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Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. [1] Coal is a type of fossil fuel, formed when dead plant matter decays into peat which is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. [2]
They often occur in the presence of seawater or acidic peat. Coal balls are calcareous permineralizations of peat by calcium and magnesium carbonates. Often spherical in shape and ranging from a few grams to several hundred kilograms in mass, coal balls are formed when water containing carbonate permeates the cells of an organism.
A fossil fuel [a] is a carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material [2] formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or planktons), a process that occurs within geological formations.
A series of processes that involve carbonization. [2]Carbonization is a pyrolytic reaction, therefore, is considered a complex process in which many reactions take place concurrently such as dehydrogenation, condensation, hydrogen transfer and isomerization.
Type III kerogens are derived from terrestrial plant matter, specifically from precursor compounds including cellulose, lignin (a non-carbohydrate polymer formed from phenyl-propane units that binds the strings of cellulose together); terpenes and phenols. Coal is an organic-rich sedimentary rock that is composed predominantly of this kerogen ...
Dead wood is normally rapidly decomposed by microorganisms, beginning with the holocellulose. The lignin is hydrophobic (water-repelling) and much slower to decay. The rate of decay is affected by temperature and moisture content, but exclusion of oxygen is the most important factor preserving wood tissue: Organisms that decompose lignin must ...
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Coal forms when organic matter builds up in waterlogged, anoxic swamps, known as peat mires, and is then buried, compressing the peat into coal. The majority of Earth's coal deposits were formed during the late Carboniferous and early Permian. The plants from which they formed contributed to changes in the Carboniferous Earth's atmosphere. [25]