1.
Coal
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Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time, throughout history, coal has been used as an energy resource, primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, the extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, since 1983, the worlds top coal producer has been China. In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal –47. 7% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production, in 2015 other large producers were United States, India, European Union and Australia. The word originally took the col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula. In Old Turkic languages, kül is ash, cinders, öčür is quench, the compound charcoal in Turkic is öčür kül, literally quenched ashes, cinders, coals with elided anlaut ö- and inflection affixes -ülmüş. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas, due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil. As more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed, the temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. As the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation and this trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was slowly converted to coal, as coal contains mainly carbon, the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called carbonization. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, the exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants — this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae, in its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water. It is also used as a conditioner for soil to make it able to retain. Lignite, or brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal, jet, a compact form of lignite, is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic
2.
Tar
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Tar is a black mixture of hydrocarbons and free carbon obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat, production and trade in pine-derived tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot, the largest user was the Royal Navy. Demand for tar declined with the advent of iron and steel ships, tar-like products can also be produced from other forms of organic matter, such as peat. Mineral products resembling tar can be produced from hydrocarbons, such as petroleum. Coal tar is produced from coal as a byproduct of coke production, Bitumen is a term used for natural deposits of oil tar, such as at the La Brea Tar Pits. In Northern Europe, the word tar refers primarily to a substance that is derived from the wood, in earlier times it was often used as a water repellent coating for boats, ships, and roofs. It is still used as an additive in the flavoring of candy, alcohol, producing tar from wood was known in ancient Greece and has probably been used in Scandinavia since the Iron Age. For centuries, dating back at least to the 14th century, sweden exported 13,000 barrels of tar in 1615 and 227,000 barrels in the peak year of 1863. Production nearly stopped in the early 20th century, when other chemicals replaced tar, traditional wooden boats are still sometimes tarred. The heating of wood causes tar and pitch to drip away from the wood. Birch bark is used to make particularly fine tar, known as Russian oil, the by-products of wood tar are turpentine and charcoal. When deciduous tree woods are subjected to distillation, the products are methanol. Tar kilns are dry distillation ovens, historically used in Scandinavia for producing tar from wood and they were built close to the forest, from limestone or from more primitive holes in the ground. The bottom is sloped into a hole to allow the tar to pour out. The wood is split into dimensions of a finger, stacked densely, if oxygen can enter, the wood might catch fire, and the production would be ruined. On top of this, a fire is stacked and lit, after a few hours, the tar starts to pour out and continues to do so for a few days. Tar was used as seal for roofing shingles and tar paper and to seal the hulls of ships, for millennia, wood tar was used to waterproof sails and boats, but today, sails made from inherently waterproof synthetic substances have reduced the demand for tar
3.
Asphalt
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Asphalt, also known as bitumen is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in deposits or may be a refined product. Until the 20th century, the term asphaltum was also used, the word is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος ásphaltos. The primary use of asphalt/bitumen is in construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt, the terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance. In American English, asphalt is the carefully refined residue from the process of selected crude oils. Outside the United States, the product is often called bitumen, geologists often prefer the term bitumen. Common usage often refers to forms of asphalt/bitumen as tar. Naturally occurring asphalt/bitumen is sometimes specified by the crude bitumen. Its viscosity is similar to that of cold molasses while the material obtained from the distillation of crude oil boiling at 525 °C is sometimes referred to as refined bitumen. The Canadian province of Alberta has most of the reserves of natural bitumen, covering 142,000 square kilometres. Additionally, most natural bitumens contain organosulfur compounds, resulting in a sulfur content of up to 4%. Nickel and vanadium are found in the <10 ppm level, as is typical of some petroleum, the substance is soluble in carbon disulfide. It is commonly modelled as a colloid, with asphaltenes as the dispersed phase, and it is almost impossible to separate and identify all the different molecules of asphalt, because the number of molecules with different chemical structure is extremely large. Asphalt/bitumen can sometimes be confused with tar, which is a visually similar black. During the early and mid-20th century when town gas was produced, coal tar was a readily available byproduct, the addition of tar to macadam roads led to the word tarmac, which is now used in common parlance to refer to road-making materials. However, since the 1970s, when natural gas succeeded town gas, other examples of this confusion include the La Brea Tar Pits and the Canadian oil sands, both of which actually contain natural bitumen rather than tar. Pitch is another term used at times to refer to asphalt/bitumen
4.
