1. The document discusses the major components and processes involved in the formation of coal from plant matter over millions of years. 2. Key components and processes include the formation of peat in swamps, followed by increased heat and pressure over time transforming the peat into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, and finally anthracite. 3. On a microscopic level, coal is composed of different organic particles called macerals that are the remains of the original plant materials, and these macerals can be grouped into inertinite, liptinite, and vitrinite based on their properties.

1. Major Components of Coal Fired Steam
Generator System
Offline
Online
~600mm
Crushed to small
pieces of about
20 mm diameter

2. Know Your Fuel Before You Know Your SG
Mostly Fossil Fules
Coal : Petroleum : Natural Gas

3. STUDY OF COALIFICATION
P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
An Extremely Slow Action in Nature...
True Quasi-static Process to Create
Permanent Entropy Vehicles…..

4. Coal : First Kind of Entropy Vehicle

5. Timing of Newton’s Law???

6. A tree converts disorder to order with a
little help from the Sun
• The building materials are in a
highly disordered state - gases,
liquids and vapors.
• The tree takes in carbon dioxide
from the air, water from the earth as
well as a small amount from water
vapor in the air.
• From this disordered beginning, it
produces the highly ordered and
highly constrained sugar molecules,
like glucose.
The radiant energy from the Sun gets transferred to the bond energies of the
carbons and the other atoms in the glucose molecule.
In addition to making the sugars, the plants also release oxygen which is essential
for animal life.

7. First Law Analysis of Photosynthesis :
SSSF
The Global Reaction Equation:
  2
6
2
2
2 6
6
6 O
O
CH
O
H
CO 


First Laws for furnace in SSSF Mode:
CV
O
veg
O
H
CO
CV
W
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
Q
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2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Conservation of Mass: 0
2
2
2 







O
vegetation
O
H
CO m
m
m
m
m CO2
m water
m vegetation
Q
Q
W
m Oxygen

8. Coalification
• Orgin of Coal : A complex mixture of plant substances
altered in varying degree by physical and chemical
process.
• Reaction time : ~~ 365 million years.
• Mechanism of Formation:
• In Situ Theory : Coal seam occupies the same site where
original plants grew and accumulated.
• Drift Theory : Plants and trees were uprooted and drifted
by rivers to lakes and estuaries to get deposited.
• During the course of time they got buried underground.
Indian coals are formed according to drift theory.

9. In Situ Theory
The humid climate of the Carboniferous Period (360 to 286 million
years ago), which favoured the growth of huge tropical seed ferns
and giant nonflowering trees, created the vast swamp areas
Carboniferous periods of the
Paleozoic when these areas
were covered with forests

10. Sequence of Actions in Coalification

11. Bio - Chemical Degradation of Dead Plants
• As the plants died and fell into the boggy waters.
• These Boggy waters excluded sufficient oxygen.
• Bacteria could only partially decomposed but did not rot away the
dead plants.
• The absence of oxygen killed the bacteria.
• The vegetation was changed into peat, some of which was brown
and spongy, some black and compact, depending on the degree of
decomposition.
• Peat deposition is the first step in the formation of coal.
O
H
CO
CH
O
H
C
O
H
C 2
2
4
5
10
8
5
10
6 2
2
2 




12. Formation of Peat
• Natural Rate of reaction : 3cm layer per 100 years.
• Light brown fibrous at the surface and colour becomes darker with
depth.
• Typical Composition: Moisture : 85%, Volatile Matter : 8 %,
Fixed Carbon : 4%, Ash : 3%.
• Calorifica Value : ~2730 kJ/kg.
• Occurrence of Peat : Nilgiri Hills and banks of Hooghly.
• Sun dried Peat is very useful as a fuel with following composition:
• Moisture : 20%, Volatile Matter : 50 %, Fixed Carbon : 25%, Ash :
5%
• Bulk density : 300 kg/m3 and low furnace temperature and
efficiency.
• Products from Peat: Charcoal, Producer gas.

