Coal Preparation Dr.

Rakesh Kumar Dubey

Problems associated with Indian run-of-mine coal
Indian coal has drift origin, resulted in intimate mixing of mineral
matter with coal, giving rise to the ash content

 The coal-ash distribution in the coal matrix in Indian coal is so interwoven that
coal is essentially required to be crushed to small sizes for affecting liberation
of coal and ash particles

 Coal beneficiation largely depends on gravity difference of coal and ash particles
 The Near Gravity Material (NGM) at any specific gravity of cut is high, which
means at any specific gravity of cut there is quite good amount of misplacement
of coal towards sink and vice versa.
 It further put hurdle to achieve sharp separation during coal washing.
 Coal Preparation
Coal preparation is a broader term used to describe the complete
process of sizing, handling and washing of the run-of-mine coal.
It literally means increasing the commercial value of coal by suitable
preparation.

Coal beneficiation is the process of removal of the contaminants and

the lower grade coal to achieve a product quality which is suitable to
the application of the end user - either as an energy source or as a
reducing agent for metallurgical extraction of iron ores.
A common term for this process is coal "washing" or "cleaning".
 Coal Processing forms a link between coal mining and coal
utilization.
 Need for Coal Preparation

 To increase the commercial value of coal to meet

consumer demands

 Greater environmental constraints than in the past

 Due to the incorporation of non-coal bands, mineral

aggregates and possibly a certain amount of roof and floor rock in
the mined material.

 Due to Mechanized Mining Operation

 Why need of Coal Washing??

 Coal that comes from a mine is a complex

mixture of materials with a large variety of
physical properties.

 In addition to the coal itself, pieces of rock,

sand, and various minerals are contained in
the mixture.

Thus, before coal can be sold to consumers, it must be cleaned. The

cleaning process consists of a number of steps that results in a product
that is specifically suited to the needs of particular consumers.
 Why need of Coal Washing??

Remove extraneous, non-combustible material from coal

To Reduce ash handling at power station
NOx is produced from the
reaction of nitrogen and
For Sulfur reduction (lower SOX emissions) oxygen gases in the air
during combustion, especially
For Carbon and NOX Emissions Reduction at high temperatures.

To Reduce transportation costs per unit of heat

To Provide Guarantee consistent heat value
To Improve plant efficiency
 • Among the earliest of these steps is
crushing and sizing, two processes that
reduce the coal to a form required by
A coal preparation plant is a
facility that washes coal of soil the consumer.
and rock, crushes it into graded
sized chunks (sorting), stockpiles
grades preparing it for transport • The next step in coal preparation is a
to market, and more often than washing or cleaning step. This step is
not, also loads coal into rail cars, necessary not only to meet consumer
barges, or ships.
requirements, but also to ensure that
its combustion will conform to
environmental standards.
 Factors to be Considered for
Coal Preparation
The major factors that should be considered during coal preparation (not
order of priority) are:-

Economics of the operation

Characteristics of the particular coal being mined
Market specification
Environmental effects
Principles and applications of available coal preparation technology
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rithms/figures?lo=1
 Coal Separation Mechanism

• The coal separation mechanism includes:

SCREENING.

CLASSIFICATION.

DENSE MEDIUM SEPRATION.

GRAVITY SEPRATION

CENTRIFUGATION.

FILTERATION.

THICKENNG.
 Coal Processing Operations

Particle Sizing:
• Run-of-mine coal produced by mechanized mining operations can contain
particles as small as fine powder and as large as several hundred millimeters.

• There are different type of

sizing equipment used to produce desired size of coal which are as:
i)Vibrating screens
ii)Cyclones
 Vibrating Screens
• Screening is used to separate different sizes of crushed coal. In this process coarse
and fine coal is separated so to accommodate for specific markets and industrial
usage.

• Screens are mechanical sizing devices that use a mesh to sort particles into fine
(particles that pass through the screen openings) and coarse (particles that are
retained on the screen surface).

• Vibrating screens, use a shaking rotating mechanism

to segregate particles and to move material along
the screen surface.

• High-frequency screens vibrate very rapidly to enhance

the passage of fine particles and are normally used for
dewatering fine coal or rock.
 Cyclones

• A cyclone is a conical vessel in which coal along with finely

ground magnetite is pumped tangentially to a tapered inlet and
short cylindrical section at a predetermined flow rate and
pressure followed by a conical section where the separation takes
place.

