Abstract

The paper provides a general assessment of fat coal potential in Northwest Vietnam and introduces the results of recent investigation and assessment of fat coal in Sơn La, lean coal in Hòa Bình and peat in Hanoi. The Mường Lựm fat coal deposit in Yên Châu district, Sơn La Province with a reserve of over 1.5 million tonnes can be considered as the coal deposit of the best quality in our country for coking. The coal is of low ash content, high volatile substance content and high plasticity index, fully meeting the requirements for producing metallurgical coke.

Experimental researches have been successful with the production of coke using the fat coal from Sơn La. In addition, by using the fat coal from Sơn La mixed with lean coal from Hòa Bình and peat from Hanoi, coke has also been made with quality meeting the standard for metallurgy. This has opened up the prospect of making use of medium rank coal resources scattered in various locations of Northwest Vietnam for large scale coke production.

For applying as soon as possible the results of this research into production with the aim for domestic coking enterprises to get rid of difficulties due to their dependence on imported raw materials, the authors propose to initiate a research and development (RD) project of semi - industrial scale.