Rapid Estimation of Sulfur Content in High-Ash Indian Coal Using Mid-Infrared FTIR Data

High-ash Indian coals are primarily used as thermal coal in power plants and industries. Due to the presence of sulfur coal, flue gas is a major environmental concern. Conventional methods (Ultimate Analysis Coal) for content estimation time-consuming, relatively costly, destructive. In this study, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has emerged promising alternative method rapid nondestructive analysis coal. present actual samples was determined using Ultimate (CHNS analyzer). contrast, mid-infrared FTIR spectroscopic data (4000–400 cm−1) were analyze functional groups related or its compounds predict content. A comparison estimated CHNS analyzer predicted shows that it can accurately high-ash piecewise linear regression (Quasi-Newton, QN). The proposed FTIR-based prediction model showed coefficient determination (R2) up 0.93, where total no. (Coal + KBr pellets, n) 126 (using 17:1 split, K-fold cross validation). root-mean-square error (RMSE, wt.%) 0.0035, mean bias (MBE, −0.0003, MBE (%) 3.31% absolute (MAE, 0.0020. two-tailed t-test F-test variance indicated no significant difference between pair values observed (SCHNS, (SFTIR, data. Quasi-Newton with breakpoint loss function performs well from Johilla Coalfield, Umaria. Thus, be valuable tool analyzing other ash-rich various basins worldwide.