A multi-facetted study of a cretaceous coal with algal affinities. I. Provenance of the coal samples and basic compositional data

Abstract

This coal, of Cretaceous age and from southwest Utah, attracted attention because a lithobody from it showed a high hydrogen content and excellent behavior in liquefaction. The seam is 230 cm thick and consists of an upper and lower lithobody of a clarodurainic type, extensively weathered, surrounding two lithobodies of canneloid-boghead character. The petrography of the canneloid-boghead lithobodies is complex; the vitrinite content is only about 25%, and the bulk of the material appears to consist of a matrix of what may be bituminite. Appreciable amounts of resinite and liptodetrinite are also present. If the suggested affinity to canneloid-boghead coal types is correct, the lithobodies would be regarded as saprohumolithic in character and were probably formed in an open body of water. Ultimate analysis shows hydrogen contents of 7% (dmmf) or greater. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy shows that the samples have a high degree of aliphatic character, methylene chains being abundant. Carboxylic acid groups are present, presumably as a result of weathering. Subtraction of spectra shows that one canneloid-boghead lithobody is appreciably more weathered than others.