Today, coal is the most widely used. With its help, electrical energy, rare and trace elements, and graphite are obtained. Coal is an important raw material in the chemical and metallurgical industries. This is why the request “buy coal” comes up very often.
Russia boasts huge coal reserves, the basins and deposits of which are scattered throughout the country. They differ in geological structure, coal quality, coal saturation and age of sediments. Depending on the structural characteristics, Russian basins are classified into folded, transitional and platform.\
Most of the deposits contain humus coals, among which the main place belongs to coking varieties. Main basins: Donetsk, Pechora, South Yakutsk and Kuznetsk. Brown coal deposits are found in the regions of Eastern Siberia and the Urals, as well as in the Moscow basin.
Coal deposits are uneven in the quality of the fossil, the volume of its reserves and the area occupied. In addition, they, like development companies, are located in different regions of the country. Today coal is mined in ten coal basins. The largest deposits are considered to be the Kuznetsk, Kansko-Achinsk, Gorlovka basins and Eastern Donbass.
The Kuznetsk basin is the main coal base of the country and provides half of the total volume of mined raw materials. Almost twelve percent of production is carried out open method. The Kansk-Achinsk basin supplies brown coal, which is considered the cheapest in the country. Due to its low quality, it is poorly transportable, so it mainly ensures the operation of powerful thermal power plants operating on the basis of the largest open-pit mines. The Pechora basin accounts for four percent of the country's coal production. It is located away from industrial centers, mining is carried out only in mines.
Coal mining
Coal is mined in two main ways - closed and open. In the first case, these are mines or cuts. Mine - complex mining enterprise for underground coal mining. On average, she works for about forty years. Coal is mined in layers, each layer taking approximately ten years to remove. After this, the horizon is reconstructed and a deeper layer is developed. The open-pit mine involves excavating coal in benches and successive strips. Coal mined in mines and open pits is sent directly to the consumer or to processing plants, where it is first sorted and then enriched.
Promising coal basins include Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky. They occupy significant areas in sparsely populated areas of Siberia and the Far East. Today, coal production in the western regions is gradually declining, while in the eastern regions it is increasing. One of the oldest basins is Donbass. The coal mined here is of high quality, which distinguishes it from competitors' products.
The range of its use is very wide. Coal is used to generate electricity, as an industrial raw material (coke), for the production of graphite, to obtain liquid fuel by hydrogenation.
Russia has extensive reserves coal deposits and coal basins.
A coal basin is an area (often over 10 thousand square kilometers) of development of coal-bearing deposits, formed under certain conditions over a certain period of time. The coal deposit has a smaller area and is a separate tectonic structure.
On the territory of Russia there are platform, folded and transitional basins.
The largest amount of coal deposits has been identified in Western and Eastern Siberia.
60% of Russian coal reserves are humic coals, including coking coal (Karaganda, South Yakutsk, Kuznetsk basins). Brown coals are also found (Ural, Eastern Siberia, Moscow region).
Coal reserves are dispersed across 25 coal basins and 650 individual deposits.
Coal mining is carried out using closed or open methods. Closed mining is carried out in mines, open - in quarries (cuts).
The life of a mine is on average 40 - 50 years. Each layer of coal takes about 10 years to be removed from the mine, followed by the development of the deeper layer through reconstruction. Reconstruction of the mine horizons is prerequisite to preserve the environment and ensure worker safety.
In open-pit mines, coal is extracted in successive strips.
As of 2010, coal in Russia was mined in 91 mines and 137 open-pit mines. The total annual capacity was 380 million tons.
After coal is extracted in mines or open pits, it goes directly to the consumer or is sent to coal enrichment enterprises.
In special factories, pieces of coal are sorted by size and then enriched.
The enrichment process is the purification of fuel from waste rock and foreign impurities.
Today, coal in Russia is mined mainly in the territory of 10 main basins. The most large deposit hard and coking coals are located in the Kuznetsk basin (Kemerovo region), brown coal is mined in the Kansk-Achinsk basin ( Krasnoyarsk region, Eastern Siberia), Anthracites - in the Gorlovka basin and Donbass.
