| Anthracite | Type of coal with highest carbon content (86% to 98%) and thus highest heat value (nearly 15,000 BTUs-per-pound); found mostly in 11 northeastern counties in Pennsylvania |
| Bituminous | Type of coal with carbon content from 45% to 86% and heat value of 10,500 to 15,500 BTUs-per-pound; most plentiful form of coal in U.S.; used primarily to generate electricity and make coke for steel |
| Bitumen | A mixture containing hydrocarbons -- often produced by the processing of coal or oil -- used in asphalt or tar for road surfacing or waterproofing |
| Calcination | Decomposition due to the loss of bound water and carbon dioxide. |
| Californium |
A chemical element with an Atomic Number of 98. Named after the
State and the University of California.
The isotope 252 Californium Provides Portable High-Intensity Neutron Sources. Some 252Cf Properties are:
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| Cement Kiln | A horizontally sloping steel furnace, lined with firebrick, turning about one to three revolutions per minute. The world's largest piece of moving industrial equipment. Central to the production of cement. |
| Clinker | The red-hot, marble-sized chunks that emerge from the lower end of a (cement) kiln after burning. It is in the form of dark, porous nodules which are ground with a small amount of gypsum to give cement. |
| Coke | A hard, dry substance containing carbon that's produced by heating bituminous coal to a very high temperature in the absence of air |
| Conveyor | A continuous moving belt that transports large volumes of material |
| Culm | Waste from Pennsylvania anthracite preparation plants, consisting of coarse rock fragments containing as much as 30 percent small-sized coal; sometimes defined as including very fine coal particles called silt. Its heat value ranges from 8 to 17 million Btu per short ton. |
| CURIE | Unit of radioactivity equal to 3.7 X 1010 disintegrations per second. |
| Dry (Coal) Basis | Coal quality data calculated to a theoretical basis in which no moisture is associated with the sample. This basis is determined by measuring the weight loss of a sample when its inherent moisture is driven off under controlled conditions of low temperature air-drying followed by heating to just above the boiling point of water (104 to 110 degrees centigrade). |
| Flotation | The separation of minerals from each other and from waste matter by inducing (through the use of reagents) relative differences in their abilities to float in a liquid medium. |
| GOB PILE | Waste coal, rock pyrites, slate, and other material of relatively large size that is separated from coal and other mined materials in the cleaning process. |
| Lignite | Type of coal with lowest carbon content (25% to 35%) and a heat value of only 4,000 to 8,300 BTUs-per-pound; called "brown coal;" used mainly for electric power generation |
| Mineral-Matter-Free Basis | Mineral matter in coal is the parent material in coal from which ash is derived, and which comes from minerals present in the original plant materials that formed the coal, or from extraneous sources such as sediments and precipitates from mineralized water. Coal analyses are calculated to the mineral-matter-free basis by adjusting formulas used in calculations in order to deduct the weight of mineral matter from the total coal. |
| Moist (Coal) Basis | "Moist" coal contains its natural inherent or bed moisture, but does not include water adhering to the surface. Coal analyses expressed on a moist basis are performed or adjusted so as to describe the data when the coal contains only that moisture which exists in the bed in its natural state of deposition, and when the coal has not lost any moisture due to drying. |
| PGNAA | An acronym meaning: Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis.
PGNAA is based on a reaction between a neutron and the nucleus of an atom. Slow, or thermalized,
neutrons can often be absorbed by an atomic nucleus if it approaches closely enough.
This absorption causes the atomic number (A) of the nucleus to increase by one and leaves the
the charge (Z) the same. This normally causes the nucleus to become excited and quickly results
in a decay to a normal state accompanied by the emission of a gamma-ray and one or more neutrinos.
Each nucleus emits photons (gamma ray) with a unique energy signature enabling the identification
of the element by the energy of the gamma ray. In addition to the emission energy, each element
reacts to this process differently from others. The more likely to activate elements
are : sulfur, iron, and chlorine, whereas carbon and oxygen are less likely to activate.
Examples of activation (from Scott Hughes):
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| Preparation Plant | A facility at which coal is crushed, screened, and mechanically cleaned. |
| Refuse Bank | A repository for waste material generated by the coal cleaning process. |
| Scintillator | A type of detector that makes use of the flash of light emitted by the electrons in an excited atom falling back to their normal energy or `ground' state after having been excited by a passing particle. Used in conjunction with a photomultiplier to produce a measurable current for each `scintillation.' The most common scintillator material is plastic. Another common scintillator material is crystaline Sodium Iodide. Often the scintillators are "doped" by other chemicals to alter the output wavelengths, increase the light output or reduce the light decay time. |
| Slurry | A mixture of water and any of several finely crushed solids, especially cement, clay, or coal |
| Subbituminous | Type of coal with 35% to 45% carbon content and heat value of 8,300 to 13,000 BTUs-per-pound; generally has lower sulfur content than other types, and so is cleaner-burning; found mainly in Western states and Alaska |
| Volatile Matter | Those products, exclusive of moisture, given off by a material as gas or vapor. In coal, volatile matter is determined by heating the coal to 950 degrees centigrade under carefully controlled conditions and measuring the weight loss, excluding weight of moisture driven off at 105 degrees centigrade. |