Desulphurization and deashing of oxidized fine coal by Knelson concentrator

In order to efficiently clean fine coals, enhanced gravity separators, such as Knelson concentrator, have been developed. Although the Knelson concentrator has not been applied yet in industrial scale for fine coal cleaning, different investigations have been conducted in recent years. In this study, an oxidized coal with high sulphur was subjected to cleaning process by Knelson concentrator after being classified into the size fractions of − 106 μm, − 300 + 106 μm and − 500 + 300 μm. Experimental variables were coal particle size, bowl speed and fluidizing water pressure. Maximum combustible matter recovery, pyritic sulphur rejection, and ash rejection were achieved to be 99.13%, 91.60%, and 60.94%, respectively. The highest separation efficiency for the pyritic sulphur and ash was determined to be 67.91% and 39.53%, respectively. These corresponded to the removal of 70.45% of pyritic sulphur with combustible matter recovery of 97.46% and removal of 45.96% of the ash with combustible matter recovery of 93.57%. Coal particle size, bowl speed and fluidizing water pressure were determined to affect the separation performance with a close interaction between them.

► Knelson concentrator was used to remove ash and sulphur from oxidized fine coal.
► Effects of coal particle size, bowl speed and fluidizing water pressure were studied.
► Considerable levels of ash and pyritic sulphur were rejected from the coal.
► Performance of the process was affected by all of the variables.