Coal in your stocking might be Santa’s go-to punishment for naughty children, but surely he wouldn’t just be giving away higher-quality coal! In the right field, a good, high-quality coal could be an ideal present! In order to separate the naughty coal from the nice, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen determinations are required.
LECO’s CHN828 is a carbon/hydrogen/nitrogen determinator that uses a vertical quartz furnace with a pure oxygen environment to characterize the samples. For coal, these levels can be used to calculate material/energy balances, emission potentials, and the reactivity potential. All of these factors determine the quality of the coal being tested.
With the CHN828, LECO took samples of approximately 0.1 g of three different types of coal and analyzed them in tin foil cups. Using the results of these analyses, Santa will be able to separate the coal and make sure that the very best can be used for fuel purposes.
