Effect of chemical demineralization on thermal behavior of bituminous coals

Abstract

Growing environmental concerns and the need for alternatives for oil and natural gas resulted in intensive researches on ultra clean coal (UCC). Therefore, the researches related to practice and application of various methods to produce UCC become more important. Thermal characterization of chemically demineralized coals by thermogravimetric analysis method is presented in this study. The aim of the study is to provide thermal data for HF–HNO3 leaching system used for the production of UCC. Coal samples were first physically enriched by density separation. Then the enriched portion was chemically demineralized by using HF and HNO3, respectively. Ash content of coal samples were reduced to a range of 0.12–0.41% by chemical demineralization process. The petrographic, ultimate and proximate analyses were carried out to determine main features of samples. Physically and chemically enriched coal samples were then analyzed in a TG by two different techniques separately. The first technique covered thermal characterization of samples under non-isothermal conditions. Characteristic temperatures for each sample were obtained from the TG and DTG data. The second technique involved the determination of reactivity of in situ produced chars of each sample.