Module - 3

Dry Coal Beneficiation

Why wet coal beneficiation ?
 Larger apparent specific gravities [(1.50–1.00)/(1.35–1.00)]
 more effective and efficient
 Dry cleaning machines do not function efficiently on coal carrying an appreciable amount of moisture
 velocity and volume of air required to give mobility to particles in a jig bed are greater than with water (Ꝭair < Ꝭwater)
 Dust catchers required for dry processes
 3 or 4 inches, but frequently used for smaller sizes down to 0.5 inch. However, efficiencies of dry methods on sizes
smaller than 14 to 20 mesh tend to be lower than by wet methods
 Dry beneficiation may not be suitable since target ash in cleans required for their
 processes are lower than what is feasible with dry beneficiation

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Why dry coal beneficiation ?
Wet process often is not the appropriate method because of inefficiencies due to:
• Chemical breakdown of contained materials.
• Physical degradation leading to excessive fines – this is common with very friable materials and when clays are present.
• Handling problems, environmental hazards, excessive water consumption and losses.
• Difficult floatability of the coal, and excessive energy consumption and/or high costs for chemicals used in flotation.
• wet washed and thermally dried coal may act as a sponge and soak up water

Why dry coal beneficiation ?

 scarcity of fresh water
 process benefits in downstream utilization
 Economics: no energy expended in drying the coal
 yields a clean coal requiring no further treatment before marketing
 Wet processes generate waste slurry containing water, coal fines, silt, clay, and other fine mineral particles
 no safety and environmental risks
 lowest initial capital investment
 lowest maintenance costs
 Higher calorific value
 Lower transportation cost
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Air dense medium fluidized bed separator
• principle of fluidization
• air-solid fluidized bed as separating medium
• fluidized bed is created by suspending solid particles in
an upward air flow.
• The bed behaves like a liquid and can be called as
pseudo-fluid.
• Particles with density less than the bed density float to
the top of the surface of the bed, while particles denser
than the bed density sink to the bottom of the
container.
• The dynamic stability of the medium plays an important
role in the sharpness of the separation and the system
can be made to operate particulate fluidization.
• The fluidizing medium is of closely sized particles that
are appreciably finer than the feed material to be
separated. The feed can be a wide size range, the limits
being determined by the difficulty of maintaining the air
velocity between the minimum needed to fluidize the
largest particles and below the terminal settling
velocity of the finest particles.

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Contd.
Advantages of Air dense medium fluidized bed separator.
• It can be utilized in an arid region where water supply is scanty.
• It produces a dry product requiring no additional dewatering and coal slime treatment process.
• The air flow removes most of the surface moisture present in the feed.
• Magnetite medium can be recovered and loss of magnetite medium is less (0.5 kg/ ton of feed coal)
The limitations of the process are:
• Difficulty in maintaining specific gravity of media which can be affected by a whole host of variables – particle size and
specific gravity variation in magnetite, nozzle clogging, drop in air pressure and moisture content in raw coal.
• The bed area increases significantly with the increase in feed rate, and the desired fluidization condition becomes difficult to
achieve due to occurrence/initiation of the channeling phenomenon in the bed.
• There is a restriction on the top size of the feed coal (i.e. below 50 mm).
• Limiting surface moisture (below 5%) required for the feed coal may restrict its applicability to some high moisture non-
coking coals.
• The exhaust air carrying fines has to be passed through filters/electrostatic precipitator/cyclone to control the air pollution.
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All-air Jig
• Deep-bed separator that works on the principle of hindered settling and consolidation trickling
• It is a dry separator and the medium is air instead of water.
• The screen deck is made of stainless steel perforated plate.
• Feed is introduced to the deck of the jig from a surge hopper using a variable speed star gate.
• The feed star gate provides an even feed distribution over the jig width.
• Each revolution of the star gate delivers a controlled volume of feed and the engineered design of the discharge throat
eliminates material bridging.
• Transport of the material across the jig bed is enhanced with external vibrating mechanism.
• Air is provided to the jig in a continuous flow and a superimposed pulsated airflow that provides the impetus for
stratification and consolidation trickling.
• The hutch structure uniformly distributes air to all areas of the jig bed, reducing turbulence and dead spots.
• A superimposed pulsated air on a constant stream of rising air currents allows the all-air jig to independently control stroke
amplitude, frequency and acceleration.
• Thus, stratification of the feed material is enhanced. 7
Contd.
• Raw coal is fluidized by a constant rising airflow across a perforated deck.
• Pulsated air provides the jigging action.
• The raw coal stratifies according to their specific gravities. That means the coal particles stratify on the top layer while the
refuse particles stratify in the bottom layer.
• A clean stratification depends mainly on the best possible stratification and fluidization.
• This is influenced by the particle size and density distribution of the feed material.
• At the discharge end of the jig a star gate continuously discharges the refuse material from the stratified layer.
• The discharge control system maintains the thickness of the refuse layer constant at the end of the jig.
• This discharge system speeds up or slows down according to the depth of the refuse layer even when the amount of refuse
in the feed changes over time.
• This maintains a consistent refuse layer while discharging the clean stratified coal.
• Thus the amount of misplaced material is minimized and quality variations in the feed are automatically compensated.

