Anthracite and Coal: Different Commodities
Anthracite mined in Northeast Pennsylvania has the highest grade of carbon in the world and is a different product than what politicians refer to when they call for “No More Coal,” a local mining engineer said.
Justin Emershaw of Atlantic Carbon Group said most of the hard coal his company mines in Hazleton is used to recycle steel, filter water and make pigments, rubber, plastic, glass or sugar. About 8% heats homes.
“It’s a different commodity here, a niche market,” Emershaw said while speaking at Eckley Miners’ Village Museum on Wednesday during an event that was part of anthracite heritage month.
The markets that Emershaw listed pair up closely with uses that other regional coal companies, Reading Anthracite and Blashak Coal, list on their websites with one addition:
Chefs stoke ovens with anthracite in coal fired pizzerias that operate along the Eastern Seaboard and have popped up as far from the Anthracite fields as Denver and San Francisco.
Pizza makers favor anthracite because it burns hot and long with little soot.
For anthracite producers, coal fired pizza is the smallest share of their market, but it’s trendy.
Metallurgical users, such as steel makers, remain the biggest customer, accounting for about 60% of sales at Blaschak Coal, Greg Driscoll, the company’s chairman, said.
Most steel companies in the United States recycle steel by heating it in electric arc furnaces, a process that weakens the metal unless carbon is added. Steel companies prefer to inject anthracite rather than other types of coal into furnaces because of its carbon content.
Driscoll said 40 pounds of anthracite is mixed to one ton of steel in an electric arc furnace.
Making one ton of steel from iron ore in blast furnace, in contrast, requires about one ton of coal.
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