Distribution Characteristics of PAHs in coals of varying rank --Identification for sources of PAHs in complicated environmental studies

Abstract

Abstract The concentrations of 16 Priority Pollutant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in coals of varying rank were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography for obtaining the distribution of PAHs in raw coal with different metamorphic degree. The results indicate that the Σ16PAHs in coal ranged from 1416.28~131786.7 and 1896.85~133012.45 ng/g respectively with a the maximum yield when R0, max=1.47%. With the increase of coal rank, the toxicity of PAHs in raw coal increases and then decreases. The range of Flua / (Flua + Pyr), Ant / (Ant + Phe) and BaA / (BaA + Chr) is 0.237~0.340, 0.073~0.085, 0.064~0.178 and the total index of PAHs ranged from 3.17 to 3.74 in coals. Above diagnostic ratios are quite distinguished from petroleum origin, coal combustion and low-temperature combustion of coal gangue in previous work, which can be used to identify the sources of PAHs in complicated environment study.