Distribution of mineral matter in pulverized coal

Abstract Mineral transformations, and therefore fly ash evolution, during pulverized coal combustion, depend on the amount, composition and spatial distribution of the inorganic matter within individual pulverized coal particles. Thus, it is necessary to have information on the mineral composition of individual particles, as well as that of the raw pulverized coal. A model is proposed based on the assumption that mineral inclusions of size and composition determined using a CCSEM are distributed randomly in the coal. From this distribution it is possible to generate distributions of mineral content for any particle size and density fraction of coal. The model has been checked by comparing computed results with data on the compositional variations of narrowly and density classified fractions of an Upper Freeport bituminous coal. The results of individual coal particle compositions are used to generate information on the variability of the composition of the fly ash generated during combustion.