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Split and collectorless flotation to medium coking coal fines for

multi-product zero waste concept


Shobhana Dey

, K.K. Bhattacharyya
Mineral Processing Division, National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur-831007, India
Received 7 August 2006; received in revised form 22 January 2007; accepted 25 January 2007
Abstract
The medium coking coal fines of 0.5 mm from Jharia coal field were taken for this investigation. The release analysis of the composite coal reveals
that yieldis very lowat 10.0%ash, about 25%at 14%ash and 50%at 17%ashlevel. The lowyield is caused by the presence of high ash finer fraction. The
size-wise ash analysis of 0.5 mm coal indicated that 0.5+0.15 mm fraction contains less ash than 0.15 mm fraction. Thus, the composite feed was
split into 0.5+0.15 mmand 0.15 mmfractions and subjected to flotation separately. The low ash bearing fraction (0.5+0.15 mm) was subjected to
two stages collectorless flotation to achieve the concentrate with 10% ash. The cleaner concentrate (18.9%) with 10% ash was recovered which has an
application in metallurgical industries. The concentrate of 30.2% yield with 12.5% ash could be achieved in one stage collectorless flotation which is
suitable for use in coke making as sweetener. As the 0.15 mm fraction contains relatively high ash, collector aided flotation using sodium silicate was
performed to get a concentrate of 23.6%yield with about 17%ash. The blending of this product with cleaner tail obtained from0.5+0.15 mmproduces
about 35.0% yield with 17% ash and that can be utilized for coke making. The reject from the two fractions can be used for conventional thermal power
plant or cement industries using a 23.5% ash after one stage collector aided flotation and the final tailings produced content ash of 61.6% can be used for
fluidization combustion bed (FBC). This eventually leads to complete utilization of coal.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Coking coal; Split flotation; Collectorless flotation; Air flow rate; Release analysis
1. Introduction
Indian coking coal found in Gondwana belt, viz. Jharkhand
and West Bengal region has high ash, low rank and other
properties, resulting in higher coke consumption in a blast
furnace. Assam coking coals though low in ash have very high
sulphur which limits their use in iron making in the blast
furnace. Coking coal for production of blast furnace coke is
characterized by certain specific properties in terms of
appropriate composition (viz. low ash of 10% max), volatile
matter (2026%), and very low sulphur and phosphorous
contents, appropriate rank of coal (11.3), good rheological
properties, wide range of fluidity, low inert content, etc.
Pulverized coal injection in the blast furnace is widely practiced
all over the world to decrease the conservation of coking coal
and coke rate [1]. It is used as an auxiliary fuel and it is one of
the important developments in the field of blast furnace iron
making in recent years.
Due to its high ash content, Indian coal is subjected to
washing to reduce the ash level. However, Indian coals are
considered difficult to wash because of its fine dissemination in
the coal matrix. Reduced availability of good quality coking coal
has resulted in using low ash imported coal as sweetener in coal
blend by the Indian steel plants. Ash has a highly adverse effect
on the productivity of blast furnace and on consumption of coke
in the blast furnace. An increase in the ash content of a
concentrate by 1% over a critical limit, results to an increase in
coke consumption by about 45% and a decrease in blast
furnace productivity by about 36%. Thus the pressure is always
on coal preparation plants to supply coal with very low ash.
Conventionally, coarse coal is processed through gravity
separation systems and fine coals through flotation although
newer fine gravity systems are increasingly finding their
applications. Coal is known to have a strong natural hydro-
phobicity and this natural floatability may be used for pre-
Fuel Processing Technology 88 (2007) 585590
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Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 657 2270094; fax: +91 657 2270527.
E-mail address: sd@nmlindia.org (S. Dey).
