Final Report On Mill Modelling

EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS IN
COAL FIRED UTILITIES

APP FINAL REPORT

EDITED BY
FRANK SHI

SUBMITTED TO COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCES, ENERGY AND TOURISM

APRIL 2011

CHINA UNIVERSITY OF
MINING & TECHNOLOGY

ASIA-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP ON CLEAN DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pages i to vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages viii to xi

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Pages xii to xvi

CHAPTER 1 Protocols for Best Practice in Coal Grinding in Power Stations Pages 1 to 35

CHAPTER 2 CUMT Plant Work and Data Analysis Pages 36 to 68

CHAPTER 3 Modelling of Vertical Spindle Mills Pages 69 to 101

CHAPTER 4 Coal Breakage Characterisation Pages 102 to 113

CHAPTER 5 Mineral Removal using a Vibrating Fluidised Bed Separator
and a Triboelectrostatic Separator Pages 114 to 135

CHAPTER 6 Optimisation of Coal Grinding for Coal-Water Slurry Preparation Pages 136 to 159

CHAPTER 7 Potential Benefits of Mineral Removal from Power Station
Grinding Systems Pages 160 to 170

i
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) and China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT)
Executive Summary

Frank Shi

(Project Manager and Chief Investigator, JKMRC, The University of Queensland)

The APP project Efficiency Improvements in Coal Fired Utilities was undertaken by the
University of Queensland acting through the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre
(JKMRC) in collaboration with a Chinese research partner, the China University of Mining
and Technology (CUMT) from the 1
st
September 2009 to the 31
st
December 2011. This is the
Final Report covering the major research activities and outcomes from the APP Project.

The objective and methodology of the research project, as established in the Funding
agreement between Commonwealth of Australia through the Department of Resources,
Energy and Tourism and the University of Queensland, are quoted below:

Objective:
This activity (APP Project) will demonstrate performance improvements of coal fired power
stations by increasing the efficiency of the coal grinding process and by enabling coal
grinding circuits to be optimised for different coal types and power generation technologies.

Description and Methodology:
The project will collect data from the coal grinding units in power stations, and develop
models of the coal processing which can be used in simulations of the process. These
simulations will be studied to identify ways to improve the performance of grinding units.

To achieve the objective, five major research activities were undertaken, viz.
Plant surveys to collect operational data and samples;
Development of three models for different vertical spindle mills;
Development of a new coal breakage characterisation method;
Mineral removal experiment using a vibrating fluidised bed separator and a
triboelectrostatic separator;
Optimisation of grinding for coal-water slurry preparation.

In 2006 and 2007 an ACARP funded research project (ACARP C15079: Improving the
efficiency of fine coal grinding circuits) was undertaken by the JKMRC. The ACARP work
provided the Tarong power station survey data and a power station sampling technique for
the APP site campaigns. The research activities flow chart below illustrates how the various
activities were linked and used to achieve the APP project objective, using the defined
methodology as set out in the Funding Agreement. Protocols of best practice in coal grinding
in power stations were established based on the case studies, and the computer simulations
of a novel grinding technology were applied to the coal fired power stations to overcome the
limitations in current grinding practice in power stations.
Executive Summary ii
Plant
Data/Sample
Collection
VSM
Models
Breakage
Characte
risation
Mineral
Removal
CoalWater
Slurry
CaseStudy Simulations
CWS
Grinding
CWS
Prepa
ration
IGCC
Review
ProtocolsforBestPracticeinCoalGrindinginPowerStations
ComparisonofthreetypesofmillperformanceinAustralianandChinesepowerstations
Identifythelimitingissuesinenergyefficiencyimprovementsforcoalpulverisers
SimulationstudyoftheCKPmillandamineralremovaldeviceVFSforcoalpulverisation
Assessmentoftheeconomicandenvironmentalbenefitsofthenoveltechnology
Recommendationsofthebestpracticeincoalgrindinginpowerstations
Benefits
Evaluation

