Coal is used for various purposes such as domestic heating, industrial processes such as cement and paper manufacture ironmaking and electricity generation.
What makes coal different from coke?
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Louisa
Coal
Coal is formed by the compression of vegetable matter over many millions of years. The process of coal formation called coalification. Oldest coals are more than 350 million years old.
The below matrix shows various stages of coal formations whereas One is the youngest and Five is the oldest.
(1) Peat around 50% moisture
(2) Brown Coal around 40% moisture
(3) Sub Bituminous around 20% moisture
(4) Bituminous 6% -10% moisture
(5) Anthracite < 10% moisture
Coke
Coke is made from coal with few impurities and high carbon content. It has relatively less volatile than coal which makes it better for fuel.
There is evidence that coke was employed by the Chinese in the seventh century to smelt iron. Coke had been employed by the brewing industry in preference to coal because of lower levels of impurity when heating the barley mash, which is the first stage of brewing. Charcoal is still used for smelting iron.
When some coal is heated out of the presence of air (reducing atmosphere), they swell and a hard sponge-like material results that are high in carbon content.