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School of Engineering Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical School of Engineering Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering Literature Survey NSC 422 UPGRADING OF COAL WITH THE AID OF A KNELSON CONCENTRATOR by W.T. Motsoari (15124895) Supervisor: Mr W. Roux Coordinator: Dr H. Möller Date: 08/11/2019 i Abstract The study herein was focused on the deashing of coal fines by the use of a Knelson concentrator. The coal fines are difficult to recover with the conventional processes due to a lower size limit. i.e. Spiral concentrator cannot efficiently recover coal particles less than 0.15 mm. Flotation is commonly used to recover coal in the size range of -0.15 + 0.045 mm. However, there are challenges around flotation because very small particles have a low chance of colliding with the air bubbles. The ability of a Knelson concentrator to process ultrafine particles (38 μm) can be very helpful if it can effectively upgrade coal. A Knelson concentrator, KC-MD3 batch model was used to conduct the tests with three different coal samples. Each sample was passed through the Knelson concentrator five times, removing the tailings each time, and the grade (ash percentage) was determined at different recoveries. With this project, it was discovered that a Knelson concentrator can indeed deash coal fines. Ash content of cyclone U/F (Top size 2 mm) was reduced from 26.59 to 19.96%. While with the filter cake samples, ash was reduced from 34.27 to 32.21% and from 38.08 to 35.67% for filter cake 1 and 2 respectively. Therefore, a Knelson concentrator was found to have the ability to upgrade coal fines. Keywords: Knelson concentrator, Coal fines, Coal mineralogy and properties, Centrifugal processing ii Table Contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Background ...............................................................................................................................................6 1.2 Problem Statement ..................................................................................................................................6 1.3 Objective ...................................................................................................................................................6 1.4 Hypothesis ................................................................................................................................................6 2 Cost Evaluation ................................................................................................................................................ 7 3 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................................. 7 3.1 Coal Mineralogy and Properties ............................................................................................................7 3.2 Sulfur in Coal ............................................................................................................................................9 3.3 Coal Analysis Techniques ................................................................................................................... 11 3.3.1 X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) ............................................................................................................... 11 3.3.2 X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) ........................................................................................................... 11 3.3.3 LECO Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 11 3.3.4 Proximate Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 12 3.3.5 Ultimate Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 13 3.4 Coal Beneficiation ................................................................................................................................. 13 3.4.1 Crushing ......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.4.2 Screening ....................................................................................................................................... 14 3.4.3 Coal Separation Processes ......................................................................................................... 15 3.4.4 Coal Fines ...................................................................................................................................... 16 3.5 Centrifugal Processing ......................................................................................................................... 17 3.5.1 Multi Gravity Separator Drum ..................................................................................................... 17 3.5.2 Kelsey Centrifugal Jig .................................................................................................................. 18 3.5.3 Falcon Concentrator ..................................................................................................................... 19 3.5.4 Itomak Concentrator ..................................................................................................................... 20 3.6 Knelson Concentrator (KC) ................................................................................................................. 21 3.6.1 Principle of Operation ................................................................................................................... 21 3.6.2 Scientific Background ................................................................................................................... 22 3.6.3 Previous Studies on KC ............................................................................................................... 24 1 4 Experimental Protocol ................................................................................................................................... 29 4.3 Material and Equipment ....................................................................................................................... 29 4.4 Experimental Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 29 4.4.1 Sample Characterization ................................................................................................................. 30 4.4.2 Initial Experiments ............................................................................................................................ 31 4.4.3 Final Experiments ............................................................................................................................. 31 4.5 Risk Assessment .................................................................................................................................. 31 5 Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 32 5.1 Particle Size Distribution (PSD) ......................................................................................................... 32 5.2 Ash and Sulfur Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 33 5.3 Initial Experiments ................................................................................................................................ 33 5.4 Final Experiments ................................................................................................................................. 35 6 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 38 7 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................................... 38 8 Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................................... 39 9 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................... 40-43 10 References .................................................................................................................................................. 44 2 List of Figures Figure 1: Degree of metamorphosis during coal development stages (Flores, 2014). .................................8 Figure 2: Components of coal-based on proximate analysis (Flores, 2014). .............................................. 13 Figure 3: Flowsheet for coal processing (Mohanty, 2004). ............................................................................ 14 Figure 4: Schematic diagram of FGX separator (de Korte, 2015). ............................................................... 16 Figure 5: Stockpile of coal fine (Sharrett, 2017). ............................................................................................ 16 Figure 6: Schematic representation of forces acting on a particle during centrifugation (ZAKIRBD, 2017). .....................................................................................................................................................................
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