Engineering development of selective agglomeration. Final report

Technical Report · Thu Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10177698· OSTI ID:10177698

This report presents the findings of the project entitled ``Engineering Development of Selective Agglomeration.`` The purpose is to develop selective agglomeration technology to a commercially acceptable level by 1993. Engineering development included bench-scale process development, component development adaptation or modification of existing unit operations, proof-of-concept (POC) module design, fabrication, testing, data evaluation, and conceptual design of a commercial facility. The information obtained during POC operation resulted in a technical and economic design base sufficient to support construction and operation of a commercial plant. Throughout this project performance targets for the engineering development of selective agglomeration process were to achieve 85% or greater Btu recovery at 85% or greater pyritic sulfur rejection (PSR). Additional objectives included producing a final clean-coal product with an ash content of 6% or less which is suitable for conventional coal handling systems. The selective agglomeration process, as applied to coal cleaning, is based on differences in the surface chemistry of coal and its associated impurities. Coal particles are hydrophobic (i.e., repel water) while the majority of its impurities are hydrophilic (i.e., stabilized in water). During selective agglomeration, a liquid (the agglomerant) that is immiscible with water is introduced into a coal-water slurry and agitated to disperse it in the slurry, thereby allowing it to come into contact with all particles in the slurry. The coal particles, due to their hydrophobic nature, are attracted to the agglomerant phase. The hydrophilic mineral impurities remain in the water phase. Continued agitation of the agglomerant-coated coal particles causes them to coalesce to form agglomerates. Once the agglomerates are formed, they are separated from the mineral matter-bearing aqueous phase by subsequent processing steps.

• Research Organization: Praxis Engineers, Inc., Milpitas, CA (United States); Southern Electric International, Inc., Wilsonville, AL (United States); Southern Co. Services, Inc., Birmingham, AL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC22-89PC88879
• OSTI ID: 10177698
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/88879--T6; ON: DE93040646
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010300
AGGLOMERATION
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CLEANING
COAL
COAL FINES
ENGINEERING
FUEL SLURRIES
MIXTURES
PREPARATION
PROCESS DEVELOPMENT UNITS
PROGRESS REPORT
WATER