Effectiveness of high temperature pyrolysis in sulfur removal from coal

A series of Polish hard coals of different rank that contained sulfur in the quantity from 0.37 to 4.90 wt% was investigated in this study. The coals were subjected to pyrolysis at 1000 degrees C in an atmosphere of the gases evolved during the pyrolysis process. Results have shown a decreasing trend in the degree of sulfur removal by high temperature pyrolysis with increasing coal rank. The effectiveness of pyrolysis in sulfur removal appears to he related to the proportion of the non-thiophenic sulfur to the total organic sulfur in the coal. There are linear correlations between the total sulfur content in the coke and the total, pyritic and organic sulfur contents in the initial coal.