Measuring coal quality

The quality of coal is primarily measured by how well it burns, how much heat it gives out in the process,
and how much ash it leaves behind afterwards. These characteristics depend on how much of the coal is
fuel (ie carbon and hydrogen) and how much of it is non-combustible components like water and mineral
impurities. As a first step, coal is analysed by measuring the change in weight of a sample heated and
ultimately burnt to yield the following components:

Moisture:
The water given off by heating to 105ºC in nitrogen (to prevent any burning).

Volatiles:
Gases and vapours formed by decomposition of the coal by heating in nitrogen to 900ºC.
These gases contain virtually all of the coal's hydrogen and the carbon which combines with it
(eg as methane, CH4).

Fixed
carbon: This is the carbon left over after the volatiles have been driven off, determined from the
change in weight when the devolatised sample is burnt in air.

Ash:
This is the incombustible residue; mostly from mineral impurities in the coal. The ash content
is the most important measure of coal quality.

The Calorific Value (energy content) of the coal is measured by burning a small sample in a calorimeter. The
energy released is usually measured in megajoules per kilogram (MJ/kg), or gigajoules per tonne (GJ/t),
which are the same. A gigajoule would meet the home energy needs of a family with an air conditioner and a
swimming pool for a week, or run the family car for about 300 kilometres. The fuel energy of any coal is
about 32 MJ/kg; this is reduced according to the content of water and mineral impurities. The Calorific Value
is the most important measure of coal value.

OXYGEN
Elemental NITROGEN
Components SULPHUR
(Organics) HYDROGEN
CARBON

Analysis
Source
Components
Components
  VOLATILES
  ORGANICS  
  FIXED CARBON
  SILT  
  ASH
  WATER  
  MOISTURE

The relationship between the components of a coal.

(Relative proportions for typical Collie coal)
 Frequently the sulphur content of the coal is determined. This is of interest because sulphur creates
undesirable combustion products which have caused acid rain in regions where high sulphur coals are
burned. The sulphur content of Collie coal is very low (lower than most crude oil).

A typical Collie coal would have:

Moisture 25.0% Calorific Value 20.7MJ/kg (GJ/t)

Volatiles 27.0% Sulphur 0.5%
Fixed Carbon 42.5% (most sulphur reports
Ash 5.5% to Volatiles)

Coals from lower in the coal measure sequence tend to have lower moisture as a consequence of slightly
higher rank (see Types of coal page).

Types of coal
There are several different types of coal, which have different properties usually dependent on their age and the
depth to which they have been buried under other rocks. In some parts of the world (eg New Zealand), coal
development is accelerated by volcanic heat or crustal stresses. The degree of coal development is referred to as
a coal's "rank", with peat being the lowest rank coal and anthracite the highest.

Peat

Peat is the layer of vegetable material directly underlying the growing zone of a coal forming environment.
The vegetable material shows very little alteration and contains the roots of living plants. Peat is widely
used as a domestic fuel in rural parts of Scotland and Ireland.

Lignite

Lignite is geologically very young (upwards of around 40000 years). It is brown and can be soft and fibrous,
containing discernible plant material. It also contains large amounts of moisture (around 70%) and so has a
low energy content: around 8-10 MJ/kg. This coal is mined extensively in the Latrobe Valley south east of
Melbourne, Australia. As the coal develops it loses its fibrous character and darkens in colour.

Black coal

In Australia, black coal ranges from Cretaceous age (65 - 105 million years ago) to mid Permian age (up to
260 million years ago). They are all black; some are sooty and still quite high in moisture (sub-bituminous
coal), including the coal mined at Collie, which is sometimes termed a "black lignite". Coals which get more
deeply buried by other rocks lose more moisture and start to lose their oxygen and hydrogen; they are
harder and shinier (bituminous coal). These are typical of most of the coals mined in NSW and
Queensland, which have energy contents around 24 to 28 MJ/kg. These coals generally have less than 3%
moisture, but some power stations in NSW and Queensland burn coal at up to 30% ash.

Anthracite

Anthracite is a hard, black, shiny form of coal which contains virtually no moisture and very low volatile
content. Because of this, it burns with little or no smoke and is sold as a "smokeless fuel". In Australia,
coals only approach anthracite composition where bituminous coal seams have been compressed further
by local crustal movements (at Yarrabee and Baralaba, both in Queensland). Anthracites can have energy
contents up to about 32 MJ/kg, depending on the ash content.
 Coal rank has little to do with quality; as a coal matures its ash content actually increases as a proportion
because of the loss of moisture and volatiles. Lower rank coals may have lower energy contents, but they tend to
be more reactive (they burn faster) because of their porosity and resultant higher surface area. It takes about 8
metres of peat to make a metre of Collie coal and 12 metres of peat to make a metre of bituminous coal.

