APPLICATION OF COLOR IMAGE-ANALYSIS IN COAL PETROLOGY

The Olympus CUE-3 Colour Image Analysis System (CIAS) offers various p rocessing and statistical functions for the analysis of two-dimensiona l images of a variety of materials, based on the colour characteristic s and geometric properties of structural and textural elements. In thi s investigation the applicability of CIAS to coal petrology is describ ed. Four high volatile bituminous coal samples from the Westphalian Co al Measures of well Kemperkoul-1 (The Netherlands) have been analysed using CIAS as well as conventional point count analysis. A statistical comparison of the results shows that CIAS is competitive to conventio nal coal petrological analysis. The reduction of processing time by 50 % and the improvement of the repeatability suggests that CIAS deserves serious consideration as an efficient alternative to conventional mac eral group analysis.