Overview of analytical methods for inorganic constituents in coal

Environmental legislation has had significant impact on coal utilization, especially coal combustion for power generation, in limiting emissions of potentially hazardous materials to the environment. For the most part, such emissions derive from the inorganic constituents in coal. However, as such legislation becomes ever more encompassing, it has increased the need to understand better the behavior of the inorganic species in coal processing to ensure, in part, that such legislation is not unduly burdensome. Consequently, it has led to significant development of new models for the behavior of inorganics in coal combustion and a complementary enhancement of many analytical methods for determining inorganics in coal, In this paper, analytical methods for inorganics in coal are reviewed on three fronts: (i) methods for determining elemental concentrations; (ii) methods for determining the mineralogy of coals; and (iii) methods for determining modes of occurrence (speciation) of trace elements in coal. The concept of association with respect to mineral-maceral and mineral-mineral occurrences is also discussed. Where possible, comparison of different analysis methods has been made by reference to data on well-characterized suites of coals, such as the Argonne premium coal samples. Incremental enhancements will continue to be made in analytical methods for elemental concentrations; however, major improvements are needed in the other two areas. There is a great need to verify and corroborate by direct speciation methods, the many inferences made by indirect methods regarding trace element speciation. Also, improvements in the measurement of mineral association and its integration into the coal mineral analysis by means of the computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy (CCSEM) would be a significant advance. Accurate determinations of both association and coal mineralogy would lead to significant and much-needed refinements of models for the behavior of inorganics in both coal cleaning processes and coal combustion. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.