Role of Water on Oxygen Consumption of Brown Coal at Low Temperature

摘要

Oxygen consumption of a brown coal at low temperature is accelerated by an addition ofrnwater. In order to gain a better understanding of the mechanism, oxygen consumption of anrnIndonesian brown coal was examined after treatments with several kinds of chemicals. Whenrnthe coal was treated with vapor of polar solvents such as acetone, the oxygen consumption atrn30 ℃ remarkably increased compared to that of non-treated coal. Similar behavior wasrnobserved for the coal treated with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)_2), which broke a part ofrnhydrogen bonds in the coal. Acceleration of the oxygen consumption by these treatments isrnprobably attributed to the relaxation of macromolecular structure of the brown coal inrnaddition to chemical mechanisms which have been conventionally proposed. These resultsrnsuggest that oxygen consumption of a brown coal is accelerated by the exposure of latentrnactive sites through the relaxation of the coal structure by watering.