{"id":92971,"date":"2026-03-16T15:57:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=92971"},"modified":"2026-03-16T15:59:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:29:32","slug":"bituminous-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bituminous-coal\/","title":{"rendered":"Bituminous Coal, Features, Distribution, Production, Initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bituminous Coal is a widely available fossil fuel commonly called Black Coal due to its dark colour and high carbon content. It contains a tar like substance called bitumen. It is formed through geological coalification processes at temperatures above 85\u00b0 C. It is globally abundant and widely used for electricity generation, steel manufacturing and industrial fuel due to its high calorific value and strong carbon concentration.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Bituminous Coal Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bituminous Coal is a dense fossil fuel with high carbon concentration and significant energy potential. The major features of the coal has been listed below:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Carbon Content<\/strong>: Bituminous Coal generally contains about 40-80% carbon, while detailed chemical composition averages nearly 84.4% carbon, 5.4% hydrogen, 6.7% oxygen, 1.7% nitrogen and 1.8% sulfur by weight.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Physical Property<\/strong>: This coal type appears dark brown to deep black and is dense yet friable. Coal seams usually show alternating bright and dull bands formed during organic deposition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Bitumen<\/strong>: The name \u201cbituminous\u201d originates from bitumen, a sticky tar like substance present in the coal that softens and swells when heated.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Combustion Behaviour<\/strong>: During burning, it usually produces a smoky flame and softens before forming coke like porous residue due to the bitumen content.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Geological Formation<\/strong>: It forms when sub-Bituminous Coal is buried deeper underground and exposed to temperatures above 85\u00b0C during coalification.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Industrial Uses<\/strong>: Bituminous Coal is widely used in thermal power plants, steel production through coke manufacture and production of activated carbon.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also Read: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/coal-mines-in-india\/\" target=\"_blank\">Coal Mines In India<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><b>Bituminous Coal in India<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bituminous Coal plays a central role in India\u2019s energy system, industrial development and electricity production infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Distribution<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bituminous Coal deposits in India are concentrated mainly in eastern and central regions within major Gondwana coalfields.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">States: Significant reserves occur in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, mainly across Damodar Valley (Jharia, Raniganj), Mahanadi Valley (Talcher), Son Valley, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Largest Reserves: Jharkhand holds the highest coal reserves in India, followed by Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Production<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total coal production in India reached about 730.354 million tonnes in 2018-19, showing nearly 7.9% annual growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coal accounts for roughly 55% of India\u2019s total energy requirements, making it the most important fossil fuel in the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Challenges<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India imports nearly 213 million tonnes of coal annually, mainly high quality coking coal required for steel manufacturing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coal mining expansion frequently encounters land acquisition disputes and rehabilitation challenges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Strict environmental regulations increase operating and maintenance coal mines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Growing electricity demand after power sector reforms in 2003 created supply shortages in domestic coal production.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Government Initiatives<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-the-coal-mines-nationalisation-act-1973\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Coal Mines Nationalisation Act 1973<\/strong><\/a>: This legislation brought most coal mines under government control and established centralised sector management.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Commercial Mining Reform<\/strong>: Private and foreign companies were allowed to participate in commercial coal mining to increase competition and efficiency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Coal Mines Special Provisions Act 2015<\/strong>: This law introduced transparent auction based allocation of coal blocks after earlier allocations were cancelled.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>UTTAM Monitoring App<\/strong>: The Ministry of Coal launched the UTTAM mobile application in 2018 for third party assessment and transparency in coal quality monitoring.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bituminous Coal is a high-carbon fossil fuel widely used for electricity generation and steel production, known for high calorific value and major deposits in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":92999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[6122,4935],"class_list":{"0":"post-92971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-bituminous-coal","9":"tag-geography","10":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92971"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93050,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92971\/revisions\/93050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}