The Effects of Surfactants on Oil Agglomeration of Coal

Abstract

In many methods to remove mineral matter and water from coal, oil agglomeration process has been considered as the most effective method lately. When a proper amount of surfactant is added into the binder oil in this process, it is expected that mineral matter and water on the surface of the coal particles would be removed much effectively, because the surfactant would penetrate into the interface between carbonaceous matter and mineral one. In this study, the effects of surfactant on oil agglomeration were investigated.Taiheiyo coal (Sub-bituminous coal) was ground in a wet ball-mill. Then fuel oil A was added to the prepared slurry, and they were stirred by a homogenizer. Finally, the granules (Coal oil agglomerates) were recovered on a screen. Ash content of the granules was measured according to JIS M8812, and water content of them was meas-ured by Karl-Fischer automatic titration apparatus. Further, size of the granules and recovery of combustibles were also measured.Experimental results of using fuel oil A with and without surfactant were com-pared. Generally, the case with surfactant gave bigger granules, more effective re-moval of mineral matter and water, higher recovery, and better granulation than the case without it. Especially, the addition of 0.5 wt% SO-15 (Sorbitan sesquioleate) into fuel oil A showed the most effective results.