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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Coal cleaning to improve Illinois No. 6 Seam coal for combustion

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6517450

Illinois No. 6 Seam coal from Perry County, Illinois was tested at EPRI's Coal Cleaning Test Facility (CCTF) to see if physical coal cleaning can improve the coal's combustion performance. Union Electric burns this coal at its Labadie Power Station and experiences severe slagging problems that have forced unit derating. Also, low sulfur coal must be blended with the Illinois No. 6 coal to meet SO/sub 2/ emission standards of 4.8 lb/MBtu. The CCTF tested 560 tons of Illinois No. 6 Seam coal to: determine the washability characteristics; assess the degree of impurity liberation achievable by roll crushing; compare raw coal and different clean coal qualities; and produce specific quality coals for pilot scale combustion tests (1.5 MBtu/h heat release rate). The Illinois No. 6 Seam coal currently burned at the Labadie Power Station is cleaned by a baum jig process. The jig's average clean coal has a slagging index of 1.24 and SO/sub 2/ emission potential of 5.0 lb/MBtu compared with the raw coal's 1.65 slagging index and 6.8 lb SO/sub 2//MBtu. Improved-quality, clean coal was produced at the CCTF with a 0.95 slagging index and 4.5 lb SO/sub 2//MBtu. This clean coal was produced with only a two- to three- percentage point sacrifice in energy recovery from the existing jig process. Comparative combustion tests were conducted on raw, existing, and CCTF-cleaned coal samples. Combustion test results will be published by EPRI in the near future. 14 references, 20 figures, 23 tables.

Research Organization:
Kaiser (Raymond) Engineers, Inc., Homer City, PA (USA); Science Applications, Inc., Homer City, PA (USA)
OSTI ID:
6517450
Report Number(s):
EPRI-CS-3666; ON: TI85920001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English