Lignite
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Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft brown combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its low heat content. It has a carbon content around 60–70 percent and it is mined all around the world and is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation, but is also mined for its germanium content in China. The energy content of lignite ranges from 10 to 20 MJ/kg on a moist, the energy content of lignite consumed in the United States averages 15 MJ/kg, on the as-received basis. The energy content of lignite consumed in Victoria, Australia, averages 8.4 MJ/kg, lignite has a high content of volatile matter which makes it easier to convert into gas and liquid petroleum products than higher-ranking coals. Unfortunately, its moisture content and susceptibility to spontaneous combustion can cause problems in transportation. However, removing the moisture increases the cost of the final lignite fuel, because of its low energy density and typically high moisture content, brown coal is inefficient to transport and is not traded extensively on the world market compared with higher coal grades. It is often burned in power stations near the mines, such as in Australias Latrobe Valley, the operation of traditional brown-coal plants, particularly in combination with strip mining, can be politically contentious due to environmental concerns. An environmentally beneficial use of lignite can be found in its use in cultivation and distribution of biological control microbes that suppress plant disease causing microbes, lignite begins as an accumulation of partially decayed plant material, or peat. Burial by other sediments results in increasing temperature, depending on the geothermal gradient and tectonic setting. This causes compaction of the material and loss of some of the water and this process, called coalification, concentrates the carbon content, and thus the heat content, of the material. Deeper burial and the passage of time result in expulsion of moisture and volatile matter, eventually transforming the material into higher rank coals such as bituminous. Lignite deposits are younger than higher-ranked coals, with the majority of them having formed during the Tertiary period. The Latrobe Valley in the state of Victoria, Australia, contains estimated reserves of some 65 billion tonnes of brown coal, the deposit is equivalent to 25 percent of known world reserves. The coal seams are up to 100 metres thick, with coal seams often giving virtually continuous brown coal thickness of up to 230 metres. Seams are covered by little overburden. Lignite can be separated into two types, the first is xyloid lignite or fossil wood and the second form is the compact lignite or perfect lignite. Although xyloid lignite may sometimes have the tenacity and the appearance of ordinary wood and it is reducible to a fine powder by trituration, and if submitted to the action of a weak solution of potash, it yields a considerable quantity of humic acid
5.
Anthracite
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Anthracite is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, Anthracite is the most metamorphosed type of coal, in which the carbon content is between 92. 1% and 98%. The term is applied to varieties of coal which do not give off tarry or other hydrocarbon vapours when heated below their point of ignition. Anthracite ignites with difficulty and burns with a short, blue, Anthracite is categorized into standard grade, which is used mainly in power generation, and high grade and ultra high grade, the principal uses of which are in the metallurgy sector. Anthracite accounts for about 1% of global reserves, and is mined in only a few countries around the world. China accounts for the majority of production, other producers are Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, South Africa, Vietnam, the UK, Australia, Canada. Total production in 2010 was 670 million tons, Anthracite derives from the Greek anthrakítēs, literally coal-like. Other terms which refer to anthracite are black coal, hard coal, stone coal, dark coal, coffee coal, blind coal, Kilkenny coal, crow coal or craw coal, markets to distinguish it from its competitors. Culm has different meanings in British and American English, england, culm is the imperfect anthracite of north Devon and Cornwall, which was used as a pigment. The term is used to refer to the rock strata whose deposits are found in both Britain and in the Rhenish hill countries. Lastly, it may refer to coal exported from Britain during the 19th century, america, culm refers to the waste or slack from anthracite mining, mostly dust and small pieces not suitable for use in home furnaces. Anthracite is similar in appearance to the jet and is sometimes used as a jet imitation. Anthracite differs from ordinary bituminous coal by its hardness, its higher relative density of 1. 3–1.4, and luster. It contains a percentage of fixed carbon and a low percentage of volatile matter. It is also free from included soft or fibrous notches and does not soil the fingers when rubbed, anthracitization is the transformation of bituminous coal into anthracite. The moisture content of fresh-mined anthracite generally is less than 15 percent, the heat content of anthracite ranges from 22 to 28 million Btu per short ton on a moist, mineral-matter-free basis. The heat content of coal consumed in the United States averages 25 million Btu/ton, on the as-received basis. Since the 1980s, anthracite refuse or mine waste has been used for power generation in a form of recycling
6.
