APRIL 2024 27 FOOD SECURITY Centuries before coal was used to heat homes, be they castles or peasant huts, it was used in smelting, specifically the smelting of copper to create swords and other hand-held weaponry, initially by the Chinese about 3,000 years ago. Heated up for home warmth, it was only about 300 years ago when coal first saw greater usage as an industrial revolution fuel. Abraham Darby (1678–1717) of England is credited with being the first to smelt iron ore with coke in a forge and the developer of blast furnaces. Thomas Newcomen may have developed the first steam engine in 1712 to help pump water out of the constantly flooding mines, but in 1776, it was James Watt who created a steam engine that ran on burning coal converted to steam—a process that introduced the railroad industry. The status quo was maintained until the 1950s, when electric and diesel locomotives were introduced. Until then, the railroad and steel industries brought about a near-insatiable demand for coal. However, like it or not, coal is not a clean-burning fossil fuel; it was made from plants that were once alive millions of years ago. And while we can set the stage to make more coal, it won’t be in a recognizable coal form for more than those millions of years. Nowadays, according to www.Canada.ca and the federal Ministry of Natural Resources, “Coal is used for generating electricity, manufacturing steel and cement, and various industrial and residential applications. Canada produced 47.6 Mt [metric tonnes] of coal in 2021, of which 61 percent is metallurgical coal used for manufacturing steel and 39 percent is thermal coal used for generating electricity.” What else can coal be used for? How about using it for cow feed? No one suggests opening up a bag of brickettes and letting the cows chow down on them. However, researchers in China say they have developed a method for converting coal into a protein-rich livestock feed. This will allow farmers to make better use of their land to create human-grade crop yields. Because not all corn yields are grown equally, Emily Cassidy and other researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment explain that 55 percent of the world’s crop calories Coal as cow feed? Researchers turn coal into an edible protein as part of cattle feed—is it a diamond in the rough? By Andrew Joseph, Editor The Pichia pastoris yeast, engineered for superior methanol tolerance and conversion efficiency. Chinese Academy of Sciences
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