Circular 891 - Table 1

By Gordon H. Wood, Jr., Thomas M. Kehn, M. Devereux Carter, and William C. Culbertson

Class	Group	Fixed Carbon (Dry, Mineral- Matter-Free Basis)		Volatile Matter Limits, percent Limits, percent Dry, Mineral- Matter-Free Basis		Calorific Value Limits BTU per pound (Moist,^B Mineral-Matter-Free Basis)
		Equal or Greater Than	Less Than	Greater Than	Equal or Less Than	Equal or Greater Than	Less	Agglomerating Character
I Anthracite*	1.Meta-anthracite	98			2			nonagglomerating
	^2.Anthracite	92	98	2	8
	^{3.Semianthracite}^{^C}	86	92	8	14
II Bituminous	1.Low volatile bituminous coal	78	86	14	22
	2.Medium volatilebituminous coal	69	78	22	31
	3.High volatile A bituminous coal		69	31		14000^{^D}		commonly
	4.High volatile B bituminous coal					13000^{^D}	14000	agglomerating^{^**E}
	5.High volatile C bituminous coal					11500	13000
						10500	11500	agglomerating
III Subbituminous	1.Subbituminous A coal					10500	11500
	2.Subbituminous B coal					9500	10500
	3.Subbituminous C coal					8300	9500	nonagglomerating
IV. Lignite	1.Lignite A					6300	8300
	1.Lignite B						6300

^AThis classification does not include a few coals, principally nonbanded varieties, which have unusual physical and chemical properties and which come within the limits of fixed carbon or calorific value of the high-volatile bituminous and subbituminous ranks. All of these coals either contain less than 48 percent dry, mineral-matter-free fixed carbon or have more than 15 500 moist, mineral-matter-free British thermal units per pound.^BMoist refers to coal containing its natural inherent moisture but not including visible water on the surface of the coal
^CIf agglomerating, classify in low-volatile group of the bituminous class.
^DCoals having 69 percent or more fixed carbon on the dry, mineral-matter-free basis shall be classified according to fixed carbon, regardless of calorific value.
^EIt is recognized that there may be nonagglomerating varieties in these groups of the bituminous class, and there are notable exceptions in the high-volatile C bituminous group.
¹ASTM, 1981, p. 215.
^*Modified from ASTM, 1981.