Cooking with Coal

Introduction

Coal is among the most important fossil fuels, accounting for 25% of total energy consumption and 40% of worldwide electricity generation. It is not to be confused with charcoal. Coal is a black, solid, carbon-rich mineral, which is mined underground, while charcoal is the ultimate form of burnt wood.

Coal for Cooking

Coal is not so often found as a cooking fuel on its own, it is rather utilized in regions where cooking and space heating are combined. Due to its regional availability, coal is used for cooking e.g. in China and India. The World Health Organization does not recommend the use of unprocessed coal in households due to carcinogenic emissions and toxic elements such as fluorine, arsenic, lead, selenium, and mercury, which are not destroyed by combustion.

Coals are formed in processes of decomposition and chemical conversion of immense masses of organic matter. This process is also known as coalification and means 'the gain in carbon content'. The process begins with peat as a parent material, is supported by increasing temperature and depth of burial, and ends with anthracite.

Coals are classified according to their degrees of coalification: the major ones are lignite (brown coal), bituminous (black coal), and anthracite. The most geological reserves of non-renewable energy forms consist of coal. The United States (31.4%) followed by China (25%), and India (10%) have the highest shares of black coal reserves in the world. Due to the higher energy content of black coal it is often exported, whereas brown coal is a regionally used energy source.