Latrobe Valley, Australia

Bates, A.L., and Hatcher, P.G (1989) Solid-state 13C NMR studies of a large fossil gymnosperm from the Yallourn Open Cut, Latrobe Valley, Australia. Qrg. Geochem. 14, 609-617... 

Victorian brown coals are thought to be largely amorphous, containing aromatic layers of single substituted benzene rings crosslinked by aliphatic chains to form a three dimensional structure. Their carbon content is quite low, varying from 60 to 70. One would therefore expect its porous system to be somewhat like that of an open structure having micropores which are randomly-oriented. In this preliminary study two samples of Yallourn ream coal were taken from the Yallourn open cut mine in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. The samples, a pale and a medium dark lithotype, are representative of the extremes in coal types found in the Yallourn ream. 

This study reports the monocarboxylic fatty acid content of a series of brown coal lithotypes from the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. We have looked both at the solvent-extractable, or free, fatty acids (which include those extractable as esters or intact lipids) and at those that are released upon hydrolysis (saponification) of the residue after solvent extraction. The latter are presumably bound chemically to the coal matrix (kerogen) and are therefore designated as bound acids. The total acids are taken as the sum of the free and bound acids. 

Samples. Brown coal lithotype samples were taken from a bore core from the Flynn field in the Loy Yang region of the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia. The brown coal deposits in this area are believed to be Miocene to Eocene in age. All five lithotype samples were taken at depths between 93 and 100.5 m below the surface in a 120-m core and were provided by the SECV. The black coal sample was from the Upper Hunter region (Permian) of New South Wales (Sydney Basin), Australia, and had a carbon content of 81.3%, dry, ash-free basis (DAF). This sample was provided by the Australian Coal Industry Research Laboratories Ltd. (ACIRL). The characteristics of these samples are set out in Table II. 

C02CRC, in post-combustion capture started in June 2007 and is based at International Power s Hazelwood Power Plant in the Victorian Latrobe Valley. The International Power/Process Group solvent capture plant is the largest post-combustion capture plant on a power plant in Australia and has been designed to initially capture 25 tpd (expandable up to 50 tpd) of CO2 from flue gas using a commercial amino-acid-based solvent (BASF PuratTreat-F ). 

As a first example, we consider the diagenesis of clastic sandstones in the Gippsland basin, southeastern Australia, basing our model on the work of Harrison (1990). The Gippsland basin is the major offshore petroleum province in Australia. Oil production is from the Latrobe group, a fluvial to shallow marine sequence of Late Cretaceous to early Eocence age that partly fills a Mesozoic rift valley. 

---