COAL SCIENCE

Reviewed 8/25/2011

Coal Science, by Rita K. Hessley

Access to this book courtesy of the

COAL SCIENCE An Introduction to Chemistry, Technology, and Utilization Rita K. Hessley John W. Reasoner John T. Riley New York: John Wiley & Sons, June 1986				Rating: 4.5 High
ISBN-13 978-0-471-81225-8
ISBN-10 0-471-81225-0	269pp.	HC	$?

All three authors are from the Department of Chemistry, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green.

"Coal is the most plentiful energy resource in the United states. It has been, and will continue to be, the principal fuel used by electric utilities. As petroleum resource become more limited, the abundant coal resources will become more attractive for chemical feedstocks as well as sources of liquid and gaseous fuels."

– Page v

GRADES OF COAL

Coal	Heat Value
Grade	(BTU/lb) 1
Lignite B	6,000
Lignite A	7,500
Subbituminous C	8,500
Subbituminous B	10,000
Subbituminous A	11,000
High-volatile Bituminous C	12,000
High-volatile Bituminous B	13,300
High-volatile Bituminous A	14,500
Medium-volatile Bituminous	15,200
Low-volatile Bituminous	15,500
Semianthracite	14,900
Anthracite	14,300
Meta-anthracite	13,600

There is a detailed table of contents. Here are the major divisions:

1. An Introduction to Coal and Coal Science	1
2. The Petrology and Petrography of Coal	40
3. The Organic Structure of Coal	91
4. Coal Conversion	129
5. The Analytical Chemistry of Coal	182
Index	259

Each chapter ends with a summary and a list of references. There is much useful information in this book. Examples include:

Tables of coal resources and production in the U.S.
A table of the 13 grades of coal and their heating values in BTU
Extensive discussion of the various efforts to convert coal to liquid or gaseous fuel2
Tables of coal's chemical composition, including trace elements

Overall, I'd say this book is useful but suffers from the authors' attempt to cram too much into a single slim volume. Some tables are poorly designed and not very informative, in my opinion. Prime examples are actually Figures 5.12 and 5.13 on pages 241 and 242 respectively. They claim to give the "occurrence frequency" and the "concentration range" of elements in 13 raw coals; but they are arranged in the form of periodic tables of elements. Many of the values in Fig. 5.12 are given as either 0, 100 or "ND" (not determined.) Values in both figures are given as pure numbers; I assume they represent percentages, but this is never specified. And tables 5.8 & 5.9, on international classification of coal, are strictly for specialists. Also there are some grammatical and factual errors in the book. These are listed on my Errata page. Recommended, but not with top marks.

1 The table on page 13 gives these values in BTU; they are actually BTU/lb. See page 183.

2 This is probably the most valuable part of the book.

Errata for Coal Science