Seven major outcomes of the APP Project are described in this report:
1. A total of 33 plant surveys (including the seven surveys that were taken in the ACARP
project) were conducted, with 475 man-days from the JKMRC team and the CUMT team
spent on site to collect the data. In total, 589 samples were taken from the grinding
circuits. Size analysis on all samples was performed to determine particle size
distributions. 654 float-sink tests were undertaken by the JKMRC and CUMT team to
determine particle density distributions. Over 5000 analyses to determine ash content,
sulphur content, calorific value and other characterisation parameters of the samples
were completed. The site campaign has acquired a rich database for the case study,
model development, and simulations to establish the protocols for best practice in coal
grinding units in power stations (refer to Chapter 2).
2. Three VSM models were developed for the ball-race mill (E-Mill), the roller-race mill
(MPS), and the roller-race mill without air classifier (CKP). The models incorporate two
separate sets of model parameters, the machine-dependant parameters and the coal-
dependant breakage parameters, to allow the users to investigate the separate effects of
coal changes and operational condition changes on the mill performance. The model
explicitly incorporates mill design data (mill diameter, grinding table diameter, air cyclone
geometry) and operational conditions (coal feed rate, air flow rate, air temperature, air
pressure, hydraulic pressure on spider, mill rotational speed), and directly outputs the
mill power draw and coal size distributions. The models have been implemented in
Microsoft Excel via the MDK (Model Development Kits) protocol as a convenient tool for
power station grinding circuit optimisation (Chapter 3).
3. A ball-race mill modified from the standard HGI mill with a precision torquemeter installed
to record torque readings during the experiments was employed at the JKMRC for coal
breakage characterisation. A breakage model for multi-component size-by-density data
has been developed for coal breakage characterisation. A new methodology has been
created to predict the conventional HGI values from the breakage model. The
importance of this work is that the new breakage model can provide details of size
reduction in relation to applied energy that is required in the VSM models for power
station grinding circuit optimisation and energy benefits assessment. The model can
Executive Summary iii
also predict HGI values with reasonable precision, which satisfies the requirement of the
coal industry. The technical details are reported in Chapter 4.
4. Two mineral removal devices, the vibrating fluidised bed separator (VFS) and the
triboelectrostatic separator, developed by the CUMT, have been evaluated in the APP
project. The devices were traditionally used for de-sulphuring and de-ashing the
pulverised fuel. A new application was investigated using the VFS to treat the VSM
ground product, with the aim to remove mineral matter from the circulating load. A few
tons of the ground products were collected from the Australian and Chinese power
stations and sent to CUMT for the VFS experiment. The experimental data were used to
build an efficiency model that was employed in the CKP mill VFS circuit simulations to
assess the potential benefits of this new technology for power station grinding operation.
Options for the triboelectrostatic separator to de-sulphur from the pulverised fuel were
also investigated (Chapter 5).
5. Coal-water slurry (CWS) is often used in IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle)
or other gasification processes. A limitation in the existing CWS grinding process is that
an excessively long grinding time is required to produce the desired particle size
distribution, and is hence associated with high energy consumption. A rod mill and an
IsaMill installed at the JKMRC were employed for CWS grinding preparation in
comparison with the traditional grinding method. IsaMilling is a new grinding technology,
well known to the mineral industry for its high efficiency in fine and ultra-fine grinding.
The new technology was applied to CWS grinding in the APP project. The ground
products of various Chinese coal and Australian coal samples were sent to CUMT for
CWS preparation and property measurement. The results indicate similar qualities of
the CWS produced by the two grinding methods, but the IsaMill technology used less
energy in the coal grinding process (Chapter 6).
6. Analysis of the case study data collected through the VSM internal sampling technique
has identified the major issues that limit the energy efficiency improvements in the
current power station grinding operations in Australia and China. Mineral matter
accumulation, very high circulating load, poor grinding and classification efficiency, and
high energy consumption in the associated primary air blower are the main limitations.
The case study data demonstrates that these problems are common in the current
grinding operation in the Australian and Chinese power stations. Development of new
grinding technology to overcome these problems holds the key to improve the coal
grinding efficiency in the current power station operations (Chapter 1).
7. The technology of the CKP mill that is currently employed in the cement industry and the
VFS are recommended as one of the options for coal grinding energy efficiency
improvement. The advantages of this new technology are demonstrated in the report
and the reasons explained. A virtual grinding system was simulated for Australian and
Chinese coal to assess its potential benefits. The model simulations predict a 24%
energy saving for the ball-race mills and 23% for the roller-race mills. Using the survey
data as the base case, it was estimated that 315 million kWh of energy and 31 million
AUD (based on the electricity price for industry) per annum may be saved for the
Australian power stations. In addition, the reduction of energy consumption will lead to a
reduction of 0.3 million tons of CO
2
emissions per annum in Australia. For the Chinese
power industry 4560 million kWh energy, 1824 million Yuan (approximately 600 million
AUD), and a reduction of 4.4 million tons CO
2
emissions per annum may be achieved
(Chapter 1).

