Current coal consumption million tons oil equivalent and future trends

Present state and prospects for world economic development 483 

Compared with oil (and especially coal), natural gas as an energy carrier and raw material has several important advantages reduced environmental pollution in industry, households, and energy production, where coal has been extensively replaced by gas. There are also wide possibilities for gas to be used in chemistry. In the U.S.A. and many other countries, natural gas has become the prevalent energy 

there are a number of technical obstacles along the path to mass application of hydrogen fuel. To surmount them will involve serious investment and effort which will arguably take several decades. 

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Table 7.9. Current coal consumption (million tons oil equivalent) and future trends.

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