• The higher specific gravity fractions being subject to greater

centrifugal forces pull away from the central core and descend
downwards towards the apex along the wall of cyclone body and
pass out as rejects.

• The lighter particles are caught in an upward stream and pass out
as clean coal through the cyclone overflow outlet.
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DMC
Cyclones are used where conventional screening or sieving becomes
impractical.

• Classifying cyclones are commonly applied to size (cut) at 0.10 to 0.15

mm.

• And represent the only practical option for sizing ultrafine particles (at a
cut of 0.045 mm).

• This sizing device exploits differences in the settling rates of particles of

different size (i.e., smaller particles settle slower than larger particles).
 Coal Washing Processes

Some Types of Coal washing/cleaning plants

(1) Gravity Separation Method
Jigs
Launder Washer
Wet Process
Rising Current Classifier
Wilfley tables

Jigs
Dry Process
Tables

(2) Float and Sink Method • Dense Medium Separators

• Jigs
(3) Froth floatation Method • Cyclone Washers
• Froth Floatation
 Dense Medium Separation
Coal dense medium separation is a popular beneficiation process used for the upgrading of
coal ore into power station and metallurgical coal.

• Dense medium separation or heavy medium separation is used in coal preparation to produce a
commercially graded end product, clean coal being separated from heavier shale or high ash coal.

• A popular process for cleaning coarse coal which is having a size greater than 12.5 mm.

PRINCIPLE
It is the simplest of all gravity processes and has long been a standard laboratory method for separating
minerals of different specific gravity.
• Heavy coal particles of suitable density are used, so that those minerals lighter than the heavy particles will
float, while those denser will sink to bottom.
• Dense medium separation (DMS) is a process whereby particles are sorted primarily on the basis of
their densities.
• Particles with a wide range of densities are introduced into a medium suspension of a given density.
• Particles that are lighter than the medium density rise. These are commonly referred to as floats.
• Particles that are heavier than the medium density sink, and these are commonly referred to as sinks
(Gupta and Yan, 2006, p. 527)
 Water-Based Density Separators
• Water-Based Density Separators is a variety of density-based separators available for separating coal and rock in the
particle size range between 0.2 and 1.0 mm.

• The most common methods include water-only cyclones and spirals.

• A water-only cyclone (WOC) is similar to a classifying cyclone, but typically has a broad wide angled conical
bottom .

• Separation of coal and rock occurs because of the formation of dense suspension created by the natural fines already
in the feed slurry.
 A spiral consists of a corkscrew-shaped device that sorts coal from rock by selective segregation that
occurs as particles move in the flowing film along the helical trough.

• Because of the low unit capacity (two to four tons per hour), spirals are usually arranged in groups that
are fed by an overhead distributor.

WOCs and spirals are often employed in two stages or in combination with other water-based separators to
improve performance.

One of the most important developments in fine coal

washing was the introduction in the 1980s of spiral
separators specifically designed for coal. It is common
practice to separate coal down to 0.5 mm using dense
medium cyclones
Spirals are made with slopes of varying steepness, the angle depending on the specific gravity of
separation.

Shallow angles are used, for example, to separate coal from shale, while steeper angles are used for heavy
mineral - quartz separations. The steepest angles are used to separate heavy minerals from heavy waste
minerals, for example, zircon (S.G. 4.7)
 Jig Washers

Jigging is one of the oldest methods of gravity concentration

•A coal bed is maintained on a perforated plate

•Coal bed is subjected to action of upward and
downward current of water
•Clean coal being the lighter is concentrated at the top
while the dirt sinks and removed from the bottom of
the washer
 Jigs are commonly used to clean coal but are also used in heavy mineral separations including
alluvial gold. When treating coal, the light fraction is the concentrate and in the mineral industry,
the heavy fraction is the concentrate.

 The jig is commonly an open tank filled with water, with a horizontal screen near the top.

 Some early jigs were designed where the screen surface, in the form of a basket, moved up and
down in a barrel or tank of water hence producing the vertical flow of fluid through the bed of
particles.

 Some movable screen jigs are still designed today, though most modern jigs employ a stationary
screen and pulse the water through it.

 The differences between the various types of jigs available relate to the methods used to generate
the pulsation and the manner in which the heavy fraction is removed from the jig.
 The screen is there to support the bed of particles and the area underneath the screen is called
the hutch. The tank is usually divided into two main sections; one containing the support screen
with the bed of ore and another section which generates the fluid pulse.