The coal in these pools is of the highest quality.
Other well-known coal basins in Russia include the Pechora basin (Polar region), the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region, the South Yakut basin in Far East.
The Taimyr, Lena and Tunguska basins are being actively developed in Eastern Siberia, as well as deposits in the Trans-Baikal Territory, Primorye, and the Novosibirsk Region.
The largest industry (by number of workers and value of production fixed assets) fuel industry is coal mining in Russia.
The coal industry mines, processes (enriches) hard coal, brown coal and anthracite.
How and how much coal is produced in the Russian Federation
This mineral is mined depending on the depth of its location: open-pit (in open-pit mines) and underground (in mines) by methods.
During the period from 2000 to 2015, underground production increased from 90.9 to 103.7 million tons, and open-pit production increased by more than 100 million tons from 167.5 to 269.7 million tons. The amount of minerals mined in the country during this period, broken down by production method, can be seen in Fig. 1.
Rice. 1: Coal production in the Russian Federation from 2000 to 2015, broken down by production method, in million.
According to information from the Fuel and Energy Complex (FEC), 385 million tons of black minerals were produced in the Russian Federation in 2016, which is 3.2% higher than the previous year. This allows us to conclude that the industry has had positive growth dynamics in recent years and is promising despite the crisis.
The types of this mineral mined in our country are divided into energy coals and coals for coking.
IN total volume over the period from 2010 to 2015, the share of energy production increased from 197.4 to 284.4 million tons. The volumes of coal production in Russia by type, see Fig. 2.
2: Structure of coal production in the Russian Federation by type for 2010-2015, in million tons.
How much black mineral is there in the country and where is it mined?
According to Rosstat, Russian Federation(157 billion
tons) ranks second after the United States (237.3 billion tons) in the world in terms of coal reserves. The Russian Federation accounts for about 18% of all world reserves. See Figure 3.
Rice. 3: World reserves by leading countries
Information from Rosstat for 2010-2015 indicates that production in the country is carried out in 25 constituent entities of the Federation in 7 Federal Districts.
There are 192 coal enterprises. These include 71 mines and 121 coal mines. Their total production capacity is 408 million tons. More than 80% of it is mined in Siberia. Coal production in Russia by region is shown in Table 1.
In 2016, 227,400 thousand.
tons were mined in the Kemerovo region (such cities with one industry affiliation are called single-industry towns), of which about 125,000 thousand tons were exported.
Kuzbass accounts for about 60% of domestic coal production, there are about 120 mines and open pits.
At the beginning of February 2017, a new open-pit mine, Trudarmeysky Yuzhny, with a design capacity of 2,500 thousand, began operation in the Kemerovo region.
In 2017, it is planned to extract 1,500 thousand tons of minerals from the open-pit mine, and, according to forecasts, the open-pit mine will reach its design capacity in 2018. Also in 2017, three new enterprises are planned to be launched in Kuzbass.
Largest deposits
On the territory of the Russian Federation there are 22 coal basins (according to Rosstat information for 2014) and 129 individual deposits.
More than 2/3 of the reserves that have already been explored are concentrated in the Kansk-Achinsk (79.3 billion tons) and Kuznetsk (53.4 billion tons) basins. They are located in the Kemerovo region of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Also among the largest basins are: Irkutsk, Pechora, Donetsk, South Yakutsk, Minusinsk, and others.
Figure 4 shows the structure of proven reserves for the main basins.
Rice. 4: Proven reserves for the main basins in Russia, billion tons.
Import-export
The Russian Federation is one of the three largest coal exporters after Australia (export volume 390 million).
tons) and Indonesia (330 million tons) in 2015. Russia's share in 2015 - 156 million tons of black minerals were exported. This figure for the country has increased by 40 million tons over five years. In addition to the Russian Federation, Australia and Indonesia, the six leading countries include the United States of America, Colombia and South Africa.
