Solid fuels: coal From mining to combustion

Coal remains the world's most widely used fossil fuel in 2017. However, its use varies greatly from one geographical region to another, as do the social and economic contexts of the world's countries.

The ease with which it can be extracted and the widespread availability of technologies for using the fuel have boosted its popularity on the Asian, South American and African continents, while its use is gradually declining in Europe and stagnating on the North American continent.

For a variety of reasons (ecological, environmental, geographical, political), its use will remain more or less accepted in consumer countries, depending on local needs in terms of economics, energy requirements and access to new technologies.

Over the next few years, practical aspects and environmental impacts will evolve considerably around the notion of clean coal. Research into and development of new coal utilization techniques, new combustion techniques (chemical loop, gasification), as well as the development of CO ₂ capture, transport and storage processes should contribute to maintaining coal at a significant level in global energy production. In terms of the production of steels and derivatives, it seems that few alternatives are conceivable as substitutes for solid fuels of fossil origin, and so recourse to coal will persist until new non-carbon materials become available.