Brown coal

Brown coal is both a type and a brand. Sometimes it is also called lignite. This is the youngest type of mineral, which was formed directly from peat.

Brown coal got its name because of its color - it can be from light brown to almost black. Its structure is fibrous, somewhat similar to wood.

The main deposits of brown coal in Russia are concentrated in the Lena, Kansk-Achinsk, Tunguska, Kuznetsk, Taimyr and Moscow region coal basins. Most of this rock is shallow, so it is mined in an open way.

The main properties of brown coal:

• The heat of combustion is 4000-5500 kcal
• Carbon content – 50-77%
• Moisture capacity – 40-70%
• Ash content – 25-40%
• Density – 1000-1500 kg/m3

Coal of this brand smokes during combustion and gives a relatively small amount of heat. A lot of ash remains in the furnace after it.
Most often, the material is used for heating private houses (if there is a boiler room in a separate room), outbuildings, industrial facilities. It is also bought by small thermal power plants.

Brown coal is also used in the chemical industry – it is used as a source of organic substances (rock wax, benzene, humic acids). It can be processed into liquid fuel.

The brand is divided into 3 groups:

• The first brown (1B)
• The second brown (2B)
• The third brown (3B)
In the second and third groups there are 2 subgroups – vitrinite and fusinite:

• The vitrinite subgroup is isolated based on the content of vitrinite, the cementing component of coal, which was formed from cellulose and lignin decomposing without oxygen access
• The fusinite subgroup is characterized by the content of plant residues that decomposed in the presence of oxygen (as a result, the substance fusinite was formed, in which the fibrous and cellular structure of plants was partially preserved)