Be a crane driver for a day
Have you ever had a grilled sausage from the garden barbecue? Then you have probably also seen the lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes that are used to heat the barbecue. Charcoal is made of wood by heating it without any oxygen present. You can also find charcoal in a bonfire, which has burned down so there are no more flames. The embers are charcoal, which slowly burn to ashes.
At Danfoss Universe you can play with a different kind of coal, mineral coal. Most of the coal is burned in a power plant to extract the energy that is stored in it. Your mission is to stoke the power plant. Do you master to control the coal crane and stoke faster and more precisely than your friends? If yes, then it will be you who gains the most energy points but you will also be the one who discharges the most CO2.
The power plant transforms the energy into electrical current, which will then be distributed to all places through a widely branched wire network. As an example you can use your computer with this electric current. You just have to plug it into the wall outlet.
Mineral coal looks like charcoal, but it is much heavier and smells a bit of oil, since it actually contains some oil and gas.
The coal comes from large forests and bogs, which existed on the earth approximately 300-350 million years ago. They were so fertile that dead trees and plants ended up in layer upon layer so no air could get access. Later they got covered by earth layers and were buried deep in the earth.
Over time the remaining plants in the earth became compressed and transformed to coal by the high pressure and temperature, which reign in the earth.