Upgrading Indian thermal coals using air-table dry deshaling

Nikhil Gupta, Robert Bratton, Gerald Luttrell, Tathagata Ghosh, Rick Honaker

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Coal preparation is relatively new to the Indian mining industry. Out of 555.32 million tonnes of total thermal coal production in fiscal year 2012-13, only 18.5% was beneficiated. Lack of beneficiation causes unwanted freight cost of ash-forming minerals, poorer thermal power plant efficiencies, and higher greenhouse gas emissions. Due to these reasons and the country's burgeoning energy gap, the Government of India has planned to build 15 new preparation plants providing an additional capacity of 93.6 million tonnes of upgraded thermal coal (Ministry of Coal, 2014). One potentially attractive technique for beneficiation is the air-table dry coal deshaling method. Dry coal deshalers have significant advantages over traditional wet cleaning methods, such as elimination of processing water and waste slurries, reduction in transportation of mineral matters, and enhanced heating value. To evaluate the technique, a 5 tph pilot-scale air-table deshaler was tested at three different coal preparation sites in India for the specific purpose of upgrading thermal coals. The field test data indicate more than 90% combustible recovery can be achieved with a significant rejection of greater than 80% ash material from the run-of-mine (ROM) feed. A feasibility study based on the evaluation of the three test programs in India indicates that the technology can curb CO2 emissions up to 5% with an improvement in power plant utilization efficiency by 1-3%.

Original languageEnglish
StatePublished - 2014
Event31st Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference: Coal - Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, PCC 2014 - Pittsburgh, United States
Duration: Oct 6 2014Oct 9 2014

Conference

Conference31st Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference: Coal - Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, PCC 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPittsburgh
Period10/6/1410/9/14

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology

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