Tag: mineral resources - coal - introduction

Damodar valley is called Ruhr of India because it has similar characteristics with that of Ruhr which is located in Germany. The characteristic is that Ruhr has immense coal resources. In the same way Damodar valley accounts for 6% of the coal reserves of India.

• Type of coal that is used commercially is bituminous coal.  Bituminous coal or black coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tar like substance called bitumen.
  
• This coal is graded based on plasticity, moisture content, volatility and ash content.
  
• Plasticity is essential for the production coke which is useful in making fuel gases like producer gas etc.
  
• Volatility is essential for steel making and power generation.
  

The most superior quality coal is anthracite. It has highest carbon content with 92.1% to 98% carbon. It ignites with difficulty and burns with smoke. China accounts for major production worldwide. It has fewest impurities and highest calorific value after graphite.

• Neyveli is located 62 kilometres (39 mi) inland from Bay of Bengal, west of Pondicherry and 197 kilometres (122 mi) south of Chennai. 
  
• The town was developed in 1956 after the establishment of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, a public sector enterprise.
  
• NLC India Limited is a government-owned lignite mining and power generating company in India.
  
• NLC operates the largest open-pit lignite mines in India.
  

• Raniganj power plant is located in the Barddhaman district of west Bengal. Discovery of coal led to industrialisation in this area. It is a pithead coal based thermal power plant.
  
• Coal mining in India first started in the Raniganj Coalfield. In 1774, John Sumner and Suetonius Grant Heatly of the British East India Company found coal.
  

Coal- formed of organic material deposited one layer above the other. Across millions of years, due to physical and chemical changes, oxygen was forced out and was left with carbon-rich deposits.

Fossil fuels are non-renewable sources of energy, that means they take millions of year to form fossil fuel, so we need to conserve them. Coal, petroleum and natural gas are the conventional sources of thermal power in India. They all are an example of fossil fuel. A large number of fossil fuels are burnt every day in power stations to heat water to produce steam which further runs the turbine to generate electricity. The term thermal power plant is used since fuel is burnt to produce heat energy which is converted into electrical energy. 

Anthracite is the best quality of coal with least ash content. Anthracite is a hard, compact variety of mineral coal that has a high luster. It has the highest carbon count and contains the fewest impurities of all coals, and has the highest calorific content as compared to other types of coals such as bituminous coal and lignite.