Open AccessMicro-agglomerate flotation for deep cleaning of coal. Quarterly progress report, July 1, 1995--September 30, 1995
Author(s) -
S. Chander,
R. Hogg
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/206979
Subject(s) - agglomerate , economies of agglomeration , coal , froth flotation , reagent , selectivity , yield (engineering) , environmental science , waste management , process engineering , chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , metallurgy , engineering , organic chemistry , catalysis
The development of practical technologies for the deep cleaning of coal has been seriously hampered by the problems of carrying out efficient coal/mineral separations at the very fine sizes (often finer than 10 mm) needed to achieve adequate liberation of the mineral matter from the coal matrix. It is generally recognized that surface-based separation processes such as froth flotation or selective agglomeration offer considerable potential for such applications but there remain many problems in obtaining the required selectivity with acceptable recovery of combustible matter. In froth flotation, selectivity is substantially reduced at fine sizes due, primarily, to overloading of the froth phase which leads to excessive carryover of water and entrained mineral matter. Oil agglomeration, on the other hand, can provide good selectivity at low levels of oil addition but the agglomerates tend to be too fragile for separation by the screening methods normally used. The addition of larger amounts of oil can yield large, strong agglomerates which are easily separated but the selectivity is reduced and reagent costs can become excessive