Bituminous Coal

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Use and Composition

Bituminous coal is burned for steel production rather than electricity production. This coal may also be called metallurgical coal or coking coal.

Bituminous coal is dense yet brittle, dark brown to black in color, and possibly shiny in appearance. Because of its brittleness, the coal rocks can fragment, creating smaller particles that can then be uplifted into the atmosphere by winds or motion, for example, on moving train cars, creating coal dust.

Other components of coal are its volatile matter, which refers to the compounds in coal that evaporate when it is heated. The volatile matter content determines whether coal can be used in steelmaking, distinguishing bituminous coal from other types of coal. Coal also contains so-called chalcophile elements. Chalcophile means "sulfur-loving." Chalcophiles include toxic metals such as lead (Pb), selenium (Se), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg). These metals are known cause cancer and other adverse health effects even at low levels.[1]

Geological Formation

Bituminous coal was formed in ancient tropical swamps 300 million years ago and is mined today in locations that include the coal seams of the Appalachian Basin in West Virginia.[2][3] The swamps were home to plants such as scale, seed ferns, and true ferns. When these plants died, a thick bed of peat was created on the swamp floor. Because the peat bed lacked oxygen, coal was formed through a process known as coalification. Coalification occurs over millions of years, with layers of peat continually compressed during this time by local sediments and rocks. The pressure and heat of this overlaying process converts peat to lignite, a form of low-quality coal.

About 100 million years ago, the sea level rose dramatically and the ocean intruded into these freshwater peat swamps. In the Appalachian Basin, this was the Western Interior Seaway, a massive water body that split North America in half. The seawater brought sulfur, marine shale, sandstone, and limestone to the coal bed. The lignite layers continued to be squeezed and heated, with moisture removed through tectonic processes and subsidence, concentrating carbon and forming the bitumen that gave way to high-rank bituminous coal.[4]

The Appalachian Basin, and West Virginia in particular, experienced subsidence in these large areas of peat accumulation, producing over 100 distinct coal seams across the state.[5] Bituminous coal with low volatile matter from the Pocahontas Formation and New River Formation, especially the Beckley and Sewell coal beds, have been mined extensively.[6]

This coal continues to be transported by rail to major East Coast ports for global distribution, including the Port of Virginia, which consists of the Dominion Terminal Associates and Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals in Southeast Newport News and the Norfolk Southern Terminal in Lambert's Point, Norfolk, as well as the Curtis Bay Coal Piers in Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Sources

  1. ↑ Senior et al., Toxic Substances from Coal Combustion—A Comprehensive Assessment, 2001.
  2. ↑ Milici et al., Bituminous Coal Production in the Appalachian Basin: Past, Present, and Future, Chapter D.3 of Coal and Petroleum Resources in the Appalachian Basin: Distribution, Geologic Framework, and Geochemical Character, Edited by Ruppert and Ryder, Professional Paper 1708-D.3, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2014.
  3. ↑ Tewalt et al., Coal Assessments and Coal Research in the Appalachian Basin, Chapter D.4 of Coal and Petroleum Resources in the Appalachian Basin: Distribution, Geologic Framework, and Geochemical Character, Edited by Ruppert and Ryder, Professional Paper 1708-D.4, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2014.
  4. ↑ Arnold, Coal Formation, The Coal Handbook, Edited by Osborne, Woodhead Publishing, 2023.
  5. ↑ Bowen et al., The Broad Economic Impact of West Virginia Metallurgical Coal in the United States, West Virginia University (WVU) Bureau of Business and Economic Research, 2023.
  6. ↑ Coal Bed Mapping Project, West Virginia Geological & Economic Survey, 2023.
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