To demonstrate the degree to which the project has delivered the agreed outputs, the
following table lists the required milestones and deliverables against the actual project
outputs:
Executive Summary iv
Milestone Deliverables required Project delivered outcomes
1 Confirmation of project partners; Agreement signed A signed letter of support from
ACARP CEO and a signed
letter between UQ and CUMT
provided.
2 Completed data collection study at Tarong Energy;
Development of a new sampling technique; Obtain
relevant data for the model and simulation; A new
method to convert coal breakage data into breakage-
specific energy relationship used in the JKMRC
approach; Model developed of the vertical spindle
mill and air classifier used at Tarong Energy;
Investigate the effect of different variables on the
Tarong grinding circuit; Development of a computer
based simulation of the Tarong grinding circuit.
A summary report to
demonstrate the completion of
Phase 1 tasks submitted on 31
st

January 2010. Detailed
technical reports are included in
this Final Report (Chapters 1, 2,
and 3).
3 Complete data collection on a range of grinding
plants; Commencement of the preparation of three
case studies in Australia and China on the samples
collected from various fine coal grinding circuits. Coal
breakage characterisation will be completed at the
JKMRC. Case studies will be compared against each
other, and based on this comparison, written
protocols for best practice transfer in coal fired utility
plants will be developed.
Progress Report A Data
collection on a range of grinding
circuits in power stations was
submitted in April 2010. The
report includes three plant site
campaigns, and preliminary
analysis of the data trends.
More thorough analysis of all
data is given in this Final Report
(Chapter 1).
4 Overview of IGCC technology used to generate
electric power and steam; Summary of results of
experimental coal slurry investigations, including how
coal properties were measured to investigate the
effect of coal size and type on coal water slurry
stability
Progress Report B, Review of
IGCC and CWS technology
was submitted in April 2010.
5 Provide report on techniques tested to remove
inorganic minerals from the classifier coarse stream
and the improvements achieved in circuit
performance; Establishment of a triboelectrostatic
separation system (using funds provided to the
CUMT) at a suitably APP-badged pilot plant.
Progress Report C Preliminary
experimental work on mineral
removal submitted in May
2010. Instead of only testing
the triboeletrostatic separator,
the project also tested the
vibrating fluidised bed
separator, and developed this
into a three-product
separator/classifier. The two
units with the APP badge have
been erected at the CUMT pilot
plant.
6 Finalisation of the case studies, including test results
on breakage properties, coal and utility types in
multiple scenarios.
Progress Report D including
Milestones 6-8 was submitted in
September 2010, which
includes detailed findings of the
case study (Milestone 6);
mineral removal experiment
(Milestone 7A), analysis of
potential benefits by mineral
removal (Milestone 7B) and
Coal-water slurry property
measurement (Milestone 8).
Executive Summary v
Milestone Deliverables required Project delivered outcomes
7 Deliver a technical report containing conclusions
drawn as to the impact on system performance as a
result of the triboelectrostatic separation experiments.
Develop protocols for best practice transfer to
evaluate potential environmental benefits.
Report was included in
Progress Report D.
8 Delivery of a technical report containing the results of
tests to predict the optimal grinding techniques for the
generation of coal slurry of the required quality;
Report was included in
Progress Report D.
9 Final Report Detailed technical reports on
five major research activities,
plus an overall analysis of the
trends observed in the case
study, identify the major
limitations in improving energy
efficiency in power station
grinding systems, describe the
simulation study on a potential
new technology for coal
grinding, and make recom-
menddations of the best
practice in power stations
grinding system.

