American Journal of Scientific Research 160 ISSN 1450-223X Issue 11(2010), pp.92-102 Annexure-'D' © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010 http://www.eurojournals.com/ajsr.htm Composition, Trace Element Contents and Major Ash Constituents of Thar Coal, Pakistan M. Afzal Farooq Choudry Department of Environmental Science, FUUAST, Karachi, Pakistan E-mail:
[email protected] Yasmin Nurgis Environmental Research Center, Bahria University, Karachi, Pakistan E-mail:
[email protected] Mughal Sharif Environmental Research Center, Bahria University, Karachi, Pakistan E-mail:
[email protected] Amjad Ali Mahmood Geological Survey of Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan Haq Nawaz Abbasi Department of Environmental Science, FUUAST, Karachi, Pakistan E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Thar coalfield is a part of the Thar Desert of Pakistan. Pakistan has coal reserves of 185 billion tons, of this Thar coal reserves account for 175 billion tons spread over a single geographically contained area of 9100 sq km in the south eastern part of the Sindh. It is bounded in the north, east and south by India, in the west by the irrigated Indus river flood plain. The terrain is sandy and rough with sand dunes forming the topography. Various physio-chemical parameters including chemical composition of coal ashes, distribution of trace elements in them, were analyzed to understand the coal prospects and its share in the domestic energy production. In addition a preliminary study have also undertaken on the factors that effect the chemical composition of coal ashes. The apparent rank is high volatile Lignite “B” coal. Arithmetic mean values for proximate analysis of coals (as received basis; n=54) show these coals to be 6.83% Ash, 29.55% volatile matter, 19.2% fixed carbon and 44.3% moisture and have a heat of combustion of 6094 BTU/lb.