Lecture # 03

Properties of Coal
The most important property of coal is that, it combusts. When pure carbon and hydrocarbons
of coal burns completely, only two products are formed i.e. CO2 and H2O. During this
chemical reaction relatively large amount of heat is produced.

The energy value of coal / fuel content is the amount of potential energy in coal that can be
converted into actual heating ability. The value can be calculated and compared with
different grades or ranks of coal or even with other materials. Different grades of coal
produces different amount of heat for a given mass of fuel.

The grade of a sample of coal does not previously define its chemical composition, so
calculating the actual usefulness of coal as a fuel requires determining its proximate and
ultimate analysis.

Proximate Analysis
The parameters of proximate analysis are:
Moisture, volatile matter, ash and fixed carbon,

1 Moisture
The amount of moisture present in the coal either in free form or in hydroscopic
form (inherent) is called moisture.

2 Volatile Matter
The percentage of gaseous products, exclusive of moisture in analysis sample
which are released under specific conditions of test. It is determined by loss of
weight under rigidity control conditions.

3 Ash
Inorganic residue remaining after ignition of combustible substances is called ash.

4 Fixed Carbon
It is the resultant of summation of percentage moisture, volatile matter and ash
subtracted from 100.

Methods for Calculating Proximate Analysis

1 Moisture
If 1gram of coal sample is heated in a furnace at 105°C to 110°C, then loss of
weight is calculated.
Example:
1gram coal heated at 110°C = 0.9gram,
The loss of 0.1 gram of coal shows the presence of 10% moisture.

2 Volatile Matter (VM)

If sample of 0.9 gram of coal is heated in moisture free furnace for only
7 minutes. VM= initial weight of sample – final weight of sample

1
 For example, the initial wt. of sample is 0.9 gram and final wt. is
0.5 gram, then the remaining sample will be 0.4 gram, which
means sample contains 40% of volatile matter.

3 Ash
If the sample is being heated at 400°C, then the sample will be kept in a furnace
for one hour at 725°C.
Example:
Ash = initial weight of sample – final weight of sample (after burn)
1 gram – 0.8 gram = 0.2 gram means 20%.

4 Fixed Carbon
Fixed Carbon % = 100-moist % - VM % - Ash %.
FC % = 100 – 10 – 40 – 20 = 30 %.

Ultimate Analysis (Elemental Analysis)

It includes the quantitative determination of C, H, N, S, & O within the coal. Other analysis
includes apparent specific gravity, forms of sulfur (organic, pyritic & sulfate), and hard-grove
grind-ability index etc.

On the basis of proximate analysis we can calculate ultimate analysis by Gothal`s formula.
H.Cv = 147.6 C + aV
where,
C = % of carbon,
V = % of volatile matter,
a is constant depends on the % of V.

% of V 1-4 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Value 270 261 210.6 196.2 185.4 171 157.5 144

of a

Method of Calculating Ultimate Analysis

Carbon & Hydrogen

Carbon and hydrogen are determined by burning of the sample in a stream of pure
oxygen in combustion apparatus.

Coal + O2 = H2O + CO2

Carbon and hydrogen present in a sample converted into H2O & CO2 and they are
absorbed by separate absorbing tubes and tubes are weighted before and after
absorption.