Nigeria, the most populated country of Africa is reactivating her coal industry as supplementary energy source. Bukan - Kwato coal field is one of the recently discovered coal deposits in Lafia that is receiving great attention from investors and entrepreneurs of coal energy. The coal serves as prime target for power generation by the Nigerian Government, yet little is known about the basic properties of the deposit. The research seeks to achieve the objectives of collection of fresh coal samples from the mining site, so as to carry out the chemical analysis, determine the calorific value and to suggests best methods for processing of the coal. The coal samples were collected from the study area and were subjected to proximate, ultimate and calorific value determination in order to determine the intrinsic properties of the coal. Proximate analysis were carried out on pulverized samples using the Muffle furnace, carbon and hydrogen were determined using the method described in the Liebig method while nitrogen was obtained using the Kjeldahl method. Sulfur content were obtained using the ESCHKA method, oxygen content were calculated by difference on an air dried basis. Calorific value were determined using the Isoperibol calorimeter. The results obtained compared with the standard pulverized coal fire plants shows that the coal has a medium to high carbon content of 54.68%, high moisture content of (9.72%), Nitrogen (3.5%), Sulfur (24.24%) and Ash (31.74%) with a corresponding low volatile matter of 20.28%. The high ash content in the coal can be used as thermal coal for power generation.
Key words: Chemical analysis, Proximate analysis, Ultimate analysis, Power generation
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