Name: Refining of Petroleum
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: Petrol is an essential product, which doesn't derive directly from nature, and it requires a certain type of process called the fractional distillation proce...

Question

How is the destructive distillation of coal carried out? What are the products obtained and their main uses?

Accepted Answer

Destructive distillation of coal is carried out by heating coal strongly to $1000 ° C$ in the absence of air.

Destructive distillation of coal yields various useful organic and inorganic products. These products are as follows:

Coke: It is an almost pure form of carbon. It is a good fuel and burns with no smoke. It is also used to reduce metal oxides, such as iron and zinc oxides, to get the metals.

Coal gas: It is a mixture of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and other gases. It was earlier used for domestic cooking and lighting, but is not much used now.

Coal tar: Coal tar is a thick viscous liquid mainly used for road construction. It contains several carbon compounds. It is also used to make pesticides, explosives, synthetic fibres, perfumes, naphthalene balls to repel moths and insects, dyes and paints. However, today these compounds are mostly obtained from petroleum.

Ammonium compounds: When dissolved in water, they give ammoniacal liquor. It is used for making nitrogenous fertilisers.

How is the destructive distillation of coal carried out? What are the products obtained and their main uses?

Important Questions on Coal and Petroleum

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