Coal Tar an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
Coal Tar. Richard D. Phillips, in Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Second Edition), 2005 Uses. Coal tar is a viscous liquid mixture of hydrocarbon compounds, derived along with coke, from the destructive distillation of coal in coking ovens. Coal tar itself may be subjected to distillation, a process that separates groups of the components of coal tar from groups of others.