Title

American Metallurgical Coal Quality - A General Overview

American Metallurgical Coal Quality - A General Overview

Authorship

Goscinski, John; Export, Massey Coal

Goscinski, John

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Export, Massey Coal

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DOI

10.5151/1TH-MEETING-COAL-1987-1987064

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Abstract

Coal is a heterogeneous mixture of organically derived plant remains that have undergone chemical and physical changes in response to biogenic and geologic processes. Nearly all coal scientists agree that coal formed in depressed areas in the earth in or near shallow water. To form coal, plant accumulation must exceed removal. The principal mechanism for removal is decay. Thus, the conditions for profuse plant growth and accumulation do not result in coal formation unless the biochemical environment into which the dead vegetable matter accumulates restricts removal or decay. As the plant material is buried and compacted, the rising water level restricts the activity of aerobic organisms. In the absence of atmospheric oxygen, anaerobic bacteria extract oxygen from the organic matter, and the process of peat formation and subsequent coal formation begins. The difference in the original vegetation, combined with the relative extent of aerobic (oxidizing) and anaerobic (reducing) decay, may be largely responsible for differences in coal type or lithotypes.

Coal is a heterogeneous mixture of organically derived plant remains that have undergone chemical and physical changes in response to biogenic and geologic processes. Nearly all coal scientists agree that coal formed in depressed areas in the earth in or near shallow water. To form coal, plant accumulation must exceed removal. The principal mechanism for removal is decay. Thus, the conditions for profuse plant growth and accumulation do not result in coal formation unless the biochemical environment into which the dead vegetable matter accumulates restricts removal or decay. As the plant material is buried and compacted, the rising water level restricts the activity of aerobic organisms. In the absence of atmospheric oxygen, anaerobic bacteria extract oxygen from the organic matter, and the process of peat formation and subsequent coal formation begins. The difference in the original vegetation, combined with the relative extent of aerobic (oxidizing) and anaerobic (reducing) decay, may be largely responsible for differences in coal type or lithotypes.

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