Mapping the historical energy use of coal (1800-2018)

December 6, 2024

Coal as an energy source became integral to the industrial development of many nations in the last two centuries. But how efficient was this historical energy transformation? How and why did the world adopt the coal economy, and how was this different at the world level compared to the major coal consuming countries? This thesis attempts to answer these questions by mapping historical coal data and performing a societal exergy analysis at the world level and for 4 countries - The United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany and France. To perform this analysis, historical datasets were utilized to find primary, final and useful energy use by sector for the world and the 4 countries in consideration. As a result, the coal energy transformation chain was developed and using this, aggregated exergy efficiencies were calculated. Benchmarks were then used to compare the country trends with that of the world. The results showed that the 4 countries in consideration produced and consumed more than 90 percent of the world's coal at the beginning of the 19th and 20th centuries. By the start of the 21st century, this value had reduced to 12 percent. The societal exergy analysis results showed that increased coal consumption coupled with efficient end uses results in higher exergy efficiencies, while outdated machinery, wars, economic crises made the exergy efficiencies much lower.

Authors in the community:

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  N

  Nigazh Ayyakkannu Indirani

  ist1109224

Supervisors of this institution:

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  T

  Tânia Alexandra dos Santos Costa e Sousa

  ist14067

mechanical-engineering - Mechanical engineering

por - Portuguese

Instituto Superior Técnico