Coal dense medium separation dynamic and steady-state modelling for process control

• Developed a model for a coarse coal dense medium cyclone (DMC) circuit.
• Validated model over a wide range of operating conditions using real plant data.
• The model in steady-state form predicts an actual production partition curve.
• Model estimates the DMC overflow coal product sufficiently well for process control.

Coal dense medium separation is a popular beneficiation process used for the upgrading of coal ore into power station and metallurgical coal. The control systems used in coal beneficiation are often limited to localised regulatory control of feed rate and medium density. A coal dense medium separation process can benefit substantially from process control provided that a dynamic model for this process is available as was previously developed by the authors for a fine coal dense medium cyclone (DMC) circuit. In this paper, the previous model is adapted to a coarse coal DMC circuit and validated over a wider range of operating conditions using real plant data. The model is further validated by reducing it to steady-state to form a partition curve. This curve is then compared to one derived from actual production data. The derived model is able to provide an estimate of the DMC overflow coal product that should be sufficient for process control.