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Contd.
Constraints/uses
maximum particle size of 2 inch (50 mm).
The maximum feed capacity depends on the particle size distribution of the
feed material and reaches up to 100 tons/hr. A throughput of 40 TPH per
meter of width for coarse material (50 mm top size), and 30 TPH per meter of
width for fine feeds (6 mm top size) will ensure optimum performance.

Limitation
• separation efficiency is low,
• target ash in clean coal is difficult to obtain
• cross-migration is on the higher side
• high power consumption
• dust pollution caused (addressed with some change in the design related
to enclosure of the equipment; bag house type filter)

Advantages
• reduced costs that are associated with process water, environment and
maintenance.
• Improvement in performance efficiency
• possible to upgrade coal into a salable product that was previously
discarded. This extends the life of resources
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FGX dry cleaning system

Simplified process flowsheet for the FGX air table

FGX Separator separator system

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Contd.
• Separation principles of table concentrator
• Consists of a perforated separating deck, three air chambers, a vibrating mechanism, and a hanging support mechanism
• The separating deck, having riffles on its surface which direct the coal particles toward the back plate, is suspended
inclined both in longitudinal and transverse directions.
• The deck width is reduced from the feed end to the final refuse discharge end
• On introduction of feed coal onto a deck, a particle bed of certain thickness is formed on the deck.
• A centrifugal fan provides air that passes through holes on the deck surface at a rate sufficient to fluidize and to
transport the light particles.
• The presence of about 10–20% of feed coal finer than 6 mm is needed to develop a fluidization.
• The particles near the bottom of the bed maintain contact with the table surface where both vibration and the
continuous influx of new feed coal move the material along riffles toward the back plate.
• Upon striking the back plate, the particles move upward and inward toward the discharge side of the table.
• Light particles are lifted up the back plate at a higher elevation than the heavy refuse particles before turning inward
toward the discharge point.
• As such, light particles create the upper layer of particles that are collected
• Along the length of the table.
• Heavy refuse particles are forced by both vibration and the continuous influx of new feed coal to transport toward the
narrowing end of the table where the final refuse is collected.
• The separation process generates three products, i.E., Clean coal, middlings, and refuse.
• Two dust collection systems are employed to clean the recycled air and to remove the dust from air before being
emitted into the atmosphere. 11
Contd.
Demerits:
• It is very difficult to control the quality of the product from the FGX separator.
• lesser cleaning efficiency for finer size fractions (6 mm to 1 mm range).

Merits:
• Operate efficiently and provide high density separation at around 1.8 to 2.2 relative density range and for 50 mm to
• 6 mm particle size.
• The operating parameters such as air flow rate, table vibration frequency, table amplitude and inclination angles can be
• Adjusted to modify the fluidized air table separator to be applicable for finer fractions.
• High separation efficiency along with low cleaning costs has resulted in the widespread application of the fgx dry
separator in china.
• The first commercial installation of this technology in the united states took place in the year 2009.

