Question

Which is the most abundantly available fossil fuel in India? Assess the importance of its different forms.

Answer 1

Hint:
Deposits of this fossil fuels in India are available in the older Gondwana Formations of the Indian Peninsula and the younger tertiary formations of the North-Eastern Region.

The top 5 states in terms of gross reserves of this fossil fuels in India are :
 Jharkhand > Odisha > Chhattisgarh > West Bengal > Madhya Pradesh.


Complete solution:

Coal
- Coal is found to be the most abundant fossil fuel in India.
- It accounts for 55% of the country's electricity needs. The country's manufacturing legacy was based on indigenous coal.
- Industrial primary energy use in India has risen by around 700 per cent over the last four decades.

Types and its Importance:

Peat
- It contains less than 40-55% carbon which means more Impurities.
- Contains sufficient volatile matter and lot of moisture which means more smoke and more pollution.

Importance of Peat:
- Peat is harvested as an essential source of fuel in certain parts of the world.
- By volume, there are about 4 trillion cubic meters (5.2 trillion cubic meters) of peat in the world, accounting for about 2% of the world's land area (about 3 million square kilometres or 1.2 million square miles) and about 8 billion Tera joules of electricity.

Lignite
- It is also known as Brown coal
- It is considered as Lower-grade coal
- It contains 40-55% carbon
- Intermediate stage
- Its Moisture content is high
- It undergoes Spontaneous Combustion which is bad as it creates fire accidents in mines.

Importance of Lignite:
- It is mined all over the world and is mainly used as a fuel for the generation of steam and electricity.
- As it is not economical to transport lignite coal, it is not widely traded on the world market compared to higher grades of coal.
- Lignite reserves make 17% of the world’s coal reserves. As the oil and gas reserves of the world decline, other sources have become attractive. This is why there is a sustained interest in the use of lignite coal

Anthracite:
- It’s considered Best quality coal and hard coal
- It contains 80-95% carbon
- It contains negligible moisture.
- Ignites slowly with a blue flame thus less loss of heat and highly efficient.
- Found only in Jammu & Kashmir in India

Importance of Anthracite:

- Heating System- It is used In Heating Systems as one of the most vulnerable forms of coal, anthracite is the ideal fuel for the generation of heat.
- Smelting- With a high carbon content, it is suitable for use in the steel industry. It is still available for use in its natural state and does not need to go through the coking process that most forms of coal have to go through.
- Transportation (Locomotives)- It was sometimes named 'Rock Coal' because of its hard nature. It was known to be the best supply of fuel for locomotive engineer trains. Although not all trains are fuelled by coal, there are still those out there that still use this source of coal.

Bituminous Coal-
- Also known as Soft Coal; Most widely available and used coal
- It contains 40-80% Carbon
- Moisture and Volatile content (15-40%)
- It has high calorific value due to the proportion of carbon and low moisture

Importance of Bituminous Coal-
- Bituminous coal uses It is used to burn power plants that generate electricity.
- It is used as a fuel to produce the steam that powers the locomotives.
- Previously, this type of coal was often used for fuel for domestic / home water heating.

Note:
- The coal classification is usually based on the quality of volatiles
- However, the most critical difference is between thermal coal (also known as steam coal) which is burned to produce energy by steam; and metallurgical coal (also known as coking coal) which is burned to create steel at high temperatures.