13. First Law Analysis of Formation of Peat :SSSF
Species Conservation Equation:
First Laws for furnace in SSSF Mode:
CV
CO
CH
peat
veg
CV
W
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
Q
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2
2
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Conservation of
Mass:
P=??
m CO2
m vegetation
Q
m Peat
m CH4
0
2
4 







CO
CH
peat m
m
m
mvegetation
O
H
CO
CH
O
H
C
O
H
C 2
2
4
5
10
8
5
10
6 2
2
2 




14. Plant Debris Peat Lignite Brown Coal
Diamond
Semi Anthracite
Anthracite Bituminous
Sub-Bituminous
Steps in Formation of Coal

15. Molecular Structure of Peat
O
nH
zCO
yCH
O
H
C
O
H
xC 2
2
4
5
10
8
5
10
6 



Structure of smallest molecule: 5
10
8 O
H
C
Bio-chemical Reaction:

16. Atmospheric CO2 Concentration at Peat Bogs
2
CO
2
CO


17. First Law Analysis of Formation of
Peat :SSSF
Species Conservation Equation:
First Laws for furnace in SSSF Mode:
CV
CO
CH
peat
veg
CV
W
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
gz
V
h
m
Q
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2
2
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Conservation of Mass:
W
m CO2
m vegetation
Q
Q
m Peat
m CH4
0
2
4 







CO
CH
peat m
m
m
mvegetation
O
H
CO
CH
O
H
C
O
H
C 2
2
4
5
10
8
5
10
6 2
2
2 




18. Secondary Transformation : Geo-Chemical
Stage
• The decayed vegetation was subjected to extreme
temperature and crushing pressures.
• It took several hundred million years to transform the
soggy Peat into the solid mineral.
• 20 m of compacted vegetation was required to produce 1 m
seam of coal.
• This is called as coalification or coal forming.
• The extent to which coalification has progressed
determines the rank of coal.

19. Secondary Transformation : Geo-Chemical
Stage

20. Modeling of Combustible Coalification
Peat to Enriched peat: (mostly due to heating)
O
H
O
O
H
C
O
H
C 2
2
3
18
19
5
10
8 23
24
8
19 


lignite to Sub-bituminous: (mostly due to pressure &heating)
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 2
2
4
16
35
3
18
19 


Enriched peat to lignite: (mostly due to pressure &heating)
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 2
2
4
19
49
4
16
35 


Sub-bituminous to High volatile Bituminous:
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 2
2
3
23
57
4
19
49 



21. Global Reaction Model for Coalification
• The application of basic kinetics to the real coalification
requires some algebraic manipulations
T
e
t
dt
dC
3500
2
.
0
50
Rate
Reaction




22. High Volatile Bituminous to Medium volatile Bituminous:
4
2
2
1
23
64
3
23
57 qCH
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 



Medium Volatile Bituminous to Low volatile Bituminous:
4
2
2
5
.
0
21
66
1
23
64 qCH
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 



Low Volatile Bituminous to semi Anthracite:
4
2
2
5
.
0
16
67
5
.
0
21
66 qCH
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 



Semi Anthracite to Anthracite:
4
2
2
25
.
0
11
72
5
.
0
16
67 qCH
O
pH
zO
O
H
yC
O
H
xC 



Modeling of High Rank Coalification

23. Chemical Structure of Coal

24. Composition of Coals
• The natural constituents of coal can be divided into two groups:
• (i) The organic fraction, which can be further subdivided into
microscopically identifiable macerals.
• (ii) The inorganic fraction, which is commonly identified as ash
subsequent to combustion.
• The organic fraction can be further subdivided on the basis of its
rank or maturity.

25. Microscopic Structure of Coals
• On the microscopic level, coal is made up of organic particles
called macerals.
• Macerals are the altered remains and byproducts of the original
plant material from which the coal-forming peat originated.
• Macerals are to coal as sediment grains.
• Coal petrographers separate macerals into three groups, each of
which includes several maceral types.
• The groups are Inertinite, Liptinite, and Vitrinite.
• These groups were defined according to their grayness in
reflected light under a microscope.

26. Parents of Microscopic Macerals.

27. Maceral Groups and Macerals in Coals

29. Origin of Maceral Groups
• Vitrinite is thought to be derived mainly from the original
woody tissue of trees in peat swamps.
• Exinite , which is derived from pollen, spores and leaf
epidermis, is technologically important, because it enhances
the fluidity of coal.
• The inertinite group of macerals derives its name from its
more or less non-reactive character shown during the
carbonization process.
• Whereas exinite and vitrinite melt, with an evolution of
volatiles, inertinites generally remain intact.
• Inertinite is derived from fungal remains, charcoal and
partly charred wood.

30. Chemistry of Maceral Groups
• The maceral content and volatile-matter yield of a coal may
be considerably influenced by the post-depositional chemical
environment to which the normally acid peat is subjected.
• There exist a correlation between carbon content and
reflectance and this is used to precisely determine rank.
• Petrographers in use the mean maximum reflectance of
vitrinite in oil (Romax), at 546 µ, as the level of organic
maturity, or rank, of a coal sample.

31. Carbon Content in Macerals

32. Vitrinite reflectance (Ro)
• Vitrinite reflectance is the proportion of incident light
reflected from a polished vitrinite surface.

