Single stage desulfurization of both organic and inorganic sulfur from Midwestern U.S. coals by binary mixtures of supercritical fluids

Conference · Fri Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:45120

Azzam, F O; Lee, S ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Akron, OH (United States)

High sulfur containing Midwestern U.S. coals contain 3-7 percent sulfur by mass, which mainly consists of substantial amounts of organic, pyritic, and sulfatic sulfur forms. In order to meet the strict emission requirements imposed on coal burning utilities by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, coals with high sulfur content must be cleaned before, during, or after combustion. Depending upon the mode of desulfurization, the methods may be classified as precombustion, concurrent, and post-combustion cleaning. The present study deals with a novel, precombustion coal cleaning process that has a unique feature in its process technology. Removal of pyritic sulfur has always been considered successful, since the gravitational separation technique has proven to be quite efficient. Despite the relative success of such operations, however, the efficiency of this type of desulfurization is grossly insufficient for the new compliance coal requirements that mandate SO{sub x} emission to be lower than 1.2 lb per one million BTU. The problem is normally more complicated due to the high abundance of organic sulfur in Midwestern and Eastern U.S. coals. There have been various attempts to selectively remove organic sulfur from coals. They normally involve solvent extraction processes, and once they are found to be successful they are coupled with gravitation separation of pyritic sulfur.

• OSTI ID: 45120
• Report Number(s): CONF-930413--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
BINARY MIXTURES
CLEANING
COAL
DESULFURIZATION
ETHANOL
FLUIDS
METHANOL
REMOVAL
SULFUR
SUPERCRITICAL STATE
WATER