Broadly speaking, all coal used for power generation, locomotive propulsion, boiler combustion and other purposes. It belongs to power coal, referred to as power coal for short. Coal quality in thermal power plant is an important basis for boiler design and production process control. The characteristics of coal combustion include two aspects: one is the characteristics of coal quality, and the other is the characteristics of ash. The characteristics of coal refer to moisture, ash, volatile matter, fixed carbon, element content (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur), calorific value, ignition temperature, grindability and particle size. These indexes are directly related to combustion, processing (such as grinding into pulverized coal), transportation and storage. Ash characteristics refer to the chemical composition, high temperature characteristics and specific resistance of coal ash. These characteristics have great influence on the cleanliness after combustion, the corrosiveness to steel and the removal of coal ash.

As far as the types of power coal are concerned, there are mainly lignite, long-flame coal, unbonded coal, lean coal, gas coal and a small amount of anthracite. As far as commercial coal is concerned, there are mainly washed blended coal, washed coal, pulverized coal and pulverized coal. Inferior coal mainly refers to bituminous coal with high ash content (above 40%), low calorific value (less than 15.73 MJ/kg, about 3760 Kcal/kg), anthracite coal with low volatile content (less than 10%), lignite with low moisture content and high calorific value, and high sulfur content (more than 2%).

(1) lignite

Lignite, also called firewood, is a kind of mineral coal with the lowest degree of coalification. A dull brown-black low-grade coal between peat and bituminous coal. Because it is rich in volatiles, it is easy to burn and smoke. The calorific value is about 8.38-16.76 mj /kg (2000-4000 kcal/kg). Mostly brown or brown-black. Mainly used as fuel for power generation, but also as chemical raw materials, catalyst carriers, adsorbents, sewage purification and metal recovery.

China lignite resources have been identified as 654.38+0556 billion tons (at the end of 2008), mainly distributed in eastern Inner Mongolia and eastern Yunnan, with a small amount in Northeast China and South China.

(2) Long flame coal

Long-flame coal is the name of bituminous coal with the lowest degree of coalification in China national coal classification standard. Its volatile matter is particularly high, and the flame is long when burning, hence the name. The standard stipulates that the dry ash-free volatile matter VR of long-flame coal is >: 37%; Adhesion index G & gt35. Long-flame coal has weak cohesiveness and generally does not coke. It is non-coking coal, mainly used as power and chemical coal. In some coking plants, a small amount of long-flame coal with low ash and sulfur is sometimes used to reduce the ash and sulfur content of coke. But the dosage should not be too much, otherwise the mechanical strength of coke will be obviously worse. Because long-flame coal is difficult to crush, it should be crushed separately before coal blending. The typical long-flame coals in China are Fuxin coal and Tiefa coal in Liaoning Province.

(3) Lean coal

Lean coal is the title of bituminous coal with the highest degree of coalification. The drying of lean coal has no ash volatile Vr> 10%-20%, no stickiness or slight stickiness, and the viscosity index g is less than or equal to 5. Lean coal will not soften or melt when heated; The layered coking furnace does not coke. When coking alone, coke lump cannot be formed, which is called non-coking coal. Lean coal has short flame and flame resistance, and is usually used as industrial and civil fuel. When the supply of lean coal is seriously insufficient and there are enough binding components in coking coal blending, a small amount of lean coal can be added as diluent. When mixing lean coal, it is suggested to finely grind lean coal to prevent the formation of crack centers in coke.

(4) Gas coal

Gas coal is bituminous coal with low coalification degree. Gas coal can be used as coking material. However, due to the weak cohesiveness, a large amount of coal gas and coal tar are produced during thermal decomposition, and the coke shrinks greatly and has many cracks. Coking coal and fat coal must be added to improve coke quality. Gas coal is one of the components of coking coal blending, and can also be used as power coal, gasification coal and chemical coal. It can also be used as raw materials for gasification, low-temperature dry distillation and other industries. China mainly produces Fushun in Northeast China, Beipiao in Anhui, Hegang, Huainan and Pingxiang in Jiangxi.

(5) anthracite

Anthracite, commonly known as white coal or red coal, is the coal with the deepest coalification, with the most carbon content, less ash, less water, high calorific value, up to 5900-7800 kcal/kg, high volatile release temperature, non-coking, difficult to ignite and burn out, smokeless when burning, and bluish flame. The proven reserves of anthracite in China are1340.22 million tons, accounting for 1 1.56% of the proven reserves of coal resources in China. There are six anthracite bases in China: Jingmei Group, Jincheng Coal Group, Jiaozuo Coal Group, Yongcheng Mining Area, Shenhua Ning Mei Group and Yangquan Coal Group.

Anthracite lump coal is mainly used in chemical fertilizer (nitrogen fertilizer, synthetic ammonia), ceramics, manufacturing and forging industries; Smokeless pulverized coal is mainly used for blast furnace injection in metallurgical industry.

From a global perspective, the output of thermal coal accounts for more than 80% of the total coal output. World 10 coal companies mainly produce thermal coal, accounting for about 82% of the total coal output of 10 coal companies; The output of thermal coal in the United States accounts for more than 90% of its total output; The output of thermal coal in China also accounts for more than 70% of the total coal output. In foreign countries, thermal coal is mostly used for power generation, and industrial boilers also have some consumption.

About 55% of the world's coal is used for power generation, and the incremental part of coal demand is basically in the power field. More than 65% of China's thermal coal consumption structure is used for thermal power generation; Secondly, coal used for building materials accounts for about 20% of the consumption of power coal, and coal used for cement is the largest; The remaining heat consumption coal is distributed in metallurgical, chemical and civil fields.

Two, thermal coal futures exchange and code

Thermal Coal Futures Exchange: Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange

Thermal coal futures trading code: TC

Third, thermal coal futures contracts.

Four, thermal coal futures margin

Minimum trading margin standard 5%

Provisions on the three-phase futures contracts of members of futures companies:

Provisions on the position limit of futures contracts of non-members of futures companies:

Provisions on the position limit of customers' futures contracts:

Verb (abbreviation of verb) Influencing factors of thermal coal futures price

1, coal production capacity.

Coal production capacity determines the upper limit of useful supply of thermal coal, thus becoming the most basic factor affecting the quotation of thermal coal in China.

2. Transportation costs.

From the perspective of coal quotation structure, coal quotation is mainly composed of production cost, transportation cost and profits of various departments involved. At present, the production cost of coal in China only accounts for more than 10% of the final consumption quotation, while the cost of intermediate links accounts for a large proportion. In particular, transportation plays an important role in the coal quotation and is one of the primary factors affecting the coal market.

3. consumption.

The consumption demand of thermal coal mainly depends on the following factors: First, the growth rate of the national economy. China's national economy will still maintain a relatively stable growth rate. Secondly, it meets the professional needs of centralized consumption of thermal coal such as electric power, metallurgy, building materials and chemical industry. On the one hand, with the development of economy, these four occupations are developing steadily, and the consumption of thermal coal is also increasing steadily; On the other hand, with the gradual emergence of macro-control effect, the construction of a conservation-oriented society, the transformation of economic growth mode, and the implementation of measures to limit the development of high-energy and heavy-pollution occupations, China's energy consumption per unit GDP will be reduced, which will slow down the growth of demand for thermal coal in these four occupations. Furthermore, low ash and high calorific value bituminous coal and high quality pulverized coal suitable for urban central heating boilers need strong growth. Therefore, the total social demand for coal will maintain steady growth in the future.