33. Coal Reactivity
• The reactivity parameter was calculated using the
following equation:
dt
dm
m
R
initial
T
1



34. Secrets of Coal Reactivity

35. Comprehensive Coal Characterization

36. Reflectance Rank
0.50% - 1.12% High-volatile bituminous
1.12% - 1.51% Medium-volatile bituminous
1.51% - 1.92% Low-volatile bituminous
1.92% - 2.5% Semi-anthracite
> 2.5% Anthracite
Closing Remarks on Coal Knowledge

37. Natural Thermodynamics for Creation of Permanent
of Entropy Vehicles

38. Chemical Structure of Combustible Coal

40. Coal Ranking vs Utilization

41. Mineral-Matter Composition of Coals
• The ash of a coal is the uncombustible oxide residue which
remains after combustion.
• Mineral matter is the natural mineral assemblage of a coal
that contains syngenetic, diagenetic and epigenetic species.
• Mineral matter is identified more accurately by X-ray
diffraction analysis of low-temperature ash (LTA).
• The post-depositional chemical environment of a peat
swamp, is the major factor determining the amount and
kind of mineral species present in coal.

42. Analysis of Coal
• Proximate Analysis & Ultimate Analysis.
• Proximate analysis - to determine the moisture, ash, volatiles
matter and fixed carbon
• Ultimate or elementary analysis - to determine the elemental
composition of the coal
• The Energy content -- CFRI Formulae --
• Low Moisture Coal(M < 2% ) -- CV (Kcal/kg) = 71.7 FC +
75.6 (VM-0.1 A) - 60 M
• High Moisture Coal(M > 2%) -- CV(kcal.kg) = 85.6 {100 -
(1.1A+M)} - 60 M
• Where, M, A, FC and VM denote moister, ash , fixed carbon
and Volatile mater (all in percent), respectively.

43. Fuel Model

44. Dictionary of Few Indian Coals

45. Ash Model

46. Additional Characteristics of Coal
• Sulfur Content : Coal with sulfur > 5% is not recommended for
combustion.
• Weatherability : Weathering or Slacking Index -- An indication
of size stability -- Denotes the tendency to break on exposure to
alternate wet and dry periods.
• Grindability Index : A measure of relative ease of grinding coals
or the power required for grinding coals in a pulverizer.
• Burning Characteristics of Coal : Free burning coals and Caking
Coals -- Caking index -- Pulverulent, sintered, weakly caked,
caked and strongly caked.
• Ash Fusion temperature -- The temperature where the ash
becomes very plastic -- Design of ash handling system. -- Stoker
furnace cannot use low ash fusion temperature coals.

47. Biochar Production Process

48. Biochar Production at IIT Delhi
Kiln Capacity:25 L, Efficiency:20-25% Feedstock: Leaf Waste,
Operating Temperature<450° C

49. Analysis of Biochar
Biochar
samples
C
(%)
H
(%)
N
(%)
S
(%)
O
(%)
O/C
(%)
H/C
(%)
Moistur
e
(%)
Volatil
e
matter
(%)
Fixe
d C
(%)
Ash
(%)
pH
LWB400 79.4 2.3 0.2 0.2 8.6 0.11 0.03 1.2 64.9 24.7 9.3 10.2
LWB300 71.3 3.1 0.9 0.5 12.6 0.18 0.04 1.6 67.5 20.3 10.6 9.8
LWB200 68.3 4.8 1.1 0.5 14.2 0.21 0.05 2.2 71.0 15.8 11.0 9.6

50. Maximum Extra-somatic Energy Content of
A Fuel
• Obtained only thru Combustion.
• Standard heat of combustion:
• The energy liberated when a substance X undergoes complete
combustion, with excess oxygen at standard conditions (25°C and
1 bar).
• The heat of combustion is utilised to quantify the performance of a
fuel in combustion systems such as furnaces, Combustion engines
and power plants.
• In industrial terminology it is identified as the Gross Heating
(calorific) Value or Higher Heating (calorific) value.
• In a general design calculations, only Net Heating (calorific)
Value or Lower Heating (calorific) value is used.

51. Measurement of Calorific Value : Bomb
Calorimeter : Control Mass

52. Thermodynamic Description of Bomb
Calorimeter
• It is a combination of two closed systems.
• Bomb: Constant volume closed system: Interacts only with
calorimeter.
• Calorimeter: Outer constant volume closed system:
• Interacts only with bomb.
• Isolates entire system with ambience.

53. The Bomb & Fuel

54. Temperature of Water in the Jacket

55. Energy Balance & Estimation of CV
Who all accepted the Thermal energy (heat) liberated due to
combustion?