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Radiometric techniques
Types:
• RAMDARS (RAdioMetric Detection and Automatic Removal of Shale/Stone)
• ArdeeSort

 RAMDARS is the new generation technology where a combination of gamma rays and laser height profile
measurement helps detect high ash particles.
 Screened coal in a size range, for example 50–100 mm, is fed as a monolayer on the belt which enables particle by
particle analysis.
 ArdeeSort is a multi-energy x-ray differential attenuation technology developed as an answer to the need for
beneficiating smaller size fractions using similar principles as RAMDARS.
 While RAMDARS is for coarser size particles, viz. 50–200 mm, ArdeeSort is for –50+6 mm size fraction.
 Thus, along with RAMDARS, it provides the comprehensive technology for improving coal quality with required
accuracy for obtaining target ash in clean coal.

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RAMDAR

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Dewatering
Dewatering
o Separation of a mixture of solids and water into two parts, one of which is relatively solid-free and the other relatively
liquid-free, with respect to the original mixture.
o Water for: dust suppression and as a medium in washing operations.
o It is generally necessary that as much of this water as possible be removed from the coal before it leaves the washing
plant.
o Dewatering of coal is required not only prior to loading the clean coal product but may also be required on the feed to
some cleaning units.
o For example, before feeding raw coal to a heavy media bath, the coal should be sized, pre-wetted, and dewatered; fine
coal fed to heavy media cyclones should be sized by wet screening methods and dewatered before mixing with heavy
media.
o Reduction of the moisture content of coal, particularly of the smaller sizes, has the advantages of raising the calorific
value, reducing transport costs and reducing coking times in coke oven and gas retorts.
o In the manufacture of coke, the rate of carbonization reaches a maximum with a moisture content of coal from 5% to 6%
and the greatest output is obtained.
o The degree of difficulty and the cost of dewatering process increase as the surface area of the particles to be dewatered
increases. Thus the fine coal or fine refuse fractions are the most difficult and the most expensive components to
dewater and the dewatering costs represent a large part of the total preparation costs for these materials.

Based on the dewatering methods adopted, coal particles can be divided into the following three groups:
1 coarse coal, particles of +8 mm size
2 small coal, particles of –8 +0.5 mm size
3 fine coal, particles of –0.5 mm size 16
Contd.
Dewatering of coarse coal
• Natural drainage is satisfactory means for reducing the moisture content of coarse sizes of coal down to about 8 mm to
nearly the inherent moisture content.
• Equipment used for dewatering by drainage include stationary, shaking and vibrating screens; elevators with perforated
buckets; and drainage bins and pits.
Dewatering of small coal
• Where the particles are between about 8 mm and 0.5 mm, dewatering is mainly accomplished by the use of centrifuges.
• Centrifuges are the machines which effectively create high gravity forces for purposes of dewatering coal. Centrifugation is a
process by which solid particles are sedimented and separated from a liquid using centrifugal force as a driving force.
• Depending on the rotational speed and distance from the axis of rotation, the centrifugal force can be many times greater
than the force of gravity, allowing even very small particles or particles slightly denser than the fluid to settle.
Dewatering of fine coal
• High frequency vibrating screens are probably the most common dewatering screens for fine coal of −2 mm size.
• Moistures of 30% plus can be expected on −1 mm +0.2 mm material.
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Coal Washing
Efficiency
Coal washing efficiency
Reasons for improper separation are:
1 Degradation of coal during separation process
2 Use of suspensions as the separating media
3 Disturbances created in separating medium due to the introduction of feed and the removal of float and sink fractions
4 Agitation or upward currents used in the vessel to keep the separating medium in suspension
5 Lack of sufficient retention time for the particles especially near gravity particles to separate perfectly due to the use of high
throughput
Evaluation of performance of a washer is based on two types of criteria namely dependent and independent
The criteria that depend both on the washability characteristics of the coal and on the characteristics of the washing equipment
are usually called dependent criteria. Used to evaluate different equipment for application to different reserves.
Sub-types:
• Organic efficiency,
• Anderson efficiency,
• Ash error
• Yield error.
The criteria that depend on the characteristics of the washing unit and independent of the washability characteristics of the coal
are called Independent criteria. Independent criteria are also referred as the sharpness of separation criteria or equipment
performance measures. Used to evaluate different equipment for application to a specific coal reserve
Sub-types:
• Probable Error
• Error Area
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• Imperfection
Dependent criteria
Organic efficiency

Anderson efficiency

Ash error is closely related to recovery efficiency and it is the difference between the ash content of clean coal and the
theoretical ash content obtained from the washability data at the same yield. Therefore, the smaller the ash error the larger
the yield for a given ash content of the clean product.

