Coal mineralogies by SEM automatic image analysis

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 UTC 1980 · Scanning Electron Microsc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5144494

Huggins, F E; Kosmack, D A; Huffman, G P; Lee, R J

Procedures for using SEM automatic image analysis (AIA) to obtain quantitative mineralogical descriptions of coals are updated from our earlier description (SEM/1978/I, pp. 561-568), as improvements have been made in many aspects of the method. Experiments designed to test the precision and accuracy of the method indicate that its precision is comparable to that of other techniques, but that it overestimates pyrite because the contrast of this mineral in the BSE image is much higher than that of all other common minerals. A multiplicative correction factor of about 0.75 for pyrite or indepedent measures of pyrite will ensure the most accurate results by the SEM-AIA method. As the SEM-AIA technique is applied directly to the coal, is more sensitive to minor constituents than other methods, and yields information on the distribution of particle-size parameters, it compares well with other techniques for quantitative coal mineralogies. Results obtained with this technique are summarized for two applications: mineralogical changes effected by washing and reconstructions of paleoenvironments for coal quality delineation. (18 refs.)

• OSTI ID: 5144494
• Journal Information: Scanning Electron Microsc.; (United States), Journal Name: Scanning Electron Microsc.; (United States) Vol. 1980:I; ISSN SEMYB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010600* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Properties & Composition
ACCURACY
AUTOMATION
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
COAL
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ENERGY SOURCES
EVALUATION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
IMAGE PROCESSING
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON SULFIDES
MATERIALS
MEASURING METHODS
MICROSCOPY
MINERALOGY
MINERALS
PARTICLE SIZE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PROCESSING
PYRITE
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SAMPLE PREPARATION
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SIZE
SULFIDE MINERALS
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TESTING
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS