Coal mining increase over the previous 25 years. In 2006, the world production of brown coal (lignite) was slightly over 1,000 Mt, with Germany the world's largest brown coal producer at 194.4 Mt, and China second at 100.6 Mt. Coal production has grown fastest in Asia, while Europe has declined. Since 2013, the world coal production is decreasing, -6% in 2016. The top coal mining nations are: Most coal production is used in the country of origin, with around 16 percent of hard coal production being exported. Coal reserves are available in almost every country worldwide, with recoverable reserves in around 70
Coal gasification refiner wants to produce alkanes (i.e., hydrocarbons present in natural gas, gasoline, and diesel fuel), the coal gas is collected at this state and routed to a Fischer-Tropsch reactor. If, however, hydrogen is the desired end-product, the coal gas (primarily the CO product) undergoes the water gas shift reaction where more hydrogen is produced by additional reaction with water vapor: Although other technologies for coal gasification currently exist, all employ, in general, the same chemical processes. For low-grade coals (i.e., "brown coals") which contain significant amounts of water, there are technologies in which no steam is required during the reaction,