DETERMINATION OF CARBON IN COAL BLOOMS

Carbon in weathered coal seams (coal "blooms") was completely recovered by the Walkley-Black dichromate oxidation procedure employing only heat of dilution. This result conflicts with past findings that mild oxidations give low and variable recoveries of C from natural forms of carbonized-C such as coal and charcoal. Weathering apparently changes the structure or composition of coal in such a way that C reactivity is increased even though blooms retain many of the chemical and morphological characteristics of carbonized-C. As a result, C in blooms is measured as organic-C by standard laboratory analysis. The relative ease of oxidation of C in blooms implies that rates of C transfer from coal blooms to other pools in local C-cycles may be more rapid than from relatively inert pools such as charcoal and unweathered coal.