How to Refine Coal in Dwarf Fortress

Charcoal

• 1

  Gather some wood. You should have began gathering wood at the start of your game. If you are low on wood, you may want to only make a limited amount of charcoal.

• 2

  Build a wood furnace somewhere in your fortress. Placing your wood furnace near your wood piles will save time later.

• 3

  Set one of your dwarves to have the "Wood Burning" labor. This will be necessary to use the wood furnace.

• 4

  Set a standing order to create charcoal. Your wood burning dwarf will craft your charcoal.

Coke

• 5

  Collect either bituminous coal or lignite, both of which can be found in the sedimentary layer of your map.

• 6

  Collect fuel such as charcoal or another piece of coke. This will be necessary to run the smelter unless you have a magma smelter, which is powered by magma and needs no additional fuel.

• 7

  Build either a normal smelter or a magma smelter. Placing your smelter near your resource piles will save time later.

• 8

  Set one of your dwarves to have the "Furnace Operating" labor. This will be necessary to use the smelter.

• 9

  Set a standing order to create coke. Your furnace operating dwarf will craft your coke.