Bituminous coal or black coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tarlike substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than anthracite coal.

Bituminous coal is an organic sedimentary rock formed by diagenetic and submetamorphic compression of peat bog material.

Bituminous coal has been compressed and heated so that its primary constituents are macerals vitrinite, exinite, and so on. The carbon content of bituminous coal is around 60-80%; the rest is composed of water, air, hydrogen, and sulfur, which have not been driven off from the macerals.

When used for many industrial processes, bituminous coal must first be "coked" to remove volatile components. Coking is achieved by heating the coal in the absence of oxygen, which drives off volatile hydrocarbons such as propane, benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons, and some sulfur gases. This also drives off a considerable amount of the contained water of the bituminous coal.

Coking coal is used in the manufacture of steel, where carbon must be as volatile-free and ash-free as possible.

Coking coal is heated to produce coke, a hard, grey, porous material which is used to blast in furnaces for the extraction of iron from the iron ore.