0378-3820/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuproc.2007.01.011
concentration of coals and graphite [2]. Floatability of the coals
increases with the increase in carbon content [3]. It is observed
that higher-rank coal can usually be floated without the use of a
collector, but not so with oxidized or weathered coal [4]. The
process, however, may require extensive conditioning to mini-
mize reagent consumption. Natural floatability, according to
them, therefore, appears to be more dependent on the
metamorphosis of the coal. The surface component theory of
Sun [5] to explain the different floatabilities of various coals,
and his classification of surface components on the basis of the
same theory were found to be valid when coal was floated, even
with frother only. According to Aplan [6] coal being an
extremely heterogeneous material, its natural floatability
depends on many factors such as its petrographic composition,
degree of carbonificaton, surface oxidation, etc. and not
necessarily on rank alone. As long as the surfaces of these
solids remain uncontaminated (by oxidation or by embedded
hydrophilic colloidal matter), the fines of such solids can easily
be separated from associated hydrophilic particles. For such
separation only the frother-acting surfactant is required. The
floatability of coal is not only influenced by the reagent but also
on the rate of aeration. The aeration rate has a profound impact
on bubble generation; bubble size increases with an increase of
the air flow rate entering the flotation cell. Higher air flow rate
favors the stability of bubbleparticle aggregate.
The objectives of the present study are to produce
i) clean coal with ash of 10.012% for fuel injection
ii) clean coal with about 17% ash for coke making
iii) a product with about 23% ash for power plant/cement
industries
iv) suitable rejects generation for use in fluidized bed
combustion
leading to total utilizations with zero waste concept. These are
proposed to be achieved using split and collectorless flotation.
2. Experimental
The medium coking coal fines of 0.5 mm from Jharia coalfield were
taken for the study. The proximate analysis of feed material is given in Table 1.
The size-wise yield and ash analyses of the 0.5 mm are given in Table 2. It
indicates that about half of the material in the feed is larger than 0.15 mm
having relatively lower ash (21.86%). The quantity of fines (0.15 mm) is
substantially high (52.79%) with fairly high ash content of 27.78% in which
the fraction of 0.075 mm is 28.9% with quite high ash content of 29.56% and
this is found to be the major ash contributing fraction in 0.5 mm.
Normally recovery of coal is always compared with washability studies, but
earlier studies indicated that performance of flotation cannot be compared with
washability as it is a physico-chemical process. Hence, first an attempt was made
to perform the release analysis of the composite sample as per BS: 7530 [7]. The
composite sample was subjected to collector aided flotation with different
dosages of collector and air flow rates. The experimental conditions are given in
Table 3 and a 2.5 l Denver flotation cell was used. The clean concentrate was
achieved even at a lower dosage of the collector and air flow rate could not
produce the desired grade. Thus, the split flotation of 0.5+0.15 mm and
0.15 mmwas conducted. The flotation tests of 0.5+0.15 mmwere carried out
without using any collector (collectorless flotation) with varying air flow rates
and frother dosages. However, the flotation tests of 0.15 mm fraction were
carried out using a collector and dispersant for dispersing the siliceous gangue
minerals. Although there could be several frothers available for flotation, one
polyglycol type frother was used for the present study.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Collector aided flotation results of composite coal at
different collector dosages and air flow rates
3.1.1. Collector dosage
The flotation results of composite coal (0.5 mm) obtained
from single stage addition of high speed diesel oil as collector at
different dosages (0.5 kg/t and 1.0 kg/t) and polyglycol type
synthetic frother (0.4 kg/t) at 40 l/min air flow rate are shown in
Fig. 1. The floats were collected at different time intervals and
the products were analyzed. It is evident from Fig. 1 that at
higher ash levels, the two curves are very close to the release
curve. The release curve indicates that the clean coal with about
10% yield only could be achievable. However, during con-
ventional flotation, although the yield is directly proportional to
ash, low ash (10%) clean coal could not be achieved. Therefore,
an attempt was made to carry out the flotation tests at varying air
flow rates.