Coal mining
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Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its content, and, since the 1880s, has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore, in the United Kingdom and South Africa a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine a pit, the above-ground structures the pit head. In Australia, colliery generally refers to a coal mine. In the United States colliery has been used to describe a coal mine operation, Coal mining has had many developments over the recent years, from the early days of men tunnelling, digging and manually extracting the coal on carts, to large open cut and long wall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks, small-scale mining of surface deposits dates back thousands of years. For example, in Roman Britain, the Romans were exploiting most of the major coalfields by the late 2nd century AD. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 18th century and later spread to continental Europe, international trade expanded rapidly when coal-fed steam engines were built for the railways and steamships. Until the late nineteenth century coal was mined using a pick and shovel. Coal-cutting machines were introduced in the 1880s, by 1912, surface mining was conducted with steam shovels designed for coal mining. The most economical method of extraction from coal seams depends on the depth and quality of the seams. Coal mining processes are differentiated by whether they operate on the surface or underground, many coals extracted from both surface and underground mines require washing in a coal preparation plant. Surface mining and deep underground mining are the two methods of mining. Coal that occurs at depths of 180 to 300 ft are usually deep mined, for example, some western U. S. coal that occur at depths in excess of 200 ft are mined by the open pit methods, due to thickness of the seam 60–90 feet. Coals occurring below 300 ft are usually deep mined, However, there are open pit mining operations working on coal seams up to 1000–1500 feet below ground level, for instance Tagebau Hambach in Germany. When coal seams are near the surface, it may be economical to extract the coal using open cut mining methods, open cast coal mining recovers a greater proportion of the coal deposit than underground methods, as more of the coal seams in the strata may be exploited. In this mining method, explosives are first used in order to break through the surface or overburden, the overburden is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal seam is exposed, it is drilled, fractured, the coal is then loaded onto large trucks or conveyors for transport to either the coal preparation plant or directly to where it will be used
7.
Peat
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Peat, also called turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter that is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet because peatland plants capture the CO2 which is released from the peat. Sphagnum moss is one of the most common components in peat, soils that contain mostly peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding obstructs flows of oxygen from the atmosphere, Peatlands, particularly bogs, are the most important source of peat. That said, other less common types, including fens, pocosins. Landscapes covered in peat are home to specific kinds of plants including Sphagnum moss, ericaceous shrubs, because organic matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits also provide records of past vegetation and climates stored in plant remains like pollen. This allows humans to reconstruct past environments and study changes in land use. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world, by volume, there are about 4 trillion cubic metres of peat in the world, covering a total of around 2% of the global land area, containing about 8 billion terajoules of energy. Over time, the formation of peat is often the first step in the formation of other fossil fuels such as coal. This is also the commonly used in the peat industry. At 106 g CO2/MJ, the carbon dioxide emission intensity of peat is higher than that of coal and natural gas, lastly, peat fires have been responsible for large public health disasters including the 1997 Southeast Asian haze. Peat forms when plant material does not fully decay in acidic and anaerobic conditions and it is composed mainly of wetland vegetation, principally bog plants including mosses, sedges, and shrubs. As it accumulates, the peat holds water and this slowly creates wetter conditions that allow the area of wetland to expand. Peatland features can include ponds, ridges, and raised bogs, most modern peat bogs formed 12,000 years ago in high latitudes after the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age. Peat usually accumulates slowly at the rate of about a millimetre per year, using Carbon-dating, scientists found that Peat in peatlands started forming 360 million years ago based on it currently containing 550 Gt of carbon. Peat material is either fibric, hemic, or sapric, fibric peats are the least decomposed and consist of intact fiber. Hemic peats are partially decomposed and sapric are the most decomposed, Phragmites peat is one composed of reed grass, Phragmites australis, and other grasses. It is denser than other types of peat
8.
Coke (fuel)
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Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, usually made from coal. It is the carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous, while coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made. The form known as coke, or pet coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. Coke is used in preparation of producer gas which is a mixture of carbon monoxide, producer gas is produced by passing air over red-hot coke. Coke is also used to water gas. Historical sources dating to the 4th century describe the production of coke in ancient China, the Chinese first used coke for heating and cooking no later than the ninth century. By the first decades of the century, Chinese ironworkers in the Yellow River valley began to fuel their furnaces with coke. In 1589 a patent was granted to Thomas Proctor and William Peterson for making iron and steel and melting lead with earth-coal, sea-coal, turf, the patent contains a distinct allusion to the preparation of coal by cooking. In 1590 a patent was granted to the Dean of York to purify pit-coal, in 1620 a patent was granted to a company composed of William St. John, Robert Follensbee and other knights, mentioning the use of coke in smelting ores and manufacturing metals. In 1627 a patent was granted to Sir John Hacket and Octavius de Strada for a method of rendering sea-coal and pit-coal as useful as charcoal for burning in houses, without offense by smell or smoke. In 1603 Hugh Plat suggested that coal might be charred in an analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. In 1709 Abraham Darby I established a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron, cokes superior crushing strength allowed blast furnaces to become taller and larger. The ensuing availability of iron was one of the factors leading to the Industrial Revolution. Before this time, iron-making used large quantities of charcoal, produced by burning wood, in the late 18th century, brick beehive ovens were developed, which allowed more control over the burning process. In 1768 John Wilkinson built a more practical oven for converting coal into coke, with greater skill in the firing, covering and quenching of the heaps, yields were increased from about 33 per cent to 65 per cent by the middle of the 19th century. The Scottish iron industry expanded rapidly in the second quarter of the 19th century. In 1802 a battery of beehives was set up near Sheffield, by 1870, there were 14,000 beehive ovens in operation on the West Durham coalfields, capable of producing 4.2 million tons of coke
9.
