Fine coal dry cleaning using a vibrated gas-fluidized bed

Fine coal (− 6 mm) cleaning in a dry way becomes more important with the extensive deployment of the mechanized mining and progressively serious water shortage, especially in North-West China. In this paper, we attempted to use the segregation in a vibrated gas-fluidized bed of dissimilar particles to provide a solution to this problem. The effects of several factors including the superficial air velocity, bed height, vibration intensity and fluidizing time on the segregation performance were experimentally studied. The bubble-driven jigging mechanism was proposed to explain the separation process. The results show that the probable error E values of the separation of − 6 + 3 mm and − 3 + 1 mm size fraction of feed coal samples are 0.19 and 0.175 respectively, which indicates that fine coal separation using a vibrated gas-fluidized bed can provide a simple and efficient way for coal cleaning in dry and cold regions in North-West China.

► Segregation in a vibrated gas-fluidized bed is used for fine coal separation.
► Bubble-driven jigging mechanism is proposed to explain the separation process.
► Effects of main factors are experimentally studied.
► The results evidence good separation capability of a vibrated gas-fluidized bed.