Comparison of coal beneficiation methods. [Treatments alone and in sequence]

Conference · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:7047675

Min, S; Wheelock, T D

The laboratory application of 16 different treatments involving size reduction and physical separation to high-sulfur coal containing substantial amounts of finely disseminated microcrystals of iron pyrites provided several interesting and important results. Comparison of these results with a standard washability analysis showed that most of the treatments produced a cleaner coal for a given yield than could be obtained by gravity separation alone of 4 cm x 0 size coal. In this regard the treatments which failed to produce coal with a lower sulfur content were generally those which involved only size reduction and oil agglomeration. Treatments involving two and sometimes three methods of separation in sequence proved particularly effective. Thus the pyritic sulfur content of two Iowa coals was reduced 85 to 86% with an overall yield of 82 to 84% by treatment 14 which included chemical comminution, roll crushing, gravity separation, fine grinding, and oil agglomeration. This sulfur reduction was considerably higher than that provided by single-stage separation. Thus a maximum reduction of 66% in the pyritic sulfur content of ICO coal was realized during the froth flotation step of treatments 11--12 and of 64% in the pyritic sulfur content of Jude coal during the gravity separation step of treatments 13--16. Each of the separation methods used in these treatments proved effective in itself. Moreover the methods seemed to complement each other, particularly when used in conjunction with particle size reduction. Chemical comminution generally improved the separation efficiency of the various treatments and fine grinding the separation efficiency of the oil agglomeration method of separation in particular.

• Research Organization: Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology, Ames (USA). Energy and Mineral Resources Research Inst.
• OSTI ID: 7047675
• Report Number(s): IS-ICP-50; CONF-770814-13
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010402 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Purification & Upgrading
013000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
AGGLOMERATION
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CLEANING
COAL
COAL PREPARATION
COMMINUTION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CRUSHING
DESULFURIZATION
ENERGY SOURCES
FLOTATION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GRINDING
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON SULFIDES
MACHINING
MINERALS
ORES
PYRITE
PYRITES
REMOVAL
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR ORES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
WASHING