Statistical Tests for Prediction of Lignite Quality

Abstract

Domestic lignite from large, bucket wheel excavators based open pit mines is the main fuel for electricity generation in Greece. Lignite from one or more mines may arrive at any power plant stockyard. The mixture obtained constitutes the lignite fuel fed to the power plant. The fuel is sampled in regular time intervals. These samples are considered as results of observations of values of spatial random variables. The aim was to form and statistically test many small sample populations. Statistical tests on the values of the humidity content, the ash-water free content, and the lower heating value of the lignite fuel indicated that the sample values form a normal population. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied for testing goodness-of-fit of sample distribution for a three year period and different power plants of the Kozani-Ptolemais area, western Macedonia, Greece. The normal distribution hypothesis can be widely accepted for forecasting the distribution of values of the basic quality characteristics even for a small number of samples.

Keywords:

• cut-off grade
• evaluation of deposits
• Greece
• lignite
• Macedonia
• quality control
• statistics in mining
• surface mining