Improving the yield of ultra clean coal by adding acetic acid and propionic acid in selective agglomeration

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study, ash content lower than 1%, the ultraclean coal, using anthracite coal, is prepared by selective agglomeration flotation. ultraclean coal with lower ash is needed as electrode material and solid fuel, aim of obtaining lower ash content of ultraclean coal, dispersant is usually used to reduce ash content, but the yield will decrease. Therefore, clean coal yield can be further increased by regulator. For this purpose, the effects of stirring speed; dispersant (sodium hexametaphosphate) dosage, kerosene dosage, organic regulator (butyric acid; propionic acid; acetic acid; fumaric acid; maleic acid; ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) on yield and ash content of clean coal were investigated in the experiments. The analyses of zeta potential, contact angle, x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), x-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to illustrate the performance of the process. The results showed that the sodium hexametaphosphate and stirring speed had a significant effect on the reduction of clean coal ash content. Furthermore, adding acetic acid and propionic acid can improve the clean coal yield without increasing the clean coal ash content. Acetic acid was used as regulator, the yield of clean coal increased by 19.42%. At the same time, acetic acid and propionic acid are proposed as a method to produce microbubbles. This important discovery provides an optional method to obtain more target products for fine mineral flotation.