Slag
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Slag is the glass-like by-product left over after a desired metal has been separated from its raw ore. Slag is usually a mixture of oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and elemental metals, in nature, iron, copper, lead, nickel and other metals are found in impure states called ores, often oxidized and mixed in with silicates of other metals. During smelting, when the ore is exposed to high temperatures, Slag is the collection of compounds that are removed. In many smelting processes, oxides are introduced to control the slag chemistry, assisting in the removal of impurities, in this case, the slag is termed synthetic. Ferrous and non-ferrous smelting processes produce different slags, the smelting of copper and lead in non-ferrous smelting, for instance, is designed to remove the iron and silica that often occurs with those ores, and separates them as iron-silicate-based slags. Slag from steel mills in ferrous smelting, on the hand, is designed to minimize iron loss and so mainly contains oxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium. Any sandy component or quartz component of the original ore automatically carries through the process as silicon dioxide. As the slag is channeled out of the furnace, water is poured over it and this rapid cooling, often from a temperature of around 2,600 °F, is the start of the granulating process. This process causes several chemical reactions to take place within the slag, the water carries the slag in its slurry format to a large agitation tank, from where it is pumped along a piping system into a number of gravel based filter beds. The filter beds then retain the slag granules, while the drains away and is returned to the system. During the Bronze Age of the Mediterranean there were a vast number of metallurgical processes in use. A slag by-product of such workings was a colorful, glassy and it was primarily blue or green and was formerly chipped away and melted down to make glassware products and jewelry. It was also ground into powder to add to glazes for use in ceramics, some of the earliest such uses for the by-products of slag have been found in ancient Egypt. Historically, the re-smelting of iron ore slag was common practice, during the early 20th century, iron ore slag was also ground to a powder and used to make agate glass, also known as slag glass. Ground granulated slag is used in concrete in combination with Portland cement as part of a blended cement. Ground granulated slag reacts with water to produce cementitious properties, concrete containing ground granulated slag develops strength over a longer period, leading to reduced permeability and better durability. Since the unit volume of Portland cement is reduced, this concrete is less vulnerable to alkali-silica, the slag can also be used to create fibers used as an insulation material called slag wool
10.
Forge
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A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature where it easier to shape by forging. The metal is transported to and from the forge using tongs, the slack tub also provides water to control the fire in the forge. A forge typically uses bituminous coal, industrial coke or charcoal as the fuel to heat metal, the designs of these forges have varied over time, but whether the fuel is coal, coke or charcoal the basic design has remained the same. The forge fire in this type of forge is controlled in three ways, amount of air, volume of fuel, and shape of the fuel/fire, traditionally hearths have been constructed of mud brick, fired brick, stone, or later, constructed of iron. During operation, fuel is placed in or on the hearth, a source of moving air, such as a fan or bellows, introduces additional air into the fire through the tuyere. With additional air, the fire more fuel and burns hotter (and cleaner - smoke can be thought of as escaped potential fuel. A blacksmith balances the fuel and air in the fire to suit particular kinds of work, often this involves adjusting and maintaining the shape of the fire. In a typical coal forge, a firepot will be centered in a flat hearth, the tuyere will enter the firepot at the bottom. In operation, the hot core of the fire will be a ball of burning coke in, the heart of the fire will be surrounded by a layer of hot but not burning coke. Around the unburnt coke will be a layer of coal being transformed into coke by the heat of the fire. If a larger fire is necessary, the smith increases the air flowing into the fire as well as feeding and deepening the coke heart, the smith can also adjust the length and width of the fire in such a forge to accommodate different shapes of work. The major variation from the forge and fire just described is a draft where there is no fire pot. Coke and charcoal may be burned in the forges that use coal, but since there is no need to convert the raw fuel at the heart of the fire. A gas forge typically uses propane or natural gas as the fuel, one common, efficient design uses a cylindrical forge chamber and a burner tube mounted at a right angle to the body. The chamber is lined with refractory materials such as a hard castable refractory ceramic or a soft ceramic thermal blanket. The burner mixes fuel and air which are ignited at the tip, the air pressure, and therefore heat, can be increased with a mechanical blower or by taking advantage of the Venturi effect. A small forge can even be carved out of a single soft firebrick, the primary advantage of a gas forge is ease of use, particularly for a novice
11.
