped mankind get to where it is today. Both good and bad.  From a cheap form of heating for thousands of years through to its role in powering the steam engines of the Industrial Revolution in the 19^th century and its importance in the mass-manufacturing of steel. 

A couple of weeks ago, the electric off-road rallying series, Extreme E, held the Hydro X Prix, two-rounds in the former Glenmuckloch opencast coal mine site in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. 

The restored former coal mine, which is about to undergo the next phase of its major transformation into a Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) plant and wind farm, provided a poignant backdrop as the Extreme E Series uses its platform to raise awareness of climate change and global solutions.

I’m not sure whether they were highlighting both hydro and wind power and/or the death of coal as a future resource.  Certainly not any acknowledgement of coals contribution to the modern world which is now trying to transition its way into a sustainable energy-rich future.

There are trade-offs to be made as we transition to new forms of energy. For some, transition can’t come soon enough, while others are mindful of the consequence of decisions and actions. Like Billy Rowe, all accounts have to be squared off at the end of each month in order to keep the home and industry fires burning. Cut all coal production too soon and we may well spiral into an energy crisis.

No one is arguing that coal is a technology that has little use in the immediate future, albeit in its current form. For now, it will be set aside for I have no doubt that it will come back into major use in the future. Technology will prevail in turning this fuel into a more sustainable use with far less impact on climate change. Humans thirst for energy will dictate this as coals attributes will still be the same in its ability to provide cheap heating for homes and for industry.