The increasing demand for clean energy with minimum environmental impact is driving the need for development of efficient energy conversion technologies with efficient storage systems and production of advanced materials for future valuable use. Coal, being an abundant and cheap feed stock of carbon and carbon-based materials, could provide a feasible and long term-solution in energy, environment and societal applications. Molecular distributions, molecular architecture vis-à-vis rank of coal has got a tremendous significance in determining the quality and suitability for specific applications such as feed stock for chemicals, synthetic fuels, advanced carbon nanomaterial and in energy storage. Molecular characterization of coals has demonstrated the presence of nano-sized polycyclic-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) for various potential applications while the inter layered spacing of the disordered carbon nanosheets present in coals and their electro-chemical  behaviour highlighted the potentiality of coals to be used in energy storage application i.e., in lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries.