GEOLOGICAL SETTING AND QUALITY OF THE LIGNITE SEAMS IN THE SEYITOMER BASIN, KUTAHYA, TURKEY
Istanbul University, Department of Geological Engineering, 34850 Avcilar-Istanbul, Turkey, E-mail: yacelik@istanbul.edu.tr
Hacettepe University, Department of Geological Engineering, 06532 Beytepe-Ankara, Turkey, E-mail: aik@hacettepe.edu.tr
Abstract
The Seyitomer basin, which is one of the most productive coal basins of western Anatolia-Turkey, contains two lignite seams, lower and upper, in the Lower-Middle Miocene lacustrine Seyitomer Formation. The lower seamin this basin is extensively exploited by open-cast methods and produced lignites are generally consumed in coal-fired power plants. A total of thirty-six lignite samples, of which thirty-one are from the lower seam and five from the upperseam, were collected from the two locations (DK and S30), and have been subjected to proximate and mineralogical analyses. In addition, six samples from claystone and tuff aceous claystone samples within the lower seam have been also evaluated in the present study. This study indicates that the two lignite seams in the Seyitomer Formation contain high moisture, volatile matter, ash and total sulfur and relatively low calorific values. The mineral matter of the selected lignite samples with X-ray powder diffraction shows that the samples are mainly made up of clay minerals, quartz, feldspar and pyrite, minor/trace amounts of siderite, dolomite, calcite, opal-CT and gypsum. Tuff aceous claystones within the lower lignite seam includes smectite, illite, kaolinite, quartz and feldspar and trace amounts of chlorite; but smectite is much higher in the green claystones.