CHARACTERIZATION OF COALS FOR COMBUSTION USING PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSIS - A REVIEW

Petrographic analysis can give useful information about the combustion of pulverized coal. However, the relations between maceral types and reactivity are not simple; for example, not all inertinites are inert, and not all vitrinites are reactive. This is a consequence of the for mal definition of macerals and the variations between coals from diffe rent parts of the world. The reflectance values of the maceral groups and the associations of the different macerals, determined as microlit hotypes, also need to be taken into account. Mineral matter also has a n effect on the type of char formed, and the situation is further comp licated by the different char characterization schemes in the literatu re. The main conclusion from this review is that any predictive system needs to take all these factors into account, especially reflectance.