The structure of world exports is shown in Fig. 5.
Rice. 5: Structure of world exports (largest exporting countries).
The Central Dispatch Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex reports that total exports from the country increased in 2016, while imports decreased.
Data on export-import in 2016 are presented in Table 2.
Head of the information and analytical department of the department of coal and peat industry Ministry of Energy of the country V.
Grishin predicts an increase in exports by 6% in 2017, its volume could reach 175 million tons, that is, an increase of 10 million tons.
Which companies are the largest producers
Large oil companies Russia is on everyone’s lips, and the largest coal producing companies in the country in 2016 are: OJSC SUEK (105.47), Kuzbassrazrezugol (44.5), SDS-Ugol (28.6), “ Vostsibugol (13.1), Southern Kuzbass (9), Yuzhkuzbassugol (11.2), Yakutugol (9.9), Raspadskaya OJSC (10.5), the amount of coal produced is indicated in parentheses in millions of tons, see
Rice. 6. Largest producers in the Russian Federation in 2016, in million.
The companies OJSC SUEK, Kuzbassrazrezugol and SDS-Ugol have been leaders in production over the past years.
The largest producers for 2014-2015 are presented in Fig.
7. Among them, in addition to the two above-mentioned industry leaders, there are also processing enterprises: Kuzbass Fuel Company, Sibuglement Holding, Vostsibugol, Russian Coal, EVRAZ (which is one of the largest private companies in the country), "Mechel-Mining", "SDS-Coal".
7. The largest producers in the Russian Federation for 2014-2015, in million tons.
In November 2016, Evgeniy Kosmin’s team of section No. 1 of the V.D. mine.
Yalevsky JSC SUEK-Kuzbass set a new Russian production record for the year from one production face - 4,810 thousand tons.
Results and conclusions
- The Russian coal complex is actively developing.
- Imports have fallen slightly in recent years, while exports and production have increased.
- In terms of exports, the Russian Federation is one of the three leading countries after Australia and Indonesia.
- In the coming years, it is planned to open new mining and processing enterprises.
- The top three include companies from the Siberian region, which accounts for more than 80% of the country’s total production.
Lyudmila Poberezhnykh, 2017-03-29
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Reference materials on the topic
Coal basins of Russia
The role of a particular coal basin in the territorial division of labor depends on the quality of coal, the size of reserves, technical and economic indicators of production, the degree of preparedness of reserves for industrial exploitation, the size of production, and the characteristics of the transport and geographical location.
Based on the totality of these conditions, the following stand out: inter-district coal bases- Kuznetsky and Kansk-Achinsk basins, which together account for 70% of coal production in Russia, as well as the Pechora, Donetsk, Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo and South Yakutsk basins.
The most important producer of hard coal in Russia is the Kuznetsk Coal Basin.
Kuznetsk basin
The balance reserves of Kuzbass hard coal of category A+B+C1 are estimated at 57 billion tons, which is 58.8% of hard coal in Russia.
At the same time, coking coal reserves amount to 30.1 billion tons, or 73% of the country’s total reserves.
Almost the entire range of hard coal grades is mined in Kuzbass. The subsoil of Kuzbass is rich in other minerals - these are manganese, iron, phosphorite, nepheline ores, oil shale and other minerals.
Kuznetsk coals are of high quality: ash content is 8-22%, sulfur content is 0.3-0.6%, specific heat combustion – 6000 – 8500 kcal/kg.
The average depth of underground development reaches 315m.
About 40% of the mined coal is consumed in the Kemerovo region itself and 60% is exported to other regions of Russia and for export.
In the structure of coal exports from Russia, Kuzbass accounts for over 70% of its physical volume.
Coal lies here high quality, including coking. Almost 12% of production is carried out by open pit mining.
Belovsky district is one of the oldest coal mining areas in Kuzbass.
