Quality indices of coals for different directions of use

The article provides an analysis of international and domestic practice of assessing the quality of coal products. It is shown that in the international market the quality of coal products is evaluated by the quality indices of the corresponding ‘benchmarks’. Quantitative values of quality indices are used to refer marketable coal products to the corresponding‘benchmark’. For coals intended for coking purposes, these indicators are: the calculated coke strength after reaction with CO2 (CSR), volatile matter yield, ash contents, mass fraction of total sulfur, free swelling index, mass fraction of total moisture, arbitrary vitrinite reflectance index, maximum fluidity according to Gieseler and the size of the pieces. To calculate the CSR index, it is necessary to consider the basicity index of the ash, determined from the data on its chemical composition. It is noted that for the internal and external circulation of coal products in the PRC, uniform requirements for the quality of coal have been introduced for additional safety indicators, such as the content of fluorine, mercury, arsenic, chlorine and phosphorus in coals. An analysis of domestic standards regulating the quality indicators of coals for different areas of use showed that the common indicators (grade according to GOST 25543-2013, ash content, mass fraction of total moisture and size of pieces) do not allow revealing the true value of coal products, which leads to ambiguous assessments of coals as objects of taxation for the extraction of minerals, classification of products according to OKPD2 and TNVED, its customs declaration, tariffication of transportation, state statistics and monitoring, including, in terms of forecasting, the export potential of domestic coal products.

Epshtein S. A., Shinkin V. K. Quality indices of coals for different directions of use. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2022;(4):5-16. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2022_4_0_5.

S.A. Epshtein¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Head of Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry of Coals, e-mail: apshtein@yandex.ru,
V.K. Shinkin¹, Graduate Student, e-mail: m142170@edu.misis.ru,
¹ National University of Science and Technology «MISiS», 119049, Moscow, Russia.

S.A. Epshtein, e-mail: apshtein@yandex.ru.

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