Permian coals, Australian

The Australian Permian coals vary widely in rank (maturity) and type (vitrinite content) from the Oaklands (N.S.W.) coal at 72% (dry ash-free basis) carbon, a hard brown coal (6), containing 17% vitrinite, at one extreme - through high volatile bituminous coals such as Galilee (Queensland) coal at 77% carbon, 16% vitrinite Blair Athol (Queensland) coal at 82% carbon, 28% vitrinite, Liddell (N.S.W.) coal at 82% carbon, and >70% vitrinite - to low volatile bituminous such as Peak Downs (Queensland) at 89% carbon, 71% vitrinite, and Bulli seam (N.S.W.) 89% carbon, 45% vitrinite. 

Effect of Rank. Most of the above observations were made on high volatile Australian coals of bituminous rank. These coals, whether of Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic age, tended to give fairly similar pictures. 

Earlier work on the isotopic compositions of pyrite, elemental sulfur, and organic sulfur in coals from Japan, Australia, and Germany (107-110) was summarized by Nielsen (102). Smith and Batts (110) showed that organic sulfur in Australian coals ranging in age from Permian to Tertiary has a large isotopic variation (+2.9 to +24%c) in coals with more than % sulfur, whereas organic sulfur in low-sulfur coals (less than 1% sulfur) has a narrow isotopic composition between +4.6 and +7.3%o. The relatively uniform isotopic... 

Figure 2. Isotopic composition of organic sulfur in Permian Australian coals containing <1% total sulfur.

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. 

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