Studies of the yield of sulphur from a coal sample by pyrolysis—gas chromatography

Abstract An SBN standard coal 136 (20–100 μg) was pyrolysed in order to characterise the sulphur in coal by Py-GC. The sulphur-containing pyrolysis products were separated and detected by a flame photometric detector. Simultaneously, a flame ionisation detector was used to measure the total amount of organic pyrolysis products. The influence of different conditions, sample handling, inertness of the system and pyrolysis temperature on the yield of sulphur was tested. The repeatability was good, even with sample sizes of less than 100 μg. The maximum yield of sulphur was about 40% at pyrolysis temperatures of between 1000 and 1400°C. When the coal samples were combusted after pyrolysis, an additional 30% was detected. The reason for the low yield is discussed.