Coal and Petroleum- Formation, Types, and their Uses

Q: What is the role of Bitumen?

Bitumen, a petroleum-based substance, is used to surface roads.

Q: What are the advantages of LPG?

LPG stands for Liquefied Petroleum Gas and it is easy to carry, burns easily does not release smoke, etc.

Q: What are fossil fuels?

As their name suggests, fossil fuels are the fuels formed from the fossils (remains of living organisms buried under the earth)

Q: What is refining?

Refining is the process of separating the various components and fractions of petroleum

Aug 03, 2023, 16:45 IST

We are surrounded by different types of resources; some are present in adequate amounts (air, water, solar energy, etc.), whereas some are inadequate (coal and petroleum) and should be exhausted in the future. This is because their consumption rate is much higher than their generation. For example-coal and petroleum. With an increasing population, their demands are very high, but you will be surprised to note that their generation takes around 300 million years. This is the reason they are known as exhaustible resources.

In the present article, we will study deep into coal and petroleum.

Table of Content
What is Coal? How was Coal Formed? Products of Coal Types Of Coal Uses of Coal What is Petroleum? How was Petroleum Formed? Refining of Petroleum Petroleum Products and Their Uses Coal and Petroleum: FAQs

What is Coal?

You must have heard about coal. It is a hard black rock used as fuel to cook food. Earlier, it was used in railway engines to run the engine. Also it was used in thermal plants to produce electricity.

How was Coal Formed?

Natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, etc., were responsible for the falling of trees and plants into the earth. Gradually more soil gets deposited over them, and they get compressed under the earth. Due to high pressure, high temperature, and the absence of air inside the earth, the wood of plants and trees was slowly decomposed and converted into coal. This whole process was slow and took around 300 million years. This slow process by which the dead plants buried deep under the earth have become coal is called carbonisation.

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Products of Coal

When coal is heated without air, several useful products are obtained. Here are a few examples:

Coke: It is a rough, porous, and dark material. It is almost entirely pure carbon. It is employed in the extraction of numerous metals and the production of steel.
Coal Tar: It has a foul odor and is a thick, black liquid. The products obtained from coal tar are used as starting materials for manufacturing synthetic dyes, drugs, explosives, perfumes, naphthalene balls, etc.
Coal Gas: It is a gaseous fuel obtained by processing coal to get coke. Coal gas is a mixture of methane and hydrogen with some carbon monoxide. In industries, it serves as fuel. Burning coal gas also generates a large amount of light. It is interesting to note that coal gas was used for street lighting for the first time in London in the year 1810.

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Types Of Coal

Coal are classified into the following four types based on the amount of carbon content.

Type of coal	Carbon content
Peat	< 40 to 55%
Lignite	40 to 55%
Bituminous	40 to 80 %
Anthracite	85 to 90 %

Uses of Coal

It is used as a fuel in homes and industry.
It is used for generating electricity.
It is used to make coal gas which is an important industrial fuel.
It is used in making naphthalene balls.

What is Petroleum?

Petroleum is a dark-colored, thick crude oil found deep below the ground in certain areas. It is a natural resource through which petroleum and diesel are obtained. The word petroleum is derived from petra (rock) and oleum (oil), which means oil obtained from rock.

How was Petroleum Formed?

Petroleum (oil) was created millions of years ago by the breakdown of microscopic plants and animals submerged in the sea. The tiny plants and animals in the sea died, and their dead bodies sank to the bottom of the sea. Gradually their bodies were covered with mud and sand. Due to high pressure, heat, and the action of bacteria, the absence of air on earth decomposed the dead remains into petroleum. Petroleum is in the form of oil and will not mix with water; also, being lighter than water, it comes above the water's surface. It gets trapped between the non-porous rocks.

Refining of Petroleum

Petroleum is a compound of lubricating oil, gasoline, diesel, paraffin wax, and other substances. Each constituent/fraction has its use, so they must be extracted from obtained petroleum. Refining is the process of separating the various components/fractions of petroleum. That happens in a refinery that processes oil.

Petroleum Products and Their Uses

Some of the uses of Petroleum products are listed below:

Petroleum gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas (or LPG)

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is the name for petroleum gas that has been compressed and liquefied. It consists mainly of butane. You must have seen cylinders at home like Indane, HP, etc. The pressure is released when the gas cylinder's knob is turned on, which causes the extremely volatile LPG to transform into gas. This gas goes into the burner of the LPG stove. A lit matchstick placed on the burner causes the gas to burn with a blue flame that generates much heat.