Are big gains in coal loading productivity possible? A look at some of the fundamentals

All coal transportation systems from the coal face to the final point of use would become more productive if additional tonnages, obtained through improvements to bulk density, could be placed in fixed volume containers such as scoops, shuttle cards, trucks, barges and ships, as well as conveyors. This paper reviews previously reported work where the treatment of coals with small amounts of mining chemicals (0.12 to 0.28 kg/t or 0.25 to 0.56 lbs/st) during laboratory testing was shown to increase loaded coal bulk density by about 15%. The latest bulk density enhancement findings to develop from ongoing research involving underlying chemical and physical theory together with the added use of simple mechanical excitation are discussed.