The balance reserves of coal in the Belovsky district amount to more than 10 billion.
tons
The development of the Kuznetsk coal basin began in 1851 with more or less regular production of fuel at the Bachat mine for the Guryev Metallurgical Plant. The Bachat mine was located six miles northeast of the village of Bachat. Now this place is occupied by the Chertinskaya-Koksovaya and Novaya-2 mines and the Novobochatsky open-pit mine.
The firstborn of the coal industry in Belov is considered to be the Pionerka mine, in 1933. The first ton of coal was mined here.
Currently, the Belovsky district is the largest coal mining region in Kuzbass.
The Belovsky district is the geographical center of the Kemerovo region.
The main centers are Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsky.
The Kansk-Achinsk basin is located in the south of Eastern Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk Territory along the Trans-Siberian Railway and produces 12% of coal production in Russia.
Brown coal from this basin is the cheapest in the country, as it is mined by open-pit mining. Due to its low quality, coal is poorly transportable and therefore powerful thermal power plants operate on the basis of the largest open-pit mines (Irsha-Borodinsky, Nazarovsky, Berezovsky).
The Pechora basin is the largest in the European part and accounts for 4% of the country's coal production.
It is located far from the most important industrial centers and is located in the Arctic; mining is carried out only by mining. In the northern part of the basin (Vorkutinskoye and Vorgashorskoye deposits) coking coals are mined, and in the southern part (Intinskoye deposit) mainly energy coals are mined.
The main consumers of Pechora coal are the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, enterprises in the North-West, Center and Central Black Earth Region.
The Donetsk basin in the Rostov region is the eastern part of the coal basin located in Ukraine.
This is one of the oldest coal mining areas. The mine method of extraction led to the high cost of coal. Coal production is declining every year and in 2007 the basin provided only 2.4% of all-Russian production.
The Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region provides low cost of coal, since mining is carried out by open-pit mining and produces 3.4% of coal in the country.
Due to the great distance from large consumers, it is used at local power plants.
The South Yakut basin (3.9% of all-Russian production) is located in the Far East. It has significant reserves of energy and technological fuel, and all production is carried out by open-pit mining.
Promising coal basins include the Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky, located beyond the Yenisei north of the 60th parallel.
They occupy vast areas in poorly developed and sparsely populated areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
In parallel with the creation of inter-regional coal bases, there was widespread development of local coal basins, which made it possible to bring coal production closer to the areas of its consumption. At the same time, in the western regions of Russia, coal production is declining (Moscow basin), and in the eastern regions it is increasing sharply (deposits of the Novosibirsk region, Trans-Baikal Territory, Primorye.
The coal mining industry is the largest segment of the fuel industry. Throughout the world, it surpasses any other in terms of the number of workers and the amount of equipment.
What is the coal industry
The coal mining industry involves the extraction of coal and its subsequent processing. Work is being carried out both on the surface and underground.
If the deposits are located at a depth of no more than 100 meters, work is carried out using the quarry method. Mines are used to develop deposits at great depths.
Classic methods of coal mining
Working in open-pit coal mines and underground are the main methods of mining. Most of the work in Russia and in the world is carried out using open-pit mining. This is due to financial benefits and high speed production
The process is as follows:
- Using special equipment, the top layer of earth covering the deposit is removed. A few years ago the depth open works was limited to 30 meters, latest technologies allowed to increase it 3 times. If the top layer is soft and small, it is removed using an excavator. A thick and dense layer of earth is pre-crushed.
- Coal deposits are broken off and taken away using special equipment to the enterprise for further processing.
- Workers restore the natural topography to avoid harm environment.
The disadvantage of this method is that coal deposits located at shallow depths contain impurities of dirt and other rocks.
Coal mined underground is considered cleaner and of higher quality.
The main objective of this method is to transport coal from great depths to the surface. For this purpose, passages are created: an adit (horizontal) and a shaft (inclined or vertical).
In the tunnels, special combines are used to cut layers of coal and load them onto a conveyor that lifts them to the surface.
The underground method allows you to extract large number fossil, but it has significant disadvantages: high cost and increased danger for workers.
