ICCP input in the international standards for coal and organic matter petrographic analyses

Abstract

Anybody having a close look to the ISO standards for Coal petrographic analyses and knowing the analytical procedures described in the ICCP handbook would realize that the ISO 7404 standards for vocabulary, sample preparation, maceral and microlithotype analyses and vitrinite reflectance measurements, are entirely based on the ICCP methods and procedures. The first edition of these ISO standards appeared 1988. Much was due to the effort of the pioneering ICCP members and their positions in their respective institutions as representatives for the elaboration of the ISO standards. Worth to mention are: B. Alpern (CERCHAR,FR), R. Nöel (INCHAR,BE), M.Th. Mackowsky (Bergbau Forschung,DE), H. Smith (NCB, UK), V. Hevia (INCAR,ES), G.H. Cady (ISGS,USA) in the early times, although more ICCP members were participating through the national committees. At that time the ICCP was structured in just two Commissions (i) Terminology and Nomenclature and (ii) Methods of Analysis and therefore the establishment of the definitions and analytical methods were the key issues to prepare the Handbook (1963, 1971, 1975). Similarly the equivalent ASTM standards D2797-99 make use of the ICCP methods. In the successive revision of these methods involving the replacement of the photomultiplier by cameras, the incorporation of automated analysis and new preparation methods, ICCP members (i.e. A.C. Cook, W. Pickel, and D. Pearson) have been very much involved, the position of the ICCP being translated by W. Pickel in the latest revision. Very relevant is also the contribution of the ICCP concepts to the International Classification of in-Seam Coals (ECE/UN 1998) that for the first time use vitrinite reflectance as the main classification criteria replacing volatile matter yield, widely used in the national classification systems, to establish the classes. To this achievement, the successive chairing position of M.Th. Mackowsky, B. Alpern and M.J. Lemos de Sousa of the UN Genève Committee had a key influence. This was the basis also for the ISO 11760 Classification of coals, whose 1st edition appeared in 2005, contributing to a more widespread utilization of optical methods. More recently, an ASTM standard for Microscopical Determination of the Reflectance of Vitrinite Dispersed in Sedimentary Rocks (ASTM D7708) whose first version in 2011 has been derived from an ICCP working group lead by P. Hackley has been also produced. The ICCP has tried for years to simplify the complex classification system of metallurgical coke texture (ASTM D5061) and still it has groups working to this aim and to extending the classification to other carbon forms. Currently also work is being carried out to incorporate coke reflectance in the standard characterization of coke. I would like to thank very specially M.J. Lemos de Sousa who guided me to find the key issues of these memories.