Advantages and Disadvantages of Coal

Coal has been used by mankind since quite a long time, and over the time, the popularity of this source of energy has just increased. A large part of the credit for this goes to the numerous advantages of coal. Even though it has come under the scanner for large-scale pollution, more recently, it continues to enjoy the support of several sections of the society. The inability of alternative fuel sources to come up as the efficient sources of power, and the high infrastructure of oil and natural gas production also contributed to the current status of coal as one of the major source of power for the mankind.

Coal - Advantages and Disadvantages

Both the advantages and disadvantages of any source of energy have to be taken into consideration in order to determine whether it is a reliable or not - coal is no exception. Such assessment also comes handy when it comes to the issue of replacing conventional sources of energy with the modern ones.

Advantages: Among the exhaustible sources of energy, coal is one of the most abundant source of energy. It is also one of the most inexpensive fossil fuel as far as power generation is concerned. The electricity produced from coal is not just enormous, but much more reliable than the other forms of energy. Unlike alternative energy sources, such as solar power and wind power, this source is not at all dependent on the weather. This source of energy can be safely stored, and hence, it is possible to make arrangements for the time of emergency. Similarly, the infrastructural requirements for processing and transportation of coal are much less difficult as compared to other fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. There also exist two environmental advantages - it tends to produce a range of bi-products when burned - which can be used for other activities, and second, it reduces our dependence on oil and natural gas - the sources which are getting exhausted at an alarming rate.

Disadvantages: As in the case of almost all the other energy sources, even coal has some drawbacks of its own. One of the biggest disadvantage of coal is air pollution. Numerous harmful gases, including carbon dioxide, sulfuric dioxide and ash, are released in the environment when coal is burned to produce energy. In fact, it tends to emit twice as much CO₂ than the other fossil fuels. Other disadvantages of power plants include their tendency to cause noise pollution and environmental degradation. The fact that the workers at the coal mines are exposed to all these forms of pollution makes them vulnerable to a range of ailments. The work process at these mines is also quite dangerous, and the risk of fatalities is quite high. Even though we say that the coal is one of the most abundant among the fossil fuels, it doesn't mean that the coal deposits will be there forever.

The large-scale pollution attributed to coal, as well as other fossil fuels, is the biggest hindrance in their use, and thus alternative sources are pitched as a replacement for these traditional sources of power. Even though some advantages of coal liquefaction and coal gasification do exist, they are overshadowed by the fact that these processes are more expensive than producing fuel from crude oil. That being said, efforts are being made to come up with newer methods of using coal efficiently to produce energy, but it is bound to take some time before these methods are actually implemented.