Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft brown combustible sedimentary rock that is formed from naturally compressed peat. (Credit: Anton Lefterov http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Edal)
Three certified reference materials to improve the quality of coal analysis have recently been developed by the Joint Research Center (JRC), the EU in-house scientific service, for use in laboratory quality control and method validation. These reference materials are hard coal, brown coal and furnace coke.
Knowing the heating value and the trace element load is important to reduce the environmental impact of coal. Sulfur and trace elements from coal are sources of air-borne pollution.
Burning coal is a major source of CO2 and contributes to global warming. According to a January 2013 edition of The Economist the European countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) used approximately 450 million tonnes of coal for energy production, heating and steel production in 2012.
The new reference materials are certified for their heating value, ash, sulfur, chlorine and trace element content.
“These reference materials improve the quality of coal analysis, which provides accurate data for evaluating the environmental impact,” says a JRC scientist. “Heating value and sulfur and ash content also set the financial value of coal.”
The certified values were established in two intercomparisons of laboratories of demonstrated competence. 22 laboratories submitted values, which were used to certify heating value, sulfur content, the mass fractions of mercury, lead, arsenic, antimony, selenium, nickel, cadmium and others.
