Modular plant recovers high quality fuel from slurry pond

Conference · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:20013419

Batanian, D C; Terry, R L; Watters, L A

For more than forty years, Peabody Coal Company operated a large deep mine complex near the town of Pawnee, approximately 15 miles southeast of Springfield in Christian County, Illinois. The Peabody Mine No.10 recovered No.6 (Herrin) seam raw coal from a depth of about 350 feet. All of the run-of-mine production was washed in a cleaning plant that utilized jigs and water-only cyclone circuits to produce a clean coal sold exclusively in the domestic steam coal market. Cleaning plant capacity was approximately 1,150 tons per hour, and clean coal production averaged about 2.5 million tons per year. When the economically recoverable reserves of No.6 coal were depleted in 1994, the mine was closed and the plant idled. Clean coal produced at Mine No.10 had an average ash content of about 10.0%, total sulfur of 3.50% and a heating value of 10,300 BTU/lb. Due to the relative inefficiency of the plant fine coal cleaning circuitry, significant quantities of coal reported to the tailings thickener as refuse. Thickener underflow was pumped to nearby slurry impoundments, which by 1994 were estimated to contain more than 5 million tons of material. Following the mine closure, the slurry ponds were reclaimed and the coal cleaning plant was dismantled. In 1997, USA Coal contracted for the erection of two synthetic fuel production facilities at the old Mine No.10 site. These facilities became operational in June of 1998 and qualified for Section 29 federal tax credits. In January of 1998, Sedgman was awarded a contract to design and build a preparation plant capable of recovering fine coal from the slurry impoundments at the Mine No.10 site. The fine coal recovery plant was erected in under 4 months utilizing modular construction techniques, which not only reduced field construction time but will also allow for rapid relocation of the recovery plant when all the slurry pond material at this site is depleted. From a raw plant feed of 325 tons per hour of 3.0 MM x 0 material, the fine coal recovery plant can recover an average of 100 tons per hour of high quality coal suitable for use as feedstock to the pellet plants operated at this site.

• OSTI ID: 20013419
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
ABANDONED SITES
BITUMINOUS COAL
COAL FINES
COAL PREPARATION PLANTS
DESIGN
ILLINOIS
MATERIALS RECOVERY
OPERATION
PELLETIZING
SETTLING PONDS