Coal, due to its heterogenous nature and complex structure; physical, chemical and petrographic, introduces two-fold complications during its combustion in power generation. Organic and inorganic constituents in various petrographic states alter chemically and physically. The products of coal combustion; unburned carbon, deposits, oxides of metals and non-metals, metal and non-metal complexes, need to be identified qualitatively and quantitatively to increase the coal combustion efficiency and to optimize the durability of power plant components.
This paper will describe the usage of various analytical tools like NMR, ESR, IR, Electron Microscopy, X-Ray, Fluorescent Microscopy coupled with Wet Analysis to analyze coal and its derivatives. Each spectroscopy will be related to a specific aspect of coal and its derivatives. The limiting conditions and the range of application of each of the tools will be provided. The knowledge of these ranges will help in monitoring accurate emission levels of a particulate concentration, NOx, SOx and will control several phenomena such as deposition, corrosion and erosion.