West Virginia
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West Virginia /ˌwɛst vərˈdʒɪnjə/ is a state located in the Appalachian region of the Southern United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the north, West Virginia is the 9th smallest by area, is ranked 38th in population, and has the second lowest household income of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston, West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20,1863, and was a key Civil War border state. The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States, the unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the state that is entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The state is noted for its mountains and rolling hills, its historically significant logging and coal mining industries and it is one of the most densely karstic areas in the world, making it a choice area for recreational caving and scientific research. The karst lands contribute to much of the states cool trout waters and it is also known for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, and hunting. Many ancient man-made earthen mounds from various mound builder cultures survive, especially in the areas of Moundsville, South Charleston. The artifacts uncovered in these give evidence of village societies and they had a tribal trade system culture that crafted cold-worked copper pieces. The Iroquois drove out other American Indian tribes from the region to reserve the upper Ohio Valley as a ground in the 1670s. Siouan language tribes such as the Moneton had also recorded in the area previously. West Virginia was originally part of the British Virginia Colony from 1607 to 1776, residents of the western and northern counties set up a separate government under Francis Pierpont in 1861, which they called the restored government. Most voted to separate from Virginia and the new state was admitted to the Union in 1863, in 1864 a state constitutional convention drafted a constitution, which was ratified by the legislature without putting it to popular vote. West Virginia abolished slavery and temporarily disfranchised men who had held Confederate office or fought for the Confederacy, West Virginias history has been profoundly affected by its mountainous terrain, numerous and vast river valleys, and rich natural resources. These were all factors driving its economy and the lifestyles of its residents, a 2010 analysis of a local stalagmite revealed that Native Americans were burning forests to clear land as early as 100 BC. Some regional late-prehistoric Eastern Woodland tribes were involved in hunting and fishing, practicing the slash. Another group progressed to the more time-consuming, advanced companion crop fields method of gardening, also continuing from ancient indigenous people of the state, field space and time was given to tobacco growing through to early historic. Maize did not make a contribution to the diet until after 1150 BP
12.
Propane
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Propane is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula C3H8, a gas, at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is used as a fuel for engines, oxy-gas torches, portable stoves. Propane is one of a group of liquefied petroleum gases, the others include butane, propylene, butadiene, butylene, isobutylene, and mixtures thereof. Propane was first identified as a component in gasoline by Walter O. Snelling of the U. S. Bureau of Mines in 1910. The volatility of these lighter hydrocarbons caused them to be known as wild because of the vapor pressures of unrefined gasoline. On March 31, the New York Times reported on Snellings work with liquefied gas and that a steel bottle will carry enough gas to light an ordinary home for three weeks. It was during this time that Snelling, in cooperation with Frank P. Peterson, Chester Kerr, together, they established American Gasol Co. the first commercial marketer of propane. Snelling had produced relatively pure propane by 1911, and on March 25,1913, a separate method of producing LP gas through compression was created by Frank Peterson and its patent granted on July 2,1912. The 1920s saw increased production of LP gas, with the first year of recorded production totaling 223,000 US gallons in 1922. In 1927, annual marketed LP gas production reached 1 million US gallons, and by 1935, major industry developments in the 1930s included the introduction of railroad tank car transport, gas odorization, and the construction of local bottle-filling plants. The year 1945 marked the first year that annual LP gas sales reached a billion gallons, by 1947, 62% of all U. S. homes had been equipped with either natural gas or propane for cooking. In 1950,1,000 propane-fueled buses were ordered by the Chicago Transit Authority, in 2004 it was reported to be a growing $8-billion to $10-billion industry with over 15 billion US gallons of propane being used annually in the U. S. The prop- root found in propane and names of compounds with three-carbon chains was derived from propionic acid. Propane is produced as a by-product of two processes, natural gas processing and petroleum refining. The processing of natural gas involves removal of butane, propane, additionally, oil refineries produce some propane as a by-product of cracking petroleum into gasoline or heating oil. The supply of propane cannot easily be adjusted to meet increased demand, about 90% of U. S. propane is domestically produced. The United States imports about 10% of the propane consumed each year, with about 70% of that coming from Canada via pipeline, the remaining 30% of imported propane comes to the United States from other sources via ocean transport. After it is produced, North American propane is stored in salt caverns
"Bituminous Coal". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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