Waste Coal Utilization in India: A Review

Abstract

Waste coal production is an important worldwide issue, especially in India. Indian waste coal has great importance due to the increase of production in latest years. With the increasing demand of high-quality coal, waste category coals also can be used for combustion and chemical production. Indian waste coal is usually featured with high moisture content, high ash content and low carbon content, which especially exhibits high volatile and low heating value. The physio-chemical analysis (proximate and ultimate analysis) of Indian waste coal were carried out as per ASTM-D 5373 and results shows that the volatile matter, fixed carbon, ash contents and moisture contents are in the range of (14–16%), (5–8%), (73–79%) and (2–3%), respectively, with a moderate amount of carbon contents (10–15%). The present review article provides a comprehensive overview of the various thermal treatments and advanced technologies, characterization of Indian waste coal (proximate and ultimate analysis) for the possibility of using waste category coal as a fuel. The review starts from basic aspects of the process such as important operating parameters than focus on comparative analysis of the utilization of Indian waste coal with their characterization and the environmental performances of different fluidized-bed gasifiers. The analysis indicates that gasification and pyrolysis are technically viable option for the waste conversion. The advantages in terms of utilization of Indian waste coal are also covered in detail and shows that Indian waste coal could be an effective energy source that will not only contribute to reuse the waste materials but also reduces waste disposal landfills.