Power Resources

In your geography test, when it says “what”, it means it is a 1-mark answer. If it says “state” then it means that they require one whole sentence

Anytime we use machines, we use power. Humankind is so dependent on power and its generation. Our industries use big machinery. We need power generation for that

When the first-world countries were developing, they basically had the world at their disposal. Slaves were doing work for them. They looted money. They dumped waste into landfills and so they destroyed so much of the ecosystem. The United Nations has now started pushing for sustainable energy

In the Kyoto Agreement, all countries signed an agreement in which they pledged to make energy sustainably. Because of the damages already done, it is difficult for third-world countries such as Pakistan to counter this. Pakistan does not have any money to do all this sustainable work. In this topic, we will look at non-renewable resources (conventional) and renewable resources (non-conventional)

Coal, Oil and Gas are non-renewable energy resources. Once it is used it is gone and you can't use it again.

What is Coal?

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock with a high amount of carbon and hydrocarbons. Coal is classified as a non-renewable energy source because it takes millions of years to form. Coal contains the energy stored by plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago in swampy forests

There is a difference between how oil and coal are made. They are very different. Around 300 million years ago, the world had alot of plants. Many of these plants, once they died, formed swamps. With the sediment and decomposition of these plants and heat and pressure on the dead plants over millions of years, they formed into coal.

Coal is classified based on the quality of the coal. Is it able to burn up quickly? How well does it work in factories for electricity generation etc? The oldest classification system was based on the chemical composition criteria, which is no longer done.

The highest quality is coal is anthracite, then there is bituminous, then there is lignite, and lastly, Peat which is classified as the worst quality.

Pakistan does not produce anthracite.

Bituminous is good quality coal with a high heating value (high carbon)

Lignite has more moisture and ash, with a low heating value due to low carbon content

Peat is the first stage of the formation of coal. It is highly vegetative and has a low carbon content. It is far behind on its evolutionary scale. It will take a few thousand years to turn it into anthracite

Peat is the youngest state of coal and anthracite is the oldest state of coal

Peat turns into lignite, the lignite (brown coal) turns into bituminous (soft coal), and then bituminous turns into anthracite (hard coal)

Notes by Miss Maliha Ghazanfar (2022), compiled by Rayyan Jamil Khan of Class X-T

Karachi Grammar School - College Section