DIFFERENTIATION OF INSITU OXIDIZED AND FRESH COAL USING FT-IR TECHNIQUES

A method has been developed for the differentiation of in situ oxidized and fresh coal from the Goonyella Lower Seam, Queensland, Australia using FT-i. r. spectroscopy. A useful relationship was found between the integrated area under the C-H stretching absorption bands in the region 2800-3100 cm** minus **1, after normalizing for ash and moisture, and the degree of oxidation as assessed by crucible swelling number determinations. The CIRCOM computer program was used to derive correlations between aspects of the FT-i. r. spectrum and the measured ash and moisture of a calibration set of well characterized samples. These correlations were then used to predict the ash and moisture of unknown samples similar to those in the calibration set.