The current edition of the ‘Coal Conversion Facts’ fact card is available to view below. If
you would like to download a PDF version of the card, please click here.
 
If you would like to receive a hard copy of the fact card, please complete the publications
order form on this page.
 
Basis of Analysis
 
Definitions
As Received (ar): includes Total Moisture (TM)
Air Dried (ad): includes Inherent Moisture (IM) only
Dry Basis (db): excludes all Moisture
Dry Ash Free (daf): excludes all Moisture & Ash
 
The Proximate Analysis of any coal i.e. the % content of Moisture, Ash (A),
Volatile Matter (VM), Fixed Carbon (FC) - also Sulphur (S) and Calorific Value
(CV) - can be expressed on any of the above bases.
 

Conversions
To obtain:- Air Dry Dry Basis As Received
- multiply
100 /
(100 - IM%) /
ar by: (100 - TM%) -
(100 - TM%)
 
100 / (100 - TM%) /
ad by: -
(100 - IM%) (100 - IM%)
(100 - IM%) / (100 - TM%) /
db by: -
100 100
 
[For daf, multiply db by 100/(100-A)]
 
Example:
  ar ad db daf
TM 11.0 - - -
IM 2.0 2.0 - -
Ash 12.0 13.2 13.5 -
VM 30.0 33.0 33.7 39.0
FC 47.0 51.8 52.8 61.0
Sulphur 1.0 1.1 1.12 -
 
MASS
 
Units:
Metric ton (t) = tonne = 1000 kilograms (= 2204.6 lb)
Imperial or Long ton (lt) = 1016.05 kilograms (= 2240 lb)
Short (US) ton (st) = 907.19 kilograms (= 2000 lb)
 
Conversions:
From long ton to metric ton multiply by 1.016
From short ton to metric ton multiply by 0.9072
Mt - million tonnes
Mtce - million tonnes of coal equivalent (= 0.697 Mtoe)
Mtoe - million tonnes of oil equivalent
 
Calorific Values (CV)
 
Units:
kcal/kg - Kilocalories per kilogram
MJ/kg* - Megajoules per kilogram
Btu/lb - British Thermal Units per pound
* 1 MJ/kg = 1 Gigajoule/tonne (GJ/t)
 
Gross & Net Calorific Values
Gross CV or higher heating value' (HHV) is the CV under laboratory conditions.
Net CV or 'lower heating value' (LHV) is the useful calorific value in boiler plant. The
difference is essentially the latent heat of the water vapour produced.
 
Conversions – Units
From kcal/kg to MJ/kg multiply by 0.004187
From kcal/kg to Btu/lb multiply by 1.800
 
From MJ/kg to kcal/kg multiply MJ/kg by 238.8
From MJ/kg to Btu/lb multiply MJ/kg by 429.9
 
 From Btu/lb to kcal/kg multiply Btu/lb by 0.5556
From Btu/lb to MJ/kg multiply Btu/lb by 0.002326
 
Conversions - Gross/Net (per ISO, for As Received figures)
kcal/kg: Net CV = Gross CV - 50.6H - 5.85M - 0.191O
MJ/kg: Net CV = Gross CV - 0.212H - 0.0245M - 0.0008O
Btu/lb: Net CV = Gross CV - 91.2H - 10.5M - 0.34O
 
- where M is % Moisture, H is % Hydrogen, O is % Oxygen (from ultimate analysis*,
also As Received).
 
* Ultimate analysis determines the amount of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and
sulphur.
 
For typical bituminous coal with 10% M and 25% Volatile Matter, the differences
between gross and net calorific values are approximately as follows:

260 1.09 470

kcal/kg MJ/kg Btu/lb

Power Generation

1 MWh = 3600 MJ
1 MW = 1 MJ/s
1 MW (thermal power) [MWth] = approx 1000 kg steam/hour
1 MW (electrical power) [MWe] = approx MWth / 3
 
A 600 MWe coal-fired power station operating at 38% efficiency and 75% overall
availability will consume approximately:
- Bituminous coal (CV 6000 kcal/kg NAR*): 1.5 Mt/annum
- Brown coal (CV 2250 kcal/kg NAR*): 4.0 Mt/annum
 
* Net As Received
 
Sources: GWC Coal Handbook & IEA Clean Coal Centre
 
• Documents
WCI Coal Conversion Facts fact card (2005)

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Coal is a fossil fuel. It is a combustible, sedimentary, organic rock, which is composed mainly of
carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. It is formed from vegetation, which has been consolidated between
other rock strata and altered by the combined effects of pressure and heat over millions of years to
form coal seams.

In each section below you will be able to learn more about coal. Information on all aspects of the
coal industry can also be found in the WCI publication The Coal Resource.