3.1.2. Air flow rate
In flotation, the extent of aeration and the size of air bubbles
formed are of extreme importance. The extent of aeration depends
on the size, number and even distribution of the air bubbles in the
Table 1
Proximate analysis of composite coal (0.5 mm)
Composition %
Moisture 1.27
Ash 25.00
Volatile matter 21.52
Fixed carbon 52.21
Table 2
Size-wise ash analysis
Size (mm) Wt (%) Ash (%)
0.5+0.150 47.3 21.86
0.150+0.075 23.7 25.61
0.075 28.9 29.56
Total 100.0 24.98
Table 3
Conditions for collector aided flotation
Parameters Values
Feed size 0.5 mm
Pulp density 10.0% solid by weight
Wetting time 1 h
Impeller speed 900 rpm
Pulp pH Ambient (6.66.8)
Collector dosage (diesel oil) 0.5 kg/t, 1.0 kg/t
Conditioning time with collector 2 min
Synthetic frother 0.4 kg/t
Conditioning time with frother 1 min
Air flow rate 10 l/min, 40 l/min
586 S. Dey, K.K. Bhattacharyya / Fuel Processing Technology 88 (2007) 585590
pulp. Pulp aeration determines the flotation speed (flotation
machine output), grades of products and the reagent consumption.
Thus, collector aided flotation tests were performed by varying
the air flow rate from 10 to 40 l/min with 0.4 kg/t frother dosage.
The floats collected at 30 s of flotation time at different air flow
rates are given in Fig. 2. From the above results it is found that as
the air flow rate increases the ash content in clean coal also
increases. The yield obtained at 10 l/min air flowrate in 30 second
flotation time is 52.96%with 15.82%ash content which indicates
that at low air flow rate there is only a chance of the flotation of
more hydrophobic particles. The ash in the concentrate found at
40 l/min air flow rate is higher than that at 20 l/min air flow rate.
This may be attributed to the larger size of the air bubbles with
increasing air flow rate [8]. As the aim is to achieve a concentrate
with 1012% ash, low air flow rate was found to be more
favorable. However, by collector aided flotation, in neither case,
the ash in the concentrate is meeting the desired grade. As we
know that coal has some natural hydrophobicity, therefore,
attempts were made to perform collectorless flotation to reduce
the ash in the concentrate.
3.2. Collectorless flotation
Collectorless flotation of composite coal (0.5 mm) tests
were attempted to reduce the ash level in the concentrate by
varying the air flow rate, frother dosage and also by two stage
flotation.
3.2.1. Air flow rate
The collectorless flotation of 0.5 mm coal was carried out
with single stage addition of frother (0.4 kg/t) at two different air
flowrates (10 and 40 l/min) keeping other parameters as shown in
Table 3. Floats were collected at different time intervals. The yield
of the concentrate obtained at 10 second flotation time and at
higher air flow rate is 32.6% with ash content of 17.5%, which is
much higher than the cut-off level (1012%). The same was
achieved from 10 l/min air low rate which is 24.1% with 16.4%
ash (Fig. 3). Initially, the clean coal obtained at 10 l/min air flow
rate for 10 second flotation time was low, but after 60 s, the
quantity of yield obtained was found to be almost the same at both
air flow rates. This may be attributed to the fact that initially, the
particles are not getting enough time to get attached with the air
bubbles, but the longer residence time enhances the flotation rate.
The aeration rate has a profound impact on bubble generation;
bubble size increases with an increase of the air flowrate entering
into the flotation cell. Therefore, at low air flow rate, the particles
need more residence time for the contact with smaller sized air
bubbles. On the other hand, at high air flow rate, the larger sized
air bubbles not only accelerate the flotation rate but also facilitate
the flotation of less hydrophobic particles. Therefore, the ash
obtained at 10 l/min air flowrate is lower than that at 40 l/min, but
is still higher than the target ash.
3.2.2. Frother dosage
For further reduction of the ash in the clean coal, frother
dosage was decreased from 0.4 kg/t to 0.2 kg/t and flotation
tests were carried out at an air flow rate of 10 l/min. Fig. 4
indicates that the effect of reduced frother dosage on clean coal
yield is not so significant whereas the ash in the concentrate was
found to be much less than at 0.4 kg/t frother dosage. The
frother concentration indicates the number of water dipoles
combining with polar group of frother molecule. With low
frother concentration, the effect of bubble dispersion is more
effective, whereas increased concentration assists coalescence
and is thus undesirable. The loss in the tailing is also high due to
the starvation dosage of frother. Now to reduce the ash in the
Fig. 2. Effect of air flow rate on yield and ash in collector aided flotation.
