Preliminary evaluation of resinite recovery from Illinois coal. Technical report, December 1, 1994--February 28, 1995

Resinite is a naturally occurring substance found in coal and derived from original plant resins. It is ubiquitous in North American coals. It makes up one to four percent by volume of most Illinois coals. It has been commercially exploited in the western USA for use in adhesives, varnishes and thermal setting inks. The overall objective of this project is to compare the properties of the resinite contained in Illinois Basin coals to resinite being commercially exploited in the western United States, and to recover the resinite from Illinois coals by microbubble column floatation techniques. This project is relevant to priority 1.4A identified in ICCI/RFP93-1. The significance of this study is that it has the potential to show the way to recover a valuable chemical, resinite, from coal using only physical processing techniques. The value of the resinite at $1.00/kg or $0.50/lb makes it about fifty times more valuable than steam coal. The removal of resinite from coal does not decrease the value of the remaining coal in any way. The unique aspects are that: (1) it is the first examination of the resinite recovery potential of Illinois coal, (2) it integrates the latest characterization techniques such as density gradient centrifugation, microspectrofluorometry, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and (3) it uses microbubble column flotation to determine the resinite recovery potential. During this quarter samples were obtained, information from both the databases of both the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) and the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) was obtained and evaluated, and IBCSP samples from the Herrin No. 6, the Springfield No. 5 and the Colchester No. 2 seams were analyzed petrographically and the resinites in these samples were characterized by fluorescence spectral analysis