>>20153260That's pretty nifty stuff. I should have been a coal geologist -- and still can (would just have to take a few undergrad courses in order to be eligible for a master's program in geology, and would have to go to a school like Alabama or West Virginia that has geologists who know coal).
Coal is just so fascinating to me. Thin seams can even be gasified underground and used like natural gas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gasification#Underground_coal_gasificationThere is also research ongoing into the chemistry of lower ranking coals like subbituminous, or bituminous with lots of sulfur and ash, to improve their caking properties (i.e. their suitability to forming into coke with heat treatments) and make them into proper steelmaking coals. China, of course, is doing a lot of research on this -- of course! They're the real head of coal geochemistry and coal mining engineering nowadays.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/275/1/012020/pdf