Unconventional methods of coal mining
These methods are effective, but are not widespread - on at the moment There are no technologies that allow you to clearly establish the process:
- Hydraulic. Mining is carried out in a mine at great depth. The coal seam is crushed and delivered to the surface under strong water pressure.
- Compressed air energy. It is both destructive and lifting force, the compressed air is under high pressure.
- Vibration pulse. The layers are destroyed under the influence of powerful vibrations generated by the equipment.
These methods were used back in the Soviet Union, but did not become popular due to the need for large financial investments. Only a few coal mining companies continue to use unconventional methods.
Their main advantage is the absence of workers in potentially life-threatening areas.
Leading countries in coal production
According to world energy statistics, a ranking of countries occupying leading positions in coal production in the world has been compiled:
- India.
- Australia.
- Indonesia.
- Russia.
- Germany.
- Poland.
- Kazakhstan.
For many years, China has been the leader in coal production. In China, only 1/7 of the existing deposits are being developed, this is due to the fact that coal is not exported outside the country, and the existing reserves will last for at least 70 years.
In the United States, deposits are evenly scattered throughout the country. They will provide the country with their reserves for at least 300 years.
Coal deposits in India are very rich, but almost all of what is mined is used in the energy industry, since the available reserves are of very low quality. Despite the fact that India occupies one of the leading positions, artisanal methods of coal mining are progressing in this country.
Australia's coal reserves will last approximately 240 years. The mined coal has the highest score quality, a significant part of it is intended for export.
In Indonesia, the level of coal production is growing every year. A few years ago, most of what was produced was exported to other countries; now the country is gradually abandoning the use of oil, and therefore the demand for coal for domestic consumption is growing.
Russia has 1/3 of the world's coal reserves, but not all of the country's lands have been explored yet.
Germany, Poland and Kazakhstan are gradually reducing their coal production volumes due to the uncompetitive cost of raw materials. Most of the coal is intended for domestic consumption.
Main coal mining sites in Russia
Let's figure it out. Coal mining in Russia is carried out mainly by open-pit mining. The deposits are scattered unevenly throughout the country - most of them are located in the eastern region.
The most significant coal deposits in Russia are:
- Kuznetskoe (Kuzbass). It is considered the largest not only in Russia, but throughout the world, located in Western Siberia. Coking and hard coal are mined here.
- Kansko-Achinskoe. Mining is carried out here. The deposit is located along the Trans-Siberian Railway, occupying part of the territories of the Irkutsk and Kemerovo regions, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
- Tunguska coal basin. Represented by brown and hard coal. It covers part of the territory of the Republic of Sakha and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
- Pechora coal basin. Mining is carried out at this deposit. Work is carried out in mines, which allows the extraction of high-quality coal. It is located in the territories of the Komi Republic and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
- Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo coal basin. Located on the territory of the Upper Sayan. Provides coal only to nearby enterprises and settlements.
Today, 5 more deposits are being developed that can increase the annual volume of coal production in Russia by 70 million tons.
Prospects for the coal mining industry
Most of the world's coal deposits have already been explored; from an economic point of view, the most promising ones belong to 70 countries. The level of coal production is growing rapidly: technologies are being improved and equipment is being modernized. Due to this, the profitability of the industry increases.
Coal is a type of fossil fuel formed from parts of ancient plants underground without oxygen. Today we will visit one of the oldest enterprises in Kuzbass, where coal mining in the subsoil area of the mine has been carried out since 1917.
Welcome to the oldest enterprise in Kuzbass - LLC "Mine No. 12", located in a small mining town near Novokuznetsk - Kiselevsk.
Combine:
To form coal abundant accumulation of plant mass is necessary. It is formed in conditions where rotting plant material accumulates faster than its bacterial decomposition occurs. The ideal environment for this is created in swamps, where stagnant water, depleted of oxygen, prevents the activity of bacteria and thereby protects the plant mass from complete destruction.
In ancient peat bogs, starting from the Devonian period (approximately 416 million years ago), the same organic matter accumulated, from which fossil coals were formed without access to oxygen. Most commercial fossil coal deposits date from this period, although younger deposits also exist.
