Coal is a very important fuel worldwide, used for electricity production, district heating, and in steel manufacturing, for example. Global coal production in 2012 was > 7.8 Gt. In the decade from 2000 � 2010, about 45% of world energy production was fueled by coal; it is heavily used in many countries, with the top 5 being China, the US, India, Russia and Japan. Knowledge of the properties of the coal used is important both from an economic as well as an environmental perspective. For example, information about the heating value enables optimal mixing of coal types to achieve benchmarks, therefore reducing cost and emissions.  Typically, properties like heating value, volatile matter, ash content, and elemental composition (C, S, etc.), are determined offline in a relatively slow batch approach. A faster method that can be used online is very much desired. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a rapidly evolving elemental analysis technique that can provide rapid results in a stand-off, online fashion. In combination with multivariate data analysis techniques, complex properties such as heating values and ash content can be determined using LIBS. A pilot study was conducted using a TSI ChemReveal Model 3864 Desktop LIBS analyzer, using well-characterized coal samples from the Pittsburgh Coal Database. The coal samples were pressed into pellets and analyzed in a matter of minutes on the LIBS instrument. Complete LIBS spectra were analyzed using a Partial-Least Squares algorithm. A preliminary analysis resulted in correlation coefficients (R2) >0.99 for predicted values of C content, S content, heating value and volatile matter, demonstrating the utility of this technique.

Rapid analysis of coal properties by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.