The growing demand for alternative source of energy necessitated investigation into the structure of coal to gain insight into its chemicals components hence its utilization as a source of liquid fuel. Two sub-bimanous coal samples from Okaba and Okpara mines were investigated using soxhlet extraction. Fractionation of the extracts was done using silica – get adsorption chromatography into aliphatic, aromatic and polar fractions. Characterizations of these were carried out using infra-red spectroscopy which showed major adsorption bands associated with aliphatic and aromatic C-H groups. A preliminary conclusion from the results shows that both coal samples are made up to a low ranking.