Fig. 3. Effect of air flow rate on yield and ash in collectorless flotation of
composite coal.
Fig. 1. Effect of collector dosages on yield and ash.
587 S. Dey, K.K. Bhattacharyya / Fuel Processing Technology 88 (2007) 585590
concentrate and to minimize the losses in the tailing, an attempt
was made to carry out flotation tests in two stages with stage-
wise addition of frother [9].
3.2.3. Two stages collectorless flotation
Two stages collectorless flotation was carried out at two
different air flow rates. The first stage of flotation was conducted
at high (40 l/min) air flow rate with 0.4 kg/t frother dosage to
minimize the rejection of coal in the first tailing. The rougher float
collected in the first stage of flotation was further subjected to
collectorless flotation at low air flow rate (10 l/min) with 0.2 kg/t
frother dosage to achieve the concentrate having low ash. The
graphs of yield and ash become asymptotic after 60 s of flotation
time (Fig. 5). The ash in the concentrate is still higher than the
desired level. The cleaner concentrate obtained in two stages
flotation at 15 second flotation is about 14% more with 2.0% less
ash than that achieved fromsingle stage flotation. The cumulative
yield and ash at 120 second flotation time obtained from the two
stages collectorless flotation are 9.0% and 1.6% less than those
from one stage flotation respectively. The minimum ash obtained
in cleaner concentrate is 13.6% with 16.4% yield and this is still
higher than the desired level (1012% ash). Therefore, from the
results of the collectorless and collector aided flotation of the
composite coal (0.5 mm), it seems difficult to achieve the
desired ash level. Ash distribution analysis of clean coal indicated
the presence of a significant amount of high ash fine coal fraction.
Hence, it was felt that split feed flotation with different parameters
could be an alternative. The composite feed (0.5 mm) was
screened at 0.15 mm to separate the high ash (27.78%) bearing
fraction in one part and the 0.5+0.15 mm in another and then
these two fractions were separately subjected to flotation.
3.3. Split flotation
3.3.1. Collectorless flotation of 0.5+0.15 mm fraction
As the ash in the 0.5+0.15 mm was found to be low, two
stages collectorless flotation was performed with 0.4 kg/t
frother dosage (Fig. 6). In the first stage, air flow rate was
maintained at 40 l/min to minimize the loss in the primary
tailing and in the second stage, aeration rate was 10 l/min to
obtain low ash concentrate. This will improve the quality of the
product. The d results are given in Table 4.
The single stage flotation indicates a clean coal of 12.5% ash
with 30.2% yield. Subsequent cleaning of this in the second
stage produces a clean coal of 10% ash with 18.9% yield and a
cleaner tail of 17.3% ash with 11.3% yield. The 10% ash
product after suitable de-watering and drying can be used for
injection in the blast furnace and the 17.13% ash product for
coke making. Alternatively the product with 12.5% ash can be
subjected to either injection if accepted or used as sweetener in
coke making.
3.3.2. Collector aided flotation of 0.15 mm fraction
The attempt with collectorless flotation using frother only
did not respond favorably as reported earlier [10] since
0.15 mm fraction contains high ash bearing mineral as it
possesses less hydrophobicity and low selectivity. Thus, to
impart hydrophobicity, 0.5 kg/t collector dosage, 0.2 kg/t frother
dosage and 0.25 kg/t sodium silicate were used for dispersing
the associated siliceous gangue. The concentrate obtained at
17.0% ash is 23.56% with respect to the original feed. The
blending of this concentrate with the cleaner tail obtained from
0.5+0.15 mm gives the product that can be used for coke
making.
Fig. 4. Effect of frother dosage at 10 l/min air flow rate in collectorless flotation
of composite coal.
Fig. 5. Stage-wise collectorless flotation of composite coal. Fig. 6. Collectorless flotation of split feed of 0.5+0.15 mm.
588 S. Dey, K.K. Bhattacharyya / Fuel Processing Technology 88 (2007) 585590
The tailings obtained from 0.5+0.15 mm and 0.15 mm
after blending produce yield of 46.2% with 37.17% ash. The
analysis of the product found 19.73% VM with 41.75% FC.
