The content and the caking index of the heavy,the dense medium and the loose medium components of coal,obtained by extraction and stripping with CS_2/N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone mixed solvent(1:1 by volume),were studied and correlated with the caking property of raw coals.Images of the three group components after heat treatment were analyzed.The results show that both caking index(G) and maximum thickness of plastic layer(Y) of coals have a good linear relationship with the content of the medium component;the dense medium and the loose medium components are the two key factors to determine the caking property of raw coals-they are the source materials of fluidity and swelling of coal,respectively;the heavy component without the swelling and fluidity was cohered by the other components;two new indexes,which can extend current understanding of the caking properties,were introduced.
Although human beings have come to understand and utilize coal for a very long history, no theoretical breakthrough in the study of coal structure has been made, which still needs continuous efforts of coal chemical workers. Based on the viewpoint of ‘vague/clear', the species classification and accurate analysis on coal were conducted by using the natural clustering all-component separation method. A more systematic and detailed coal embedded structure model theory which is suitable for coal of all ranks was developed from the previous one and a more complete theoretical system about the component and structure of coal was constructed. The whole establishment process of the theory was summarized and some of the main support data and analysis test results, including TEM, AFM, FTIR, GC/MS, MALDI/TOF/MS, DART/MSD, fractal analysis and so on were provided. The coal embedded structure theory fully considers both the identity and the particularity of all-rank coal, reflects the coal component and structure in the full range of coal rank, solves the systematic cognitive problem of coal component and structure on macro and micro level, and provides a valuable and meaningful theoretical approach for the coal processing and conversion technology.
