RESEARCH TESTING LABORATORY OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF COALS

Basic Information about the Laboratory:
The Research Testing Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry of Coals was set up in 2006 and is a structural unit of the Mining Institute of NUST MISiS from 2013.

The purpose of creating the laboratory is to conduct fundamental researches of the structure and features of solid fossil fuels depending on their genesis and metamorphosis to solve the issue of rational use and management of the quality of minerals, prevention of negative technological and environmental risks of their extraction and processing, development of new carbon-based materials. Applied tasks of the laboratory are closely linked to its fundamental areas of research and include: elaboration of methodological and regulatory documents in the area of solid fossil fuels, including national and interstate standards, codes, high-precision attested methodologies, technological regulations, instructions, etc.; development of new types of standard samples of the composition and features to ensure accuracy of measuring the indicators of identification and security of products, attestation of methodologies developed, arranging trainings under supplementary vocational education programs.

Activities of the Laboratory
The key activities of the laboratory are listed below:

• examining the material composition, physical, physicochemical and mechanical features of coals;
• studying special aspects of changing the structure and properties of coals with external impacts of various types, including low temperatures, gaseous oxidizers and surface acting agents;
• classifying coals in terms of their susceptibility to oxidation and self-ignition;
• developing technological solutions of using humic acids of solid fossil fuels for cleaning industrial solid and wastewaters from heavy metals and other ecotoxicants;
• inspecting the structural displacement of mineral coals at the micro- and nanolevels;
• changing the structure and properties of carbon-bearing substances (including coals) upon ozonization, and
• modelling physical processes in inhomogeneous materials based on advance methods of large-scale modelling.