To utilize this product for power generation plant, one stage
collector aided flotation tests were performed with 10% pulp
density, different collector dosages (1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 kg/t)
using polyglycol as frother and sodium silicate as depressant.
At 2.0-kg/t collector dosage, about 29.6% yield with 23.58%
ash could be produced with a rejection of 61.67% ash. This
reject has an application in fluidized bed combustion. The
schematic flow sheet of the process is given in Fig. 7.
4. Conclusions
The size-wise ash analysis of the coal of 0.5 mm feed
reflected that 0.5+0.15 mm fraction contains lower ash and
the high ash bearing fraction is 0.15 mm. The release analysis
of 0.5 mm coal indicated that the yield is very low at ash level
of 1012%. It is observed that the flotation at very low dosage
of collector (0.5 kg/t) could be able to produce the clean coal
with minimal ash of 17.25%. Thus, to achieve the clean coal
having 1012% ash, split flotation of the composite coal
(0.5 mm) was attempted. The fractions of 0.5+0.15 mm and
the 0.15 mm were subjected to flotation separately. The
findings can be summarized as follows:
The clean coal with 10% ash produced by collectorless
flotation of 0.5+0.15 mm can be used for blast furnace or
any metallurgical industry. If the concentrate ash is
considered to be 12.5%, 30.2% yield could be achieved in
one stage collectorless flotation suitable for use in coke
making as sweetener.
Fig. 7. Schematic flow sheet of the process.
Table 4
Results of split flotation of composite coal
Feed Process adopted Products (%)
Size (mm) Wt (%) Ash (%) Cleaner concentrate Cleaner tail Primary tail
Yield Ash Yield Ash Yield Ash
0.5+0.15 47.3 21.86 Collectorless flotation (two stages) 18.9 10.00 11.3 17.13 17.1 38.37
0.5+0.15 47.3 21.86 Collectorless flotation (one stage) 30.2 12.50 17.1 38.67
0.15 52.7 27.78 Collector aided flotation 23.6 17.00 29.1 36.56
589 S. Dey, K.K. Bhattacharyya / Fuel Processing Technology 88 (2007) 585590
The concentrate produced from the collector aided flotation
of 0.15 mm fraction in the presence of sodium silicate as
dispersant for the siliceous gangue, is 23.6% with 17% ash.
Although collectorless flotation could produce more than
30% yield at 12.5% ash, 17% ash could have been obtained
using still higher frother. In such case the combined yield
from both fractions would be higher than the flotation of
composite coal.
The concentrate obtained from 0.15 mm blended with
cleaner tail of 0.5+0.15 mm (obtained from two stage
collectorless flotation) makes clean coal of 34.86% with ash
of 17.04% and can be utilized for coke making (Table 5).
The rejects from 0.5+0.15 mm and 0.15 mm after
blending become 46.24% yield with 37.17% ash. After
processing this product, about 29.6% yield with 23.6% ash
could be generated for power plant/cement industries and the
final reject having very high ash of 61.67% can be used for
fluidized bed combustion (FBC).
The findings highlight the application of split and collector-
less flotation for developing a multi-product zero waste
application of medium coking coal fines.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their sincere gratitude to Prof. S. P.
Mehrotra, Director of National Metallurgical Laboratory,
Jamshedpur for his kind permission to publish the paper and
Dr. S. Bhattacharya, Associate Prof., Indian School of Mines,
Dhanbad for his valuable suggestions.
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Table 5
Combination of the products and their utilization
Products Yield (%) Ash (%) VM (%) FC (%) Utilization
Concentrate from 0.5+0.15 mm 18.90 10.00 23.47 65.34 Blast furnace
Cleaner concentrate from 0.15 mm and cleaner tailings from 0.5+0.15 mm 34.86 17.04 21.87 60.00 Coke making
Concentrate from tailings of 0.5+0.15 mm and 0.15 mm 29.56 23.58 21.24 54.17 Power plant
Reject from tailings of 0.5+0.15 mm and 0.15 mm 16.64 61.67 16.85 19.70 FBC
590 S. Dey, K.K. Bhattacharyya / Fuel Processing Technology 88 (2007) 585590

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