Dispute Resolution

Assessment of Quality of Suspect Shipment of Coal

Contact: Roddy Wilkie

Type of Project

Energy and Environmental Fuel

Outline of Project

Eregli Iron and Steel is a Turkish company supplying approximately 50% of the Turkish steel market.

It was concerned that a shipment of coal delayed in transit for six months could have significantly deteriorated in quality. The deterioration might have been such as to seriously affect the coal's coking qualities.

Along with Minton, Treharne and Davies, Scientific Analysts, Cadogan Consultants was employed in a dual role to advise both the purchaser and the seller. The commission involved three stages:

• Advising on the method of assessment and agreeing an acceptable technical specification for the coal.
• Witnessing of the sampling and analysis of the coal.
• Revaluation of the coal if it was found to be out of specification.

To eliminate the possibility of errors occurring due to settling, natural variations and human intervention the sampling process has to be carried out to a rigorous and statistically calculated schedule. Thereafter a precise procedure is followed for reduction in size and division into small batches in preparation for analysis.

A number of analyses were carried out and the results averaged.

Cadogan Consultants' particular contribution to this project was related to the assessment of the coking qualities of the coal and included the Geiseler Plastometer test, the Audibert-Arnu Dilatometer test, the Free Swelling Index test and coking trials to assess coke stability.

Key skills used by cadogan consultants

• Independent, reputable consulting engineers
• Extensive experience of fuels, coking coals
• Knowledge of analytical processes