Pitch coal

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Pitch coal from Peißenberg
(shown in the German Mining Museum )

The pitch coal ( English pitch coal , French houille de poix ) was mainly mined in southern Bavarian coal mining, in the regions around Peißenberg , Hohenpeißenberg , Penzberg , Peiting , Hausham , Miesbach , Au bei Bad Aibling and Marienstein . There she comes as a lustrous carbon before and was called because of their shiny black appearance Pechkohle.

Occurrence

Pitch coal from Peiting
( weathered , from an overburden dump )

The pitch coal deposits in southern Bavaria are limited by the right Danube tributaries Lech in the west and Inn in the east. The deposits are all located in so-called hollows, all of these hollows practically extend in an east-west direction. In the west the "Peißenberger", " Rottenbucher " and the " Murnauer Mulde" are roughly parallel. Further east are the “Penzberger”, the small “Langsee-Mulde” and the large “ Nonnenwald- Mulde”. The Penzberger Mulde and the Nonnenwald-Mulde are parallel. The "Miesbacher-Auer" and the "Mariensteiner-Haushamer Mulde" are even further to the east; the latter two troughs are also almost parallel. The seams in part have a thickness of about one meter. The many thin seams, often only about 0.5 meters thick, were more difficult to mine than thicker seams such as those found in other coal fields. The minable seams are relatively heavily contaminated and contain 50 to 90 percent recoverable coal.

properties

This type of coal is a heavily carbonated hard brown coal and has a deposit age of 35 to 40 million years. It is brittle and usually has a layered composition. The calorific value is between 21,000 kJ / kg to 23,500 kJ / kg (around 5,000 to 5,600 kcal / kg), the carbon content is around 60%. In comparison, hard coal has a calorific value of around 31,000 kJ / kg (around 7,500 kcal / kg), soft lignite between 6,490 and 13,000 kJ / kg (1,550 and 3,100 kcal / kg). Pitch coal contains around 80% combustible material, the ash content is around 10% and the water content is around 8 to 10%. It has a high volatile content of 35 to 42% and burns for a long time. The sulfur content is also high. The coal is not suitable for coking , and briquetting is only possible by adding binding agents.

Average composition of Peissenberg coal
ingredient Salary in%
carbon 57.1
hydrogen 4.4
Oxygen and nitrogen 14.0
sulfur 5.3
ash 8.0

History (Southern Bavaria)

History of origin

In the Tertiary , 40 million years ago, there was a North Sea and a South Sea along today's Alps. The area of ​​today's Alps, between these seas, was mainland. The climate was tropical. In swamps there were favorable growing conditions for plants, and bogs with peat developed. In phases, these bogs repeatedly came under sea level, creating different layers. Due to the so-called coalification with exclusion of air and overlying layers that provided the necessary pressure, this coal was created over many millions of years. First soft brown coal emerged, then today's hard brown coal. The formation of the Alps , about 25 to 30 million years ago, lifted the area, and erosion gradually brought the coal-bearing layers back to the surface and were discovered there in the 16th century.

History of mining

In 1792, the mountain ridge Mathias von Flurl recorded the then known occurrences in his book Description of the Mountains of Baiern and the Upper Palatinate . The permanent, systematic mining with high output took place around the middle of the 19th century in the course of industrialization . With a few insignificant exceptions, the pitch coal was mined underground to depths of over 1000 meters. In southern Bavaria, mining was not as dominant as it was in other coal mining areas, because the region also remained dominated by agriculture. Since the coal could not be coked due to its non-existent baking ability, no affiliated coal and steel industry developed in the mining area . While the workforce in Peißenberg was mainly made up of the local rural population, in Penzberg and Hausham many more miners came from other regions. In 1951, a new mechanical mining method for thin seams, known as pile driving, was developed in Peißenberg. The dismantling was abandoned in 1962 in Marienstein and in 1971 in Peißenberg. The deposits were not exhausted. When sales of pitch coal gradually declined towards the end, attempts were still made to counteract this decline by generating electricity from coal with the help of new coal-fired power plants.

economic aspects

When there was no railroad, most of the transport was done by rafts on the waterway, but a large part of the income was lost to transport by carts. When the railroad connections were made, transportation was much easier. At the same time, new means of transport created competition from other coalfields. The Upper Bavarian pitch coal did not have the supraregional importance like the German hard coal, it was mainly sold only in southern Bavaria. It was not worthwhile to transport this coal with a comparatively low calorific value, which was obtained at relatively high cost, over long distances. The sales areas of the Hausham, Penzberg and Marienstein mines were eastern Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Ingolstadt, the coal from the Peißenberger Mulde (Peißenberg, Hohenpeißenberg, Peiting) was sold in western Upper Bavaria and in Bavarian Swabia . Munich was supplied from both directions. These territorial boundaries were established by the coal syndicate on the right bank of the Rhine before the Second World War and were maintained until around 1958. The main reason for closing the mines was that this coal, unlike heating oil, was no longer competitive.

See also

literature

  • Book title: Die Oberbayerische Pechkohle (Geologica Bavarica 73), Munich 1975, publisher and publisher: Bayer. Geological State Office with contributions by Karl Balthasar, Peter Geißler, Gerhard Jungk, Heinrich Heissbauer, Manfred Müller, Lilly Pinsl, Marlies Teichmüller, Rolf Teichmüller, 142 pages
  • KA Weithofer: The pitch coal region of the Bavarian foothills of the Alps and the Upper Bavarian Corporation for Coal Mining , memorandum on the occasion of the 50-year existence of this company (1870-1920), Munich 1920, 344 pages

Individual evidence

  1. ^ From the deep tunnel to the Cölestinschacht (hiking guide), editors: Josef Heinlein, Ludwig Stippel; Publisher: Association of Mining Museum Friends Peißenberg e. V., 2nd edition from 2000, page 19
  2. ↑ KA Weithofer: The pitch coal region of the Bavarian foothills of the Alps and the Upper Bavarian Corporation for Coal Mining , p. 94
  3. ↑ Max Biller, Ludwig Stippel: Bergbau und Bergbau-Museum am Hohen Peißenberg , 3rd expanded edition from 2006, page 10
  4. ↑ Dr. Peter Geißler: The origin of the Upper Bavarian coal. In: Peißenberger Bergbau Museum , Issue 1, 1981, page 10
  5. ↑ Paul Zerle: 135 Years of the Peißenberg Coal Mine 1837 - 1972 , page 44
  6. ↑ cf. Mathias Flurl: Description of the mountains of Baiern and the upper Palatinate , Munich 1792 (reprint: Heidelberg 1972), 642 pages
  7. ↑ a b Klaus Tenfelde : Mining culture in Oberland . In: Schönere Heimat, issue 4/1988, volume 77, page 521
  8. ↑ Dr. Ernst Ursel: The coal mining in the Pfaffenwinkel , publisher: Bergbaumuseumsfreunde Peißenberg e. V., page 12
  9. ↑ Economic development. In: KA Weithofer: The pitch coal region of the Bavarian Alpine foothills and the Upper Bavarian Corporation for Coal Mining , p. 259 ff
  10. ↑ a b Karl Buchner: The sales of Upper Bavarian coal from the Peißenberg coal mine in the last 20 years before it was closed in 1971 , self-made manuscript, Hohenpeißenberg 2002, page 6
  11. ↑ Karl Buchner: The sales of Upper Bavarian coal from the Peißenberg coal mine in the last 20 years before its closure in 1971 , self-made manuscript, Hohenpeißenberg 2002, page 9