INSIDE THE COAL by Tom Streissguth Content Consultants Raja V Ramani PhD PE Emeritus Professor of Mining Engineering Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering The Pennsylvania State University Dr John Grubb Adjunct Professor Department of Mining Engineering Colorado School of Mines INDUSTRY BUSINESS BIG Essential Library An Imprint of Abdo Publishing abdopublishing com
1 COAL AND SOCIETY A small car zips along the freeway This vehicle is quiet there are no gasoline-fired explosions powering the engine no pistons churning or valves working The car sends out a bit of a hum like a big refrigerator Instead of a smoky exhaust of polluting gases the car emits water vapor The driver checks his indicator he’s got a range of just ten miles 16 km It’s time to refuel If this were an electric car he’d have a long wait ahead as much as three hours at a recharging station But there’s no electricity powering this machine Nor are there heavy batteries weighing it down Instead the energy comes from hydrogen The driver pulls into a station and hooks up the feeder line He refills the tank in three minutes Then he’s off again The Toyota Mirai arrived on the market in California on October 21 2015 To celebrate the car company invited the first 300 owners to a party in Los Angeles The main event was a movie showing of Back to the Future 2 starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd In the movie the costars use a tricked-out sports car as a time machine and set their destination 30 years ahead to October 21 2015 The message of the party was clear the future is now Vehicles powered by hydrogen which is often produced using coal are part of the future of transportation 5
