From: dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Nick Szabo Disinformation debunking (Re: Clinton and Space Funding)
Date: 30 Sep 92 18:44:39 GMT
Followup-To: sci.energy
Organization: Computer Science Department University of Rochester


This thread *does* seem to generate a lot of misinformation!  It has
little to do with space now, so followups to sci.energy.


In article <1992Sep30.063341.12719@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:

 > Much of Eastern coal is high sulphur that costs more to pollution
 > control. Subsurface mines are closing in the East. Alabama, West
 > Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania now have less subsurface mining
 > activity than in the 1970s.

Total coal output in Alabama, West Virginia and Kentucky is *higher*
than in the 1970s.  From the 1991 Statistical Abstracts of the US
(which has information up to 1989):

			Production by year (mil. short tons)

	State		1970	1975	1980	1989
	---------------------------------------------
	West Virgina	144.1	109.3	121.6	151.2
	Kentucky	125.3	143.6	150.1	158.6
	Alabama		 20.6	 22.6	 26.4	 28.5

Pennsylvania and Ohio output is down, however.

I don't have a subsurface mining breakdown by state, but nationwide
subsurface output has not declined, although its share of the market
has declined (1989 figure is preliminary):

	Year		  1970	1975  1980  1985  1989
 Subsurface mine output	  339	293   338   350	  394
   (million short tons)


 > lack of market for their coal. Our coal exports have declined as Japan and 
 > other trading partners switch to more nuclear power generation and more 
 > modern electric steel furnaces.

According to the US Statistical Abstract, 1988 (the last year for
which figures were listed) the US exported 94.9 mil. short tons
of coal.  This is less than 1981 or 1982 (when the exports
were 106.5 and 105.6 mil. sh. tons, respectively), but higher
than any other years listed, and considerably higher than any
year in the 1970s.

Figures listed for importing countries show that coal imports by
Western Europe/mediterranian countries and by Japan are growing, not
shrinking.  Japan imported 64.5 mill. short tons in 1979, and 111.5
mill. short tons in 1988.  Western Europe/Med imports grew from 107.4
to 147.0 in that time.

Total world trade in coal increased from 254.9 mill. short tons in
1979 to 411 mill. short tons in 1988.  The US market share did not
increase more because of increased competition from South Africa,
Australia, China, the (former) Soviet Union and Canada.

 > It's ironic that environmentalists fought the steel
 > industry's belching smokestacks, and now the belching is coming from power
 > plants forced to use coal by their protests. Meanwhile the primary energy 
 > efficiency of the steel industry has declined because of the intermediate 
 > conversion losses from coal to heat to electricity and back to heat.

In fact, using coal to make electricity, then using that electricity
to melt scrap steel, is *more* efficient that refining steel from iron
ore.  It's also much cheaper, and suited to small, nimble, low
overhead companies, which is why it has caught on.

A typical modern blast furnace (no. 6 BF at Chiba, Kawasaki Steel
Corp) uses 17.44 GJ of primary energy input to make one ton of iron.
The energy required to raise 1 ton of iron from room temperature to
melting (and to melt it) is about 1.2 GJ/ton.  Even with losing 2/3
of the energy of coal in making and distributing the electricity, and
tossing in a factor of 2 (let's say) in additional inefficiencies,
melting the scrap is more efficient.

	Paul F. Dietz
	dietz@cs.rochester.edu
Xref: sparky sci.space:13618 sci.astro:10162 talk.politics.space:1291 alt.politics.bush:6791 alt.politics.clinton:7335