Craic Technologies has introduced CoalPro II, a system that performs rapid optical analysis of vitrinite and other macerals found in coal, kerogen and source rock to determine thermal maturity.
The system is used to ensure that the materials used in energy generation are optimum, consistent and reliable.
One of the most important ways of grading the energy content of coal and petroleum source rock is to measure the optical reflectance of microscopic amounts of vitrinite, which is a maceral and composed of various polymers, cellulose and lignin.
Measuring the amount of light reflected by vitrinite macerals helps to determine the thermal maturity and therefore the energy content of coal, kerogen and petroleum source rock.
The procedure, which is also used to test the suitability of coal blends for steel production, has been standardised by a number of international bodies including both ISO and ASTM.
CoalPro II measures the amount of light reflected from samples from the coal blend at hundreds of points, after which a statistical analysis is done by its software.
The results of the statistical analysis are used to determine the amount of vitrinite in the sample, the sample's thermal maturity and therefore its energy content.
As hundreds of measurements need to be done on each sample, this used to be a very time-consuming process.
However CoalPro II can economically automate this process and dramatically improve a laboratory's throughput and accuracy.
The system can also be used to measure the reflectance of other macerals and work with such materials as kerogen and petroleum source rock.
It is even sensitive enough to measure the fluorescence from these materials.
Most importantly, CoalPro II gives the user the ability to collect full colour images.
These additional capabilities give great flexibility in testing and a much higher level of discrimination than the measurement of just one maceral of coal.
