Abundance and Geological Implication of Rare Earth Elements and Yttrium in Coals from the Suhaitu Mine, Wuda Coalfield, Northern China

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentrations of rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) in coal and associated rock samples from the Suhaitu Mine, Wuda Coalfield, Northern China. The concentration of REY in the No. 15 coal of the Suhaitu Mine is lower than that in normal Chinese coal, but is slightly higher than that in normal world hard coal. The roof and some partings of the No. 15 coal have been leached by ground water. The geochemical patterns of REY indicate that the LREY-HREY have been slightly fractionated, which may be related to the homogenization of rare earth elements and yttrium in seawater. The REY distribution patterns for most of coal benches of the No. 15 coal are of H-REY type or H-M-REY type. This may be attributed to the influence of seawater and stronger organic affinity of the HREY than that of the LREY. The correlations of REY concentration and the ash yield indicate that REY in the No. 15 coal are associated with clay minerals and REY-bearing organic compounds.

Mineralogical and Chemical Characteristics of Coal Ashes from Two High-Sulfur Coal-Fired Power Plants in Wuhai, Inner Mongolia, China

“…Samples collected from the Xilaifeng and Damo power plants are investigated in the present study, and the feed coals for both power plants are originally from the Suhaitu, Huangbaici, and Wuhushan mines. The mineralogy and elemental geochemistry of the coals from the Wuda Coalfield have been previously studied [26]. The power-generating capacity of the Xilaifeng Power Plant is 2.2 billion kW•h per year (2 × 200 MW generator set for the first-stage construction).…”

Binding characteristics of Cd2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, and Li+ with humic substances: Implication to trace element enrichment in low-rank coals

“…Most of these studies focused on the anomalous concentration of trace elements in coals and the affinity of these elements to the organic matters or the inorganic parts can be discerned on the level of mineral (Chu et al, 2015;Kang et al, 2014). However, the studies on the enrichment mechanisms and the origin of these elements in coals are scared (Qin et al, 2015b) and badly needed.…”

“…Recently, a variety of trace elements including Li, Ge, U, Hg is reported to be enriched in coal seams worldwide (Dai et al., 2014; Qin et al., 2015a, 2015b; Seredin et al., 2013; Sun, 2015; Sun et al., 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2016). Most of these studies focused on the anomalous concentration of trace elements in coals and the affinity of these elements to the organic matters or the inorganic parts can be discerned on the level of mineral (Chu et al., 2015; Kang et al., 2014). However, the studies on the enrichment mechanisms and the origin of these elements in coals are scared (Qin et al., 2015b) and badly needed.…”

Washability and Distribution Behaviors of Trace Elements of a High-Sulfur Coal, SW Guizhou, China

“…For the coal in this research, the correlation coefficients between individual REE and ash yields were found to decline gradually from La to Lu (Figure 7), and the LREE/HREE is lower in light fractions (average at 3.29 for density from <1.60 g/cm 3 ) while much higher in heavy fractions (average at 4.29 for density >1.60 g/cm 3 ) ( Table 3), showing that LREE are more likely to be associated with inorganic matters. In other words, HREE have a stronger organic affinity than that of LREE [28,30,31]. Eskenazy [32,33] proposed that the formation of organometallic compounds by sorption on the coagulating humic and fulvic might be the bound mechanism for REE and organic matters in coal.…”