One specific feature of the APP research project is that a number of new technologies that
are mutually employed in other industries such as the CKP mill in the cement industry, the
IsaMill in the mineral industry, and the computer modelling/simulation technique that has
been widely applied in the mining industry, have been imported to the coal fired electricity
industry for feasibility investigation. Successful applications of these imported technologies
in the coal industry are the key to making step changes in improving coal grinding energy
efficiency, though a lot of work is still required to realise their benefits.

In conclusion, within the short 15 months of the APP project period, the JKMRC and CUMT
research team has completed five major activities, with seven significant research outcomes
generated from the project. The project has achieved nine milestone deliverables and
produced five volumes of reports with a total of 350 pages. The project has developed
methodologies and demonstrated capabilities that have the potential to improve coal grinding
energy efficiencies by 24%, thus making significant savings in power consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions.

The objective of the project has been achieved and the scope of work has been fully
executed.

Executive Summary vi
Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the following contributions:

The JKMRC Team

PhD candidate Mr Can zer and Prof. Bill Whiten in the Tarong power station data
collection and analysis, and in developing the sampling technique during the ACARP
project;
Drs. Toni Kojovic and Matthew Brennan in development of the VSM models and the
simulation tool;
Dr Stephen Larbi-Bram in the Tarong power station site campaign, in coal-water slurry
grinding, in HGI mill experiment, and in processing tons of coal samples;
Dr Mingzhao He in the initial IsaMill grinding;
Prof. Emmy Manlapig in the APP project proposal development, and his strong
support and advice during the course of the APP Project;
Prof. Alban Lynch in initiating the coal grinding research work in power stations;
Former JKMRC Business Manager Dr Leith Hayes in the APP project development
and business related issues;
Current JKMRC Business Manager Mr Alistair Innes-Walker in business related
issues.

The CUMT Team

Prof. Yaqun He in leading the CUMT component of the APP Project and organising
the site work;
PhD candidate Mr Weiran Zuo in conducting all site work in China, data analysis, coal
breakage tests while at the JKMRC as an occupational trainee, and assistance in the
CKP-VFS simulations;
Dr Chenlong Duan in coordination of the Chinese site work and other CUMT work;
Prof. Xinxi Zhang and his team Jinsong Wang, Feng Deng, Sha Zhang, Daiyong
Duan, Nianxin Zhou, Jingfeng He in mineral removal;
Prof. Guoguang Wu and his team Zengjie Yun, Yuliang Zhang, and Dr Jingfeng He in
coal water slurry;
Mr Nianxin Zhou, Shuai Wang, Dr. Haifeng Wang, Hua Wei , Baofeng Wen, Jingfeng
He, Zhihai Tan, Weining Xie, Renchao Wu, Guoping Zhou, Xiaodong Yu, Haibin Li, Ke
Wang, Zaisheng Zhu, Cuiyu, Zhang in site campaign and sample processing;
Prof. Qingru Chen, Fellow of Chinese Academy of Engineering, as a project adviser.

