what do you know about chemistry of coal?
413753
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal
377689
As I recall, this was once a major area of contention.  While coal can clearly (by the presence of plant fossils within it) be shown to come from resinous peat bogs which were altered later by pressure and heat, the origin of petroleum caused problems. While it is possible, within a catalytic cracker, to convert coal into tar (the Nazi war machine used this in WW II. It could be used in the US now, if not for the interference of oil companies (and the EPA).), most naturally occuring petroleum occurs in sandstones & shales, which have little plant materiel in them.  Whiile sandstone & shales are semi-permiable, so the oil could have seeped in and pooled at the bottom of a formation, there is still the problem of a source.  Eventually, it was noticed that foramifera, very small free floating creatures of all non-chlorinated bodies of water, have hard exoskeletons which are the main part of what we call sand (as compared with clay, which is fully digested rock).  Given this, the unimaginably huge numbers of them, and the fact that they have an organic/lipid content, led to the belief that they are the ultimate source of the oil.  It may be that there is also an anoxic biologic process, driven by archeo-bacteria, which consume lighter organics and polymerize them to generate energy for their oxygen-free life processes, which may be considered the source of petroleum.\n\nAs you no doubt know, crude oil is made up of many different organics molecules, some short chain, some long.  An oil refinery takes the mixed organics, heats them, separating them by vaporization and recondensation.  Some of the long chain molecues can be broken up, and this is done in a catalytic cracker, as we generally use more of the short lenght molecules than the long ones.
276314
Diamonds are almost pure carbon with a few trace elements that give them color.  Coal is a complex hydrocarbon compound of which carbon is only a part.  Synthetic diamonds are made from graphite, another form of carbon, using heat and pressure.  Burning is rapid oxidation.  Diamonds do not burn at anything resembling a reasonable kindling  temperature if at all.  The carbon atoms in diamonds are so tightly bound to each other that it is very difficult to combine them with oxygen.
878348
Here is the basic information including some alchemy (second two references).  Carbon is so old in human time that its history will never really be known.
186138
For an accurate answer you would need more parameters answered to address the question. The internal combustion of coal and also the units of energy you finally want it answered in Joules?
892461
coal is used to make coke for steel. liquefaction and gasification. \n\nsee for details\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal
808495
The most power plants burn coal to generate high pressure steam, which is then passed through a turbine to generate steam.  The leftover steam, now cooler and at a lower pressure, is collected, cooled, and then recycled to the boiler to begin the process anew.\n\nThe most obvious environmental impacts are from combustion - this releases pollutants such as carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), nitrogen dioxide (which contributes to ozone, or smog, formation), and carbon monoxide.  Depending on the fuel used, impurities such as sulfur or mercury may also be emitted.\n\nOther ancillary environmental impacts include waste residue from combustion - for example, disposing of the ash from coal requires a landfill.  Also, a great deal of water is used for cooling purposes in most power plants.  If the water is drawn from a nearby river or lake, it will likely be discharged back to that water body, but often at a higher temperature.  This can negatively impact ecosystems.  Finally, the process by which the fuel is obtained can have significant environmental impacts of its own - consider the mining necessary to obtain coal.
1171989
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry\n \nthis nust be helpful for you
265424
Coal is derived from plant material.\nPlants build themselves from the products of photosynthesis and soil minerals.\nPhotosynthesis use sunlight energy to combine water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air to make glucose.
36305
I have no experience in chemistry or in mining, but I do have experience in business and market analysis.  I can give you some general suggestions, but you'll probalby need to do the investigation yourself.\nFirst, you probably want to limit your investigation to mines in the US.\nYou would then want to identify the total number of underground mines in the US (as opposed to open or strip mining).\nThen you would somehow want to assess the size of each mine, perhaps in terms of the total volume of air in each mine.  \nFrom there, you would need to perform some analysis in terms of normal composition of this air (ie. How much CO, how much CO2, O2, Nitrogen, etc.)\nWith this information, you should be able to determine the total volume of CO in each mine at a given time.  With that, you would then want to calculate the toal amount of CO in all mines.\nThe next step, I would think, is to perform some analsysis with regard to the absorption/conversion rate of that CO oxidation catalyst you mention. ie. conversion rate per hour, as an example.\nFrom there, you should be able to calculate how much catalyst would be needed to make this conversion for all CO gas in all mines in the US for a given amount of time and then expand that calculation out to a yearly number.  This would give you a rough estimate of a Total Addressable Market for this product.
810554
The first answer is the correct stocheometry.  However life is rarely ideal and propane despite what Hank Hill tells us rarely burns completely. So the products from combustion also include CO. You might want to impress your high school chemistry teacher by telling her that you know that.  Then again perhaps you are just trying to pass a standardized test.
27666
Coal is composed of highly compacted, dewatered, and dehydrogenated plant material (a process called coalification). The compaction ratio is typically about 20 to 1 for bituminous coals. That means twenty feet of plant material piled up to make one foot of coal. The question of where the mercury came from may still be unanswered, but one group of researchers have suggested that the mercury was absorbed by the ancient plants from the atmosphere and soil while they were living. There is evidence that modern plants have levels of mercury that correspond with the levels found in coal. Even though the mercury levels in coal are low at 0.17 +/- 0.17 ppm the process of burning coal consumes such large volumes of coal that the mercury becomes a serious problem in the emissions from large power plants.
1081230
yup.  Email me with any other chem questions at\nfortitudinousskeptic@yahoo.com\nI teach chemistry.
1058653
Steam coal is \n\n"coal with relatively high sulfur content, suited for generating steam but not for coking"\n\n"Metallurgical coke, also known as Met coke, is a carbon material manufactured by the destructive distillation of various blends of bituminous coal. Bituminous coal is a soft, medium grade coal that contains a high percentage of volatile components. Destructive distillation is performed in coke batteries which are banks of large enclosed kiln"
856283
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/science/energy_calculator.html#coalcalc
951441
Coal is actually very inefficient as an energy source.  One ton (2000 lbs or 1000 kg +/-) of coal produces the same amount of heat energy as 18,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 160 gallons (1100 lbs) of oil, or 5 ounces of uranium.  Also coal produces much more waste than any of the other energy sources.
668083
Coal, oil and natural gas.  Hydrocarbon substances that were supposed to have been created from the natural decay of prehistoric organisms, including dinosaurs and plants.