Fine Anthracite Coal Washing Using Spirals

Abstract

The spiral performed well in cleaning the coarse 8 x 16 mesh size fraction, as demonstrated by the Ep ranging from 0.091 to 0.177. This is in line with typical spiral performance. In addition, the presence of the coarser size fraction did not significantly affect spiral performance on the typical 16 x 100 mesh fraction, in which the Ep ranged from 0.144 to 0.250. Changes in solids concentration and flow rate did not show a clear correlation with spiral performance. However, for difficult-to-clean coals with high near-gravity material, such as this anthracite, a single-stage spiral cleaning such a wide size fraction may not be able to achieve the clean coal ash and yield specifications required. In the first place, while the performance of the spiral on the coarse 8 x 16 mesh fraction is good with regard to Ep, the cutpoints (SG50s) are high (1.87 to 1.92), which may result in a clean coal with a higher-than-desired ash content. And second, the combination of the spiral's higher overall cutpoint (1.80) with the high near-gravity anthracite results in significant misplaced material that increases the clean coal ash error. In a case such as this, one solution may be to reclean the clean coal and middlings from the first-stage spiral in a second stage spiral.