Abstract
Organic sulphur can represent over 50% of the total sulphur content in coal1, but little is known about the nature of this organic sulphur because of the chemical complexity of the coal structure and heterogeneity of the macerai assemblages forming the coal matrix. This report focuses on the mode of incorporation of organic sulphur in the very early stages of the coal-forming process. Some organic sulphur in coal originates from the sulphur-containing amino acids that are present in source plants in the peat-forming stage, but we demonstrate here that some of the organic sulphur in coal can actually originate from an inorganic sulphur source, such as elemental sulphur.
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Casagrande, D., Ng, L. Incorporation of elemental sulphur in coal as organic sulphur. Nature 282, 598–599 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/282598a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/282598a0
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