Background Information for Web Site on Trace Elements in Coal

The aim of this project was to develop a website that contains the essential information on the environmentally sensitive trace elements in Australian bituminous thermal coals and provides a comparison of the concentrations in the Australian coals with those of other thermal coals traded worldwide.

Information on Australian coals was sourced from the datasets available at CSIRO and ACIRL. The information on other coals was obtained from the reports to ACARP by Dale and colleagues, from other published reports and papers, as well as the world wide web.

This report also contains information on the behaviour of trace elements during combustion in power stations and the subsequent impacts on the environment.

Legislation relating to emissions of trace elements to the atmosphere and to water is also discussed in this report

Summary fact sheets are available from the CSIRO website; the URL address is:
http://www.det.csiro.au/science/researchservices/trace_elements.htm or
http://www.det.csiro.au/traceelements 

Note that the data in the website and this report on the concentration of trace elements are limited to the analyses completed in the laboratories of CSIRO Energy Technology. Data were obtained from the analysis of approximately 100 Australian coals and 60 coals traded from other nations. No claim is made that the data are representative of all internationally traded coals.

You must make your own assessment of the suitability for your purposes of this information.  To the extent permitted by law, CSIRO excludes all liability arising directly or indirectly from use of this information.