Coal mines:
Coal mining methods depend on the depth of its occurrence. Mining is carried out by open-pit mining in open-cast coal mines if the depth of the coal seam does not exceed 100 meters. There are also frequent cases when it is profitable to develop a coal deposit using the underground method. Mines are used to extract coal from great depths. The deepest mines in Russia extract coal from a level of just over 1,200 meters.
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Coal has its own marking. Depending on the degree of conversion and the specific amount of carbon in coal, there are its four types: brown coals (lignites), hard coals, anthracites and graphites. In Western countries, there is a slightly different classification - lignites, subbituminous coals, bituminous coals, anthracites and graphites, respectively.
Russia contains 5.5% of the world's coal reserves, which amounts to more than 200 billion tons. This difference with the percentage of proven coal reserves (19%) is due to the fact that most of it is not suitable for development, as it is located in Siberia in the permafrost region. 70% comes from inventories brown coal.
The uses of coal are varied. It is used as household, energy fuel, raw material for metallurgical and chemical industry, as well as for extracting rare and trace elements from it.
As for the Kuznetsk coal basin, Kuzbass is one of largest coal deposits in the world. Currently, the name “Kuzbass” is the second name of the Kemerovo region.
KOMATSU mining dump truck with a lifting capacity of 90 tons. But as drivers say, sometimes they load more than 90
In total, we were in Kiselevsk for a week, most of time we were filming. It can't get boring, it's really interesting.
When exposed to oxygen, coal spontaneously ignites. Or it smokes, as in the photo:
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Walking mining excavator bucket:
Even in the quarry during restricted hours everything looks prettier. But it’s difficult to shoot, everything is in motion:
Walking excavator:
At night, throughout the quarry you can see coal burning in some areas:
Technique. Everyone has a plan that must be fulfilled. Therefore, the movement in the quarry never stops.
Well, maybe at the end of the shift for half an hour or an hour
Bucket marks:
One such wheel costs 700,000 rubles, so they try to clear the roads of sharp stones:
In the excavator cabin:
50-ton BELAZ and behind it a 90-ton KOMATSU:
IN walking excavator cabin. This is a whole room. There is a couch, a microwave, a samovar, a washbasin and a bunch of posters with naked girls on the walls:
And this is from his arrow. Height 27 meters:
A welder repairs a bucket:
These machines drill the ground, and explosives are poured into dug 12-meter holes, blast the rock. This is done so that the rock becomes looser, large strong layers are broken into small stones, which then become much easier to excavate with an excavator:
Explosive. We were unable to photograph the explosion itself:
And now, when the coal is dug up, it is transported to the enrichment plant. Enrichment- a set of processes for the primary processing of raw materials, namely the separation of coal from waste rock and sorting:
Atmospheric inside:
A place where both coal and rock travel along a conveyor belt, and women (!) separate this rock from the coal, collect it and throw it away. There are pieces that are large enough that women cannot cope alone and throw off pieces of rock together. In the remaining workshops everything is automated:
Car dumper:
Coal warehouse:
Loading coal into wagons that will go to consumers. This was a report from Kuzbass.
Low cost and abundant reserves are the main factors driving the increase in the number of uses of brown coal. This type of fossil solid fuel, the earliest type of coal, has been mined by humans for hundreds of years. Brown coal is a product of peat metamorphism, in a stage between lignite and hard coal. Compared to the last one, this type fuel is less popular, however, due to its low cost, it is quite widely used for the production of electricity, heating and other types of fuel.
Structure
Brown coal is a dense, earthy or fibrous carbonaceous mass of brown or pitch-black color with a high content of volatile bituminous substances. As a rule, the plant structure, conchoidal fractures, and woody masses are well preserved in it. It burns easily, the flame is smoky, and a peculiar bad smell burning. Reacting with potassium hydroxide, it forms a dark brown liquid. When dry distilled, brown coal forms ammonia with acetic acid. Chemical composition(on average), minus ash: carbon - 63%, oxygen - 32%, hydrogen 3-5%, nitrogen 0-2%.