Executive Summary vii
Industrial Partners

Tarong Energy and Tarong power station in the site work and in-kind support for
providing the HGI mill and the precision torquemeter. The strong support from Mr
Leigh Miller (Chief Mechanical Engineer) of Tarong Energy, Mr Glenn Schumacher
(former Manager of Technical Services) and Dr Terry Dixon (former Manager of
Performance and Test) of Tarong Power station during the ACARP and APP projects;
Xutang Power Company Ltd: Mr Yusong Qiao (Deputy General Manager) and
Guangji Cao (Deputy Director of Equipment Division);
Yulin Energy and Chemical Company Ltd: Zhang Wu (Vice Chief Engineer) and
Jinsheng Cao (Head of Production & Technology Department);
Jiangnan-Onoda Cement Company: Guohua Zhao (Director of Quality Management
Division, Production Department);
Beijing Power Equipment Group: Wenzhong Zhuang (Chief Engineer, Vice President)
and Yong Huang (Deputy General Manager, Mill Business Division).

The APP Final Report was reviewed by Prof. Tim Napier-Munn. The other progress reports
were reviewed by Mrs Wendy Parley. The five volumes of the APP reports were formatted by
Mrs Neva Scott.
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 Protocols for Best Practice in Coal Grinding in Power Stations

1.1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 1
1.2. CASE STUDIES.................................................................................................................. 2
1.2.1. Brief Description of Pulverisers ................................................................................... 2
1.2.2. Summary of Data Collection........................................................................................ 3
1.2.3. Comparison of ball-race mills (E-mill).......................................................................... 5
1.2.4. Comparison of the roller-race mill (MPS) with the ball-race mill (E-mill) ..................... 9
1.2.5. CKP mill ......................................................................................................................11
1.3. THE LIMITING ISSUES .................................................................................................... 13
1.3.1. Air Classifier............................................................................................................... 14
1.3.2. Circulating load.......................................................................................................... 15
1.3.3. PA blower energy consumption ................................................................................. 16
1.4. OPTIONS TO IMPROVE VSM ENERGY EFFICIENCY................................................... 17
1.4.1. Optimisation of the current operating conditions....................................................... 17
1.4.2. Optimisation by changing air classifier and operating conditions.............................. 19
1.4.3. Simulation of a conceptual grinding circuit using the CKP mill and VFS .................. 20
1.5. ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS............................ 25
1.5.1. Economic benefit ....................................................................................................... 26
1.5.2. Environmental benefit ................................................................................................ 28
1.6. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................... 31
1.7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. 34
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 35

CHAPTER 2 CUMT Plant Work and Data Analysis
2.1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 36
2.2. SCOPE OF WORK............................................................................................................ 36
2.2.1. Scope of Power Plant Work....................................................................................... 36
2.2.2. Scope of Laboratory Tests......................................................................................... 37
2.3. SITE WORK...................................................................................................................... 39
2.3.1. Preparation of Sampling Surveys.............................................................................. 39
2.3.1.1. Modifications on Grinding Circuits ............................................................. 39
2.3.1.2. Sampling Tool Preparation......................................................................... 42
2.3.1.3. Air Flow Speed Measurement System...................................................... 45
2.3.2. Site Work in Three Grinding Plants ........................................................................... 46
2.3.2.1. YLEC Power Site Work.............................................................................. 46
2.3.2.2. JO Cement Site Work ................................................................................ 48
2.3.2.3. Xutang Power Site Work............................................................................ 52
2.3.3. Strong Support from Three Plants and BPEG........................................................... 53
Table of Contents ix
2.4. LABORATORY TESTS...................................................................................................... 54
2.4.1. Size Analysis of CKP Mill Surveys............................................................................. 54
2.4.2. Size Analysis and Coal Properties Analysis of ZQM Mill Feed ................................. 55
2.4.3. Size Analysis and Coal Properties Analysis of Xutang ZGM Mill .............................. 56
2.5. CIRCULATION OF MILL INTERNAL STREAMS.............................................................. 58
2.5.1. Mass Balance and Classification Efficiency Curve.................................................... 58
2.5.1.1. Mass Balance and Classification Efficiency Curve in Separator ............... 59
2.5.1.2. Mass Balance and Classification Efficiency Curve in Elutriator ................ 60
2.5.2. Influence of Operation Parameters on Recirculation and Classification................... 60
2.5.2.1. Recirculation and Classification in Separator ............................................ 60
2.5.2.2. Recirculation and Classification in Elutriator ............................................. 64
2