What's happening here in Coal Preparation?

What’s happening here in Coal Preparation?

Inspired by ‘China Coal Preparation Annual Academic Exchange Conference 2018’

In August, 2018 Annual Academic Exchange Conference was held in Yin’chuan City, China. During the conference, there were two main sectors discussed: Processing optimization and Management improved by intelligent technology.

Part One

The reason we do coal processing is to maximum the calorific value. Mr. Jianguo Yang analyzed the research achievements in recent three years, and summarized as the following: Flotation, Fluidization, and Dry Separation takes 38%, 13% and 13% respectively. The detailed demands in coal preparation can be classified in three main sectors.

1. Marketable Production: Coking Coal crushing and dissociation technology, High sulfur coal desulfurization and ash reduction technology, Chemical Special raw material coal production technology, Comprehensive utilization technology of coal gangue;

2. Cost Reduction: Thermal Coal slime reduction technology, Efficient and water-saving coal preparation technology, High reliability of coal preparation equipment, Efficient dehydration and extraction technology of low rank coal;

3. Process Automation: Process parameter intelligent detection technology, Predictive Maintenance based on real-time condition monitoring, Management improvement based on big data.

As process automation demands increase rapidly, there are still many uncertain factors. Have we collected the right and effective data? How we do the deep data mining to improve process efficiency and management?

For more case study about PdM (Predictive Maintenance) solution, contact ALPHA.

Part Two

Coal is the main energy source in China. 95% coal is wet-washed, and there is more than 6 billion m3 of difficult-to-sink coal slurry. In the coal washing process, it will reduce the accuracy of sorting, bring pollution to clean coal, and pollution to the environment.

There are many challenges in difficult-to-sink coal slurry treatment:

1. The content of clay minerals in coal slurry is high, and a thick hydrated film is formed on the surface of the particles, and there is hydration repulsion between the particles.

2. The content of fine-grained coal slime below -0.045mm is high, and the gravity sink is weakened.

3. The surface of the slime particles is charged, and there is electrostatic repulsion between the particles.

4. The coal ash is high, and the clean coal is polluted by adhesion (entrainment) during the flotation process.

The solution is converting hydration repulsion into hydrophobic gravity clustering by medium selection design and operating condition optimization.

More about the conference will be posted soon, keep following.