Mineral matter characteristics of Samleswari block Ib valley coal field, Odisha, India

In India, coal is one of the important source of energy. Slagging and clinkering of the coal in the process of combustion is the major problem in non-coking coal industries. The purpose of this paper is to thermodynamic assessment of the chemical composition variations and phase transitions in the coal ash during the process of combustion. For thermodynamic analysis FactSage software is used and the coal samples are collected from the Samleswari block Coalfield, Odisha. The predicted data has been matched with the experimental data obtained by XRD. XRD results showed that Quartz and Kaolinite are present in abundance amount. Chemical composition analyses show that there is an abundance of acidic oxides (SiO2, Fe2O3 and TiO2) in the coal samples. Traces of basic oxides (Fe2O3, MgO and CaO) have been observed. High acid-to-base ratios are accountable for the high ash fusion temperatures, which certainly lowers the slagging potential of coal seams studied. The ash fusion temperatures are only an indicator of slag propensity of coal