Engineering development of selective agglomeration: Trace element removal study. Final report

Technical Report · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:10133172

Cosponsored by EPRI; DOE; Praxis Engineers, Inc.; and Southern Company Services, Inc., this project was an effort to scale up a selective agglomeration concept that EPRI and the Alberta Research Council jointly developed. So that as-mined high-sulfur coals can meet environmental regulations, investigators defined, tested, scaled up the selective agglomeration physical coal cleaning technology for rejecting pyritic sulfur while maintaining high Btu recoveries. Among the project`s goals was 85% recovery or greater of Btu recoveries. Among the project`s goals was 85% recovery or greater of Btu values with 85% pyritic sulfur rejection based on run-of-mine coal, creating a product with ash content of 6% or less that is usable in conventional coal handling systems. To achieve these goals, researchers divided the project into two phases. In Phase 1, they performed more than 1000 bench-scale continuous and batch tests and product forming component development. Proof-of-concept testing in Phase II used the most promising configurations from Phase I with diesel oil as the agglomerate and pelletization product forming. Research estimates for cleaning the entire product from conventional cleaning circuits with selective agglomeration was approximately $25/ton product or $490/ton SO{sub 2} removed. These figures suggest that precombustion sulfur removal is competitive with postcombustion strategies. The project also demonstrated that the degree of trace element reduction is coal specific and that significant reductions are possible using conventional coal cleaning and selective agglomeration. Since many of the trace elements in coal are hazardous air pollutants, removal of the elements before burning will eliminate their release into the atmosphere.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); CQ, Inc., Homer City, PA (United States); Southern Co. Services, Inc., Birmingham, AL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 10133172
• Report Number(s): EPRI-TR--103479; ON: UN94008169
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010300
AGGLOMERATION
ARSENIC
BARIUM
COAL PREPARATION
COBALT
DEASHING
DESULFURIZATION
DIESEL FUELS
ELEMENTS
EPRI
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOTATION
LEAD
MANGANESE
PREPARATION
TRACE AMOUNTS
ZINC