Volatiles in coal

Besides ash, another important parameter for coal quality evaluation is its calorific value (CV), which mainly depends on ash content, moisture and volatiles. Online moisture analyzers are well known and may be easily used together with LIBS machine. Thus, to enable CV real time evaluation by LIBS it is very important to develop LIBS technique for volatiles analysis. Volatiles in coal refer to the components of coal, except moisture, which are liberated at high temperature in the absence of the air. This is usually attributed to a mixture of organics as hydrocarbons chains, aromatic hydrocarbons, some sulfur groups etc. Volatile matter of coal usually is determined in laboratories using heating the coal samples to 900-950 °C. Such method is time consuming and not suitable for real time control. 

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