White coal is a form of fuel produced by drying chopped wood over a fire. It differs from charcoal which is carbonised wood. White coal was used in England to smelt lead ore from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. It produces more heat than green wood but less than charcoal and thus prevents the lead evaporating. White coal could be used mixed with charcoal for other industrial uses than lead smelting. White coal was produced in distinctive circular pits with a channel, known as Q-pits. They are frequently found in the woods of South Yorkshire.
Nowadays white coal is made from
Benefits of white coal:
India is fast becoming a major manufacturer and consumer of white coal. A large number of companies have switched their boiler fuels to use white coal instead of fossil fuels. White Coal manufacturing capacity is coming up in droves in the state of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.
The production of White coal (Briquettes made of Biomass) using agricultural and forest waste is more common in North India.