Yield error is the difference between the actual yield of the clean coal obtained in the washing unit and the theoretical
yield to be obtained from the washability data at the ash content of the actual yield. The smaller the yield error, the more
accurate is the separation.

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Independent criteria
• Other Names : Tromp Curve, Partition curve, Distribution curve, Recovery curve, and Error curve.
• The Tromp Curve is used to assess the sharpness of separation or to predict the performance of a washing unit.
• It is the curve drawn between Partition coefficient and the mean or nominal specific gravity for each specific gravity
range. Partition coefficient is the percentage of feed coal of a certain nominal specific gravity which reports to floats.
• To construct the Tromp curve, three sets of coal analytical data are required:
1 recovery of clean coal
2 float and sink washability analysis of the clean coal product
3 float and sink washability analysis of the refuse product

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Tromp/Partition Curve

22
Contd.

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Contd.

The value of the specific gravity corresponding to partition coefficient of 50% is called the partition specific gravity (partition
density) or Effective specific gravity of separation or Tromp cut point. At this specific gravity, a particle has an equal chance
of going to either clean coal fraction or refuse fraction. 24
Contd.
Probable error (or) Ecart Probable Moyen (Ep ): is a guide to the efficiency of separation of a washing unit. It represents the
sharpness with which the coal and impurities are separated. It is a measure of the deviation of the Tromp curve from a perfect
separation. It is defined as half the difference between the specific gravities corresponding to partition coefficient values of 25%
and 75% and is calculated as:
a low Ep denotes a sharp separation, and a high Ep denotes a separation that is not sharp. An ideal separation has a vertical line

with an Ep = 0. The usual range of Ep is from about 0.020 to 0.30 or more.

Error area or tromp area Error area is a measure of the sharpness of separation between clean coal and refuse. It is defined as
the area between the actual Tromp curve and the theoretically perfect Tromp curve. In Fig. 31.2.1, the area DBC represents the
true floats that have reported to the sinks while the area ABE represents the true sinks that have reported to the floats. These
two areas are not necessarily equal. These areas are called Error areas. These areas represent deviation from ideality. For a
theoretically perfect separation, the error area is zero. 25
Contd.
Imperfection involves the influence of the specific gravity of separation on the shape of the Tromp curve. It has been observed
that there is a tendency for the curve to steepen as the specific gravity of separation decreases. In other words, separations at
low specific gravity tend to be sharper than those at high specific gravity. This concept contradicts the well-established principle
that efficiency increases with increase in the specific gravity of separation. In an effort to develop criteria for sharpness of
separation that would be independent of the specific gravity of separation, the term Imperfection (I) was originated and it is
calculated as

Imperfection is a numerical figure that characterizes a particular cleaning device regardless of the separating gravity. It is
the coefficient to be preferred in expressing the performance of a washer.

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Inapplicability of Tromp Curves
The Tromp curves are specific to any process for which they were established and are not effected by the type of
material fed to it, provided
1. The feed size range is the same – efficiency generally decreases with increase in size. Fig. 31.2.3 shows typical
efficiencies of bath (drum, cone, etc.) and centrifugal separators (cyclone, Dyna Whirlpool etc.) versus particle size. It
can clearly be seen that, in general, below about 10 mm centrifugal separators are better than baths.
2. The specific gravity of separation is approximately in the same range – the higher the effective specific gravity of
separation the greater the probable error, due to the increased medium viscosity. It is shown that the Ep is directly
proportional to the specific gravity of separation, all other factors being the same.
3. The feed rate to the unit is same.
4. The vessel parameters and product handling method remain the same.

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Plant efficiency measurement

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