ABSTRACT
Energy consumption is an authentic human development index that measures a country’s achievements in basic aspects of human development (i.e., longevity, literacy, and living standards). Considering the importance of energy to human development, various sources of energy were attempted to explore the possibility of using their calorific values. Generally speaking, fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) have been widely used in power generation for many decades mainly due to their relatively low cost and high-quality attributes. Hence, fossil fuels today account for 80% of global primary energy consumption (BP 2014a; BP 2014c). Although the global demand of energy continued to increase, the relative weight of various energy sources keep slightly shifting because of economic recession or political instabilities. Apart from other sources of energy, fossil fuels are likely to continue their domination and grow in the future, as illustrated in Figure 2.1. Within fossil fuels, coal is clearly the fastest growing source of energy, where its demand has increased to 38% between 2005 and 2013 and is expected to further increase to 73% by 2030 (BGR 2013). Thus, coal is not only among the world’s fastest growing sources of energy but also considered as the principal fuel for generating electricity in many parts of the world, satisfying almost 41% of electricity worldwide as shown in Figure 2.2. In addition, coal is the most abundant among fossil fuels and their large reserves make it a possible candidate to meet increasing energy demand of the global community. However, an increase in coal consumption has a major shortcoming related to global warming, where coal is currently responsible for 43% of the overall CO2 emission as shown in Figure 2.2 (IEA 2012a).
