SSC
Lignite, a low-grade coal with high moisture content, is also known as:
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Answer: Option B — Brown coal
Detailed Solution
Lignite is a soft, brownish-black, low-grade coal with a high moisture content and a relatively low carbon content. Because of its colour, it is commonly called brown coal.
Characteristics of lignite:
- Carbon content: about 25 to 35 per cent fixed carbon (often given as 40 to 55 per cent total carbon), which is lower than higher-grade coals.
- Moisture content: very high, sometimes 30 to 60 per cent.
- It has a low calorific (heat) value, so a larger quantity must be burned to produce the same amount of energy.
- It produces more smoke and ash per unit of energy than higher grades of coal.
- It breaks down and crumbles easily when exposed to air, and may catch fire spontaneously in storage, so it is usually burned close to the mine.
- It is mainly used for generating electricity at pithead power stations.
How coal forms (the coal series):
Coal is formed from plant remains buried in swamps millions of years ago. With heat, pressure and time, the plant material is gradually changed (coalification), losing water and gaining carbon.
The stages, from lowest to highest rank, are:
- Peat: partly decayed plant material, the first stage; very low carbon content.
- Lignite (brown coal): the second stage, soft and moist.
- Sub-bituminous and bituminous coal: harder, black coal with higher carbon content.
- Anthracite: the highest grade, hard and shiny, with the highest carbon content (about 80 to 95 per cent) and the least smoke.
Lignite in India:
- India has large lignite resources, with deposits in states such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, among others.
- Lignite deposits are geologically much younger than most of India's coal, which belongs to the Gondwana age (about 250 million years old).
Why not the other options?
- ✗"Hard coal" is a general term for higher-rank black coals, especially anthracite and bituminous coal.
- ✗"Coking coal" is a type of bituminous coal that forms coke, used in steel making.
- ✗"Steam coal" (thermal coal) is used to raise steam in power plants and is usually black coal.
Quick tip
Remember: Coal ranks (low to high) = Peat, Lignite (brown coal), Bituminous, Anthracite; lignite is moist, low in carbon and burned near the mine.
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Minerals & Energy Resources — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Minerals & Energy Resources, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's mineral resources (iron ore, manganese, bauxite, copper, mica and others) and energy resources (coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear power and renewable energy), with their main producing regions, mines, oil fields and power plants. Questions often ask where a mineral is found, which state is the leading producer, or where an important power plant or oil field is located. For example, Jharia is known for coal, Digboi in Assam is the oldest oil field in India, and Tarapur in Maharashtra is the site of India's first nuclear power plant. Practise the minerals and energy resources questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.