 The heavy discharge from the jig may be either through the screen or over the screen. In jigging
through the screen, all particles in the feed are smaller than the screen aperture and thus have
the potential to drop through the screen and collect in the hutch. To stop the light fraction
falling through the screen, a false support is provided in the form of a layer of coarse heavy
particles called ragging which when contacting the screen surface pack down to effectively close
off the screen apertures to the feed particles.

 An example of ragging material is feldspar for coal jigs.

 Large jigs are divided into separate compartments with different operating conditions for each
compartment, such as roughing and scavenging duties.
 For feed particles larger than the apertures of the supporting screen, jigging over the screen may
be practiced, and the heavy product grade is partly controlled by the thickness of the bottom
layer which in turn is controlled by the rate of withdrawal through the heavies discharge port.
Gates are operated to allow the heavy fraction to drop into a bucket elevator for removal.

 Positioning of the gate opening is controlled by the location of the boundary between the light and
heavy layers and this is determined by a weighted float positioned in the bed or monitoring the
pressure fluctuations in the pulsating water.
 Principle of Operation and Fundamentals

 Stratification in a bed of particles results from the repeated pulsation of a current of fluid up
through the bed. The particles in the bed are expanded so that when pulsation ceases, the particles
are allowed to consolidate under the influence of gravity.

 The expansion and contraction of the bed is repeated in a cyclic operation until the heavy and light
particles have stratified according to their specific gravity. The frequency of pulsations usually
varies from 50 - 300 cycles per minute.
Speed of flow through bed during jig cycle. Basic jig construction
 As a particle just starts to move from rest, the particle velocity is small and hence the drag force acting on
the particle is negligible since the drag force increases with particle velocity relative to the fluid.

 That is, the initial acceleration of the particles depend only on the specific gravity of the solid and fluid and
is independent of the particle size.

 Once the particles reach an appreciable velocity the fluid drag force becomes significant and it opposes the
particle's further acceleration to the extent that eventually the particle acceleration drops to zero and a
constant terminal velocity is reached which will depend on the particle diameter as well as density.

 At a high cycle frequency, therefore, the total distance travelled by the particles will be governed more by
the difference in the initial acceleration between particles due to their density difference rather than by
their terminal velocities which is also influenced by the particle size.

 That is, for particles with a similar terminal velocity, such as would be experienced by small heavy
particles and large light minerals, a short jigging cycle would be necessary for separation.
 However, for coarser particles, longer strokes with decreased speed is found to give better stratification
and hence it may be preferable to split the feed into closely sized fractions and have a jig optimised for
each size fraction.

 The frequency of the jig cycle and the control of events within each cycle is critical in determining the
behaviour of particles within the jig bed. A minimum cycle time is required to allow each phase of the
cycle to be optimum for a given feed. Any further increase in cycle time would not be optimum or the
bed would be in a compacted state and no further separation would occur during this interval hence
affecting the capacity. Cycle speed adjustment is therefore the most important operating variable.

 Parameters which determine the cycle frequency include the feed rate, feed size and density and the jig
design.
 A jig pulsation is a case of simple harmonic motion. The period of pulsation can be given by the basic
formula for simple harmonic motion based on a pendulum:

 where T = period of pulsation or time for a complete pulsation cycle, t = duration of the stroke (half
cycle), and L = distance between the centre of suspension of the pendulum and its centre of oscillation.
Advantages of Jig Washers
•Better separation efficiency for finer sizes of coal
(25-200mm)

Jigs are widely used in coal cleaning (also referred to as “coal washing”) and are preferred to the
more expensive DMS when the coal has relatively little middlings, or “near-gravity” material.
No feed preparation is required, as is necessary with DMS

Conventional Jigs Advantages

• Able to recover coarse particles, thus reducing grinding requirements for hard rock
ores, and excessive slimes generation
• Open visual and physical inspection possible with many adjustments

Disadvantages
• Operation an ‘‘art’’, largely based on experience, and is subjective
• Ragging screen requires periodic cleaning to prevent blinding and build-up of
coarse heavies
• Not suitable for recovery of fines
• Uses lot of water
Two types of air-pulsated jig—Baum and Batac—are used in
the coal industry.
 The standard Baum jig with some design modifications
(Green, 1984), has been used for nearly 100 years and is still
the dominant device.

Baum Jig

In many situations, the Baum jig still performs

satisfactorily, with its ability to handle large tonnages
(up to 1,000 t/h) of coal of a wide size range.
Batac Jig