Development of an on-line coal quality management system in a lignite open pit mine in Serbia

There is hardly any country in Eastern Europe where lignite is as important for primary energy generation as in Serbia which produces over 65 % of its electricity in lignite fired power plants. The energy sector therefore emphasizes a sustainable usage of lignite by means of efficient and environment-friendly power station technologies. Improvements in power generation, however, are very often accompanied by demands for a guaranteed constant composition of lignite which has to be supplied in the required quantities by open pit mines, in this case "Tamnava West" and "Veliki Crljeni". Here specific limits of coal CV are often exceeded or not reached, causing malfunctions in the power plants supplied, and high costs from backup firing. The results of a study show that the introduction of a coal quality management system (CQMS) using on-line measurement can secure continuous supplies of lignite within specified CV limits to final customers.