The Belle Ayr mine is a coal mine located 18 miles southeast of Gillette, Wyoming currently owned and operated by Alpha Natural Resources, a large American producer of metallurgical coal for the industrial production of steel and iron and low-sulfur thermal coal to fuel steam boilers for the production of what type of power?
Belle Ayr Mine The Belle Ayr mine is a coal mine located 18 miles southeast of Gillette, Wyoming in the United States in the coal-rich Powder River Basin. The mine is an open pit, "truck and shovel", mine producing a low-sulfur, sub-bituminous coal from the Wyodak-Anderson seam that is used for domestic energy generation. Coal produced by the mine is shipped to its customers via railroad. The mine is currently owned and operated by Alpha Natural Resources after being acquired in a merger with Foundation Coal in 2009.
Blast furnace gas Blast furnace gas (BFG) is a by-product of blast furnaces that is generated when the iron ore is reduced with coke to metallic iron. It has a very low heating value, about 93 BTU/cubic foot (3.5 MJ/m³, because it consists of about 60 percent nitrogen and 18-20% carbon dioxide, which are not flammable. The rest is mostly carbon monoxide, which has a fairly low heating value already and some (2-4%) hydrogen. It is commonly used as a fuel within the steel works, but it can be used in boilers and power plants equipped to burn it. It may be combined with natural gas or coke oven gas before combustion or a flame support with richer gas or oil is provided to sustain combustion. Particulate matter is removed so that it can be burned more cleanly. Blast furnace gas is sometimes flared without generating heat or electricity.