Origin
Brown coal forms layers of deposits sedimentary rocks- flanges, often of great power and length. The materials for the formation of brown coal are various kinds of hoops, conifers, trees and peat plants. Deposits of these substances gradually decompose without access to air, under water, under a cap of a mixture of clay and sand. The smoldering process is accompanied by constant release volatile substances and gradually leads to the enrichment of plant residues with carbon. Brown coal is one of the first stages of metamorphism of such plant deposits, after peat. Further stages are coal, anthracite, graphite. The longer the process, the closer the state is to pure carbon-graphite. Thus, graphite belongs to the Azoic group, coal - to the Paleozoic, brown coal - mainly to the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
Hard and brown coal: differences
As you can see from the name itself, brown coal differs from stone coal in color (lighter or darker). There are also black varieties, but in powder form the shade of such coal is still brown. The color of stone and anthracite always remains black. The characteristic properties of brown coal are a higher carbon content compared to hard coals and a lower content of bituminous substances. This explains why brown coal burns more easily and produces a lot of smoke. The high carbon content also explains the mentioned reaction with potassium hydroxide and the peculiar unpleasant odor during combustion. The nitrogen content, compared to hard coals, is also significantly lower. When exposed to air for a long time, brown coal rapidly loses moisture, crumbling into powder.
Varieties
There are quite a lot of varieties and varieties of brown coal, among which there are several main ones:
- Regular brown coal, dense consistency, matte brown color.
- Brown coal of earthy fracture, easily ground into powder.
- Resinous, very dense, dark brown, sometimes even bluish-black. When broken, it resembles resin.
- Lignite, or bituminous wood. Coal with a well-preserved plant structure. Sometimes it is even found in the form of entire tree trunks with roots.
- Disodil is brown paper coal in the form of decayed thin-layered plant matter. Easily divided into thin sheets.
- Brown peat coal. Peat-like, with a large number foreign impurities, sometimes resembling earth.
The percentage of ash and combustible elements in various types brown coal varies widely, which determines the merits of a particular type of combustible material.
Production
The methods for extracting brown coal are similar for all fossil coals. There are open (career) and closed. The oldest method of closed mining is adits, inclined wells to a coal seam of small thickness and shallow occurrence. It is used in case of financial inefficiency of quarry construction.
A mine is a vertical or inclined hole in the rock from the surface to the coal seam. This method used in deep coal-bearing seams. It is characterized by the high cost of extracted resources and a high accident rate.
Open pit mining is carried out at a relatively shallow (up to 100 m) depth of the coal seam. Open pit or open pit mining is the most economical; today approximately 65% of all coal is mined this way. The main disadvantage of quarrying is the great damage to the environment. Brown coal is mainly mined using open-pit mining due to its shallow depth. Initially, the overburden (the layer of rock above the coal seam) is removed. After this, the coal is broken down using the drilling and blasting method and transported by specialized (quarry) vehicles from the mining site. Stripping operations, depending on the size and composition of the layer, can be carried out by bulldozers (for a loose layer of insignificant thickness) or rotary excavators and draglines (for a thicker and denser layer of rock).
Application
Brown coal is used much less frequently as fuel than hard coal. It is used for heating private houses and small power plants. By the so-called Dry distillation of brown coal produces rock wax for the woodworking, paper and textile industries, creosote, carbolic acid and other similar products. It is also processed into liquid hydrocarbon fuel. Humic acids in brown coal make it possible to use it in agriculture as a fertilizer.
Modern technologies make it possible to produce synthetic gas from brown coal, which is an analogue of natural gas. To do this, the coal is heated to 1000 degrees Celsius, resulting in gas formation. In practice, a fairly effective method is used: through a drilled well, brown coal deposits are supplied through a pipe. high temperature, and the finished gas is already coming out through another pipe - a product of underground processing.
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