COMPCOAL{trademark}: A profitable process for production of a stable high-Btu fuel from Powder River Basin coal

Abstract

This report describes the Western Research Institute (WRI) COMPCOAL{trademark} process which is designed to produce a stable, high-Btu fuel from Powder River Basin (PRB) and other low-rank coals. The process is designed to overcome the problems of oxidation and spontaneous combustion, readsorption of moisture, and dust formation from the friable coal. PRB coal is susceptible to low-temperature oxidation and self-heating, particularly after it has been dried. This report describes a method WRI has developed to prevent self-heating of dried PRB coal. The ``accelerated aging`` not only stabilizes the dried coal, but it also increases the heating value of the COMPCOAL product. The stabilized COMPCOAL product has a heating value of 12,000 to 12,700 Btu/lb, contains 35 to 40 wt % volatiles, and is comparable to unprocessed PRB coal in self-heating and low-temperature oxidation characteristics. Importantly, the self-heating tendency can be controlled by slightly adjusting the ``aging`` step in the process.