Oil Agglomeration in Zonguldak Bituminous Coal Dust: The Role of Inorganic Materials

Abstract

In the present study, the effect of various The oil agglomeration method is of great importance for high recovery and low cost in capitalizing our energy resources that create environmental problems due to fineness of particle size or our low quality, oxidized coal resources with large reserves. Inorganic pretreatment materials, the ratio of bridging liquid, agglomeration time and mixing speed on the agglomeration recovery in the beneficiation of Zonguldak coal with low ash content (2.23%) through oil agglomeration. In the experiments, kerosene was used as the bridging liquid and NaCl, FeCl2, Fe2(SO4)3, Al2(SO4)3 were used as inorganic pretreatment materials. In the agglomeration experiments in which inorganic pretreatment materials and kerosene were used together, the maximum recovery was determined in the condition where the kerosene concentration was 15%, the mixing speed was 800 rpm and the agglomeration time was 10 min. It was found that, the recovery under suitable conditions was 71.5% in the agglomeration experiments conducted with only kerosene, whereas it was in varying rates between 76.5% and 81.6% in experiments where pretreatment materials and kerosene were used together. Among the inorganic pretreatment materials, when used together with kerosene, the best recovery was obtained with the use of 50 mg/L Fe2(SO4)3. The agglomeration recovery obtained in the experiments conducted with only kerosene under optimum conditions was reached when the agglomeration time was 5 min in the experiments in which the inorganic pretreatment materials and kerosene were used together.