The evolution characteristics of organic sulfur structure in various Chinese high organic sulfur coals

Yuegang Tang,Cong Chen,Qiang Wei,Xin Guo,Weiwei Li,Xiaolong Li,Robert B Finkelman,Xuan Huan

doi:10.1177/0144598720975142

Abstract

Understanding the organic sulfur structure and its evolution characteristics is crucial to the desulfurization of coal, as they are the dominant factors determining the removal of organic sulfur from coal. To learn the organic sulfur structure characteristics, a series of high-organic-sulfur coals from China with different ranks were studied by coal petrology, structural chemistry, and organic geochemistry theory in this paper. Coal petrological analysis shows some of the high-organic-sulfur coals with high TPI values and low GI values indicating that they have experienced unusual conditions when the coal was forming. Through the FTIR analysis, the organic sulfur structural parameters shows the relative abundance of aliphatic sulfur (thiol, thioether and sulfone) in these coals decreased with the increasing coal rank and the relative abundance of aromatic sulfur in coal generally showed an increasing trend with increasing coalification, divided into three different evolutionary stages (0.37%–1.40%, 1.40%–1.99% and 1.99%–3.93% of Rm). Comprehensive analysis shows that EID and TPI had a significant correlation with the organic sulfur structural parameters, which means regardless of the coal rank the impact of the environment on the structure of organic sulfur is independent. These results give a new insight into organic sulfur characteristics in coal and its evolution characteristics with coal rank, which are potentially useful for the efficient remove the organic sulfur from coal.

Highlights

The environmental impacts of coal combustion and utilization cannot be ignored, especially the pollution caused by the release of sulfur from coal (Abelson, 1975; Davut and Sibel, 1997; Medunic et al, 2016a, 2018a, 2018b; Train, 1975), compelling scholars to study the geochemical characteristics of the genesis and sources of sulfur in coal (Casagrande and Ng, 1979; Casagrande and Siefert, 1977; Casagrande et al, 1989; Chou, 1997, 2012; Dai et al, 2008, 2017, 2018; Lei et al, 1994; Ren et al, 1994, 1996; Tang et al, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2015; Yang and Zhao, 2018)
This study focused on the structural characteristics of organic sulfur and coal petrological characteristics in high
A series of high organic sulfur coals with different coal ranks was analyzed by petrology and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)

Summary

Introduction

The environmental impacts of coal combustion and utilization cannot be ignored, especially the pollution caused by the release of sulfur from coal (Abelson, 1975; Davut and Sibel, 1997; Medunic et al, 2016a, 2018a, 2018b; Train, 1975), compelling scholars to study the geochemical characteristics of the genesis and sources of sulfur in coal (Casagrande and Ng, 1979; Casagrande and Siefert, 1977; Casagrande et al, 1989; Chou, 1997, 2012; Dai et al, 2008, 2017, 2018; Lei et al, 1994; Ren et al, 1994, 1996; Tang et al, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2015; Yang and Zhao, 2018). This study focused on the structural characteristics of organic sulfur and coal petrological characteristics in high The coal samples organic sulfur content is between 0.92 and 12.09 and JJP8-5, CM6-1, SSP11-5, LL3-9 and GH are considered to be SHOS coals.

Results

Conclusion