Development of a Novel Fine Coal Cleaning and Dewatering Technology
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DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL FINE COAL CLEANING AND DEWATERING TECHNOLOGY Nikhil Gupta Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mining and Minerals Engineering Gerald H. Luttrell, Chairman Roe-Hoan Yoon, Co-Chairman Gregory T. Adel Stanley C. Suboleski May 6, 2014 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: Fine Coal, Dewatering, Processing, Scale-up Copyright © 2014, Nikhil Gupta DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL FINE COAL CLEANING AND DEWATERING TECHNOLOGY Nikhil Gupta ABSTRACT The cleaning and dewatering of ultrafine (minus 44 micron) coal slurries is one of the biggest challenges faced by the coal industry. Existing commercial technologies cannot produce sellable products from these ultrafine streams; therefore, the industry is forced to discard this potential energy resource to waste impoundments. This practice also has the potential to create an environmental hazard associated with blackwater pollution. To address these issues, researchers at Virginia Tech have worked over the past decade to develop a novel separation process that simultaneously removes both mineral matter and surface moisture from fine coal particles. The first stage of the process uses immiscible non-polar liquids, such as straight chain hydrocarbons, to selectively agglomerate fine coal particles in an aqueous medium. The agglomerates are then passed through the second stage of processing where mild agitation is used to disperse and fully engulf hydrophobic coal particles into the non-polar liquid and to simultaneously reject any residual water and associated hydrophillic minerals entrapped in the agglomerates. The non-polar liquid, which has a low heat of evaporation, is then recovered by evaporation/condensation and recycled back through the process. The research work described in this document focused on the engineering development of this innovative process using batch laboratory and continuous bench-scale systems. The resulting data was used to design a proof-of- concept (POC) pilot-scale plant that was constructed and successfully demonstrated using a variety of fine coal feedstocks. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my adviser and my mentor, Dr. Gerald H. Luttrell and Dr. Roe-Hoan Yoon, for their continuous guidance, criticisms and valuable insight throughout this research. The valuable comments and continuous support of the committee members, Dr. Stanley C. Suboleski and Dr. Gregory T. Adel, are also gratefully acknowledged. The financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy and Mineral Refining Company, LLC (Evan Energy, LLC) is greatly appreciated. I am heartily thankful to Mr. Robert (Bob) Bratton for his endless support and motivation, which helped me to complete my research successfully. I acknowledge great support from Mr. Jim Waddell for his tireless work in construction of the pilot plant. I am thankful for the Department of Environmental Health and Safety in guiding us to operate the pilot plant in intrinsically safe manner. I extend my appreciation to the excellent staff of the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, Ms. Katheryn Dew, Ms. Carol Trutt, and Ms. Gwen Davis for their administrative support in all manners. I am thankful to the highly supportive staff of Arch Coal, especially the Lone Mountain facility, for providing samples for pilot-scale testing whenever needed. Assistance from Consol Energy and Alpha Natural Resources for providing samples is also appreciated. I wish to thanks my parents, Mrs. Manju Gupta and Mr. Akhilesh K. Gupta, for their unconditional love and support. I would not be able to achieve this milestone without their prayers and blessings. Finally, I express my deepest appreciation to my beautiful wife, Alba R. Cordova, for her love, patience, and strong support. She and her family have been very understanding and encouraging for me in completing my research successfully. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1 – General Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 PREAMBLE ............................................................................................................................... 1 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Coal Preparation Practices – An overview ........................................................................... 3 1.2 Fine Coal Cleaning ............................................................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Conventional Froth Flotation Process ............................................................................ 5 1.2.2 Problems with Fine Coal Processing ............................................................................. 6 1.3 Fine Coal Dewatering Methods ............................................................................................ 7 1.3.1 Centrifuges ..................................................................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Vacuum Disk Filtration ................................................................................................ 11 1.3.3 Hyperbaric Centrifuge System ..................................................................................... 12 1.4 Fine Coal Drying Methods.................................................................................................. 13 1.4.1 Thermal Drying ............................................................................................................ 13 1.4.2 Parsepco Drying Technology ....................................................................................... 14 1.4.3 Drycol Process ............................................................................................................. 15 1.4.4 Nano Drying Technology ............................................................................................ 16 1.5 Oil Agglomeration .............................................................................................................. 17 1.5.1 Brief History ................................................................................................................ 17 1.5.2 Fundamentals ............................................................................................................... 19 1.5.3 Parameters .................................................................................................................... 20 1.5.4 Kinetics ........................................................................................................................ 22 iv 1.6 Otisca T-Process ................................................................................................................. 23 1.7 Foundation of Novel Proposed Technology ....................................................................... 25 1.7.1 Concept of Hydrophobic Displacement ....................................................................... 27 1.7.2 Previous Research at Virginia Tech ............................................................................. 30 1.8 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................ 34 1.9 Research Organization ........................................................................................................ 35 References ................................................................................................................................. 36 CHAPTER 2 – Batch-Scale Developments of the HHS Process ................................................... 40 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 40 2.2 Experimental Procedures .................................................................................................... 41 2.2.1 Material and Method .................................................................................................... 41 2.2.2 Batch Testing Samples ................................................................................................. 42 2.3 Initial Testing with Ultrasonic Energy ................................................................................ 43 2.3.1 Study with Emulsions .................................................................................................. 43 2.3.2 Study with Agglomerates ............................................................................................. 44 2.3.3 Development of Semi-Continuous Bench-Scale System ............................................. 46 2.3.4 Dispersion with Ultrasonic Energy – Discussion .......................................................