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30 Coal
Finally the prepared coal is taken, usually by conveyor, to bins, silos, or hill-sized
stockpiles. It may also be loaded straight into trucks, trains, barges, or bulk carrier
cargo ships. Coal, being fairly heavy solid lumps, is costly to transport, especially so
compared to petroleum oil and natural gas, which flow along pipelines.
Power Generation
More than nine-tenths of coal use in North America is to generate electricity in power
plants. The coal burns in enormous furnaces. It heats water in a boiler into steam at
About 90 percent of America’s coal is used to power electrical plants.