Coal Petrological Characteristics of Korean Coal

국내탄의 석탄암석학적 특성

  • Published : 1989.04.30

Abstract

In order to make economic and geological evaluation of coal in Korea, proximate and ultimate analyses were carried out as well as coal petrological studies such as maceral analyses, vitrinite reflectance and sporinite fluorescence measurement. The coeffcient of correlation between each factor of both conventional utilization and coal petrological parameters were studied as in Table 5 and 6. Their conclusions were as follow: (1) for anthracite, the good parameters of coal rank are mean vitrinite reflectance, carbon content, hydrogen content and H/C atomic ratio: (2) for brown coal and sub-bituminous coal, the good parameters of coal rank are carbon content, calorific value, moisture content, hydrogen content, oxygen content and O/C atomic ratio as well as vitrinite reflectance and sporinite fluorescence. An attempt is made to infer the coalforming environment by utilization of coal petrological analyses and to make comparison of coal analyses with proximate and ultimate analyses throughout the island arc region including Japan, Philippine and Indonesia and continental region including USA, Canada and Australia. As a result, meceral composition of Paleozoic and Mesozoic anthracite are similar to that of the Paleozoic continental coals, which were formed under dry conditions or low water table, but the coalification degree suddenly increased during Daebo orogeny (middle Jurassic to lower Cretaceous). The Tertiary coal resembles those of Tertiary island arc region coal characterized by higher calorific value, volatile matter content and H/C atomic ratio and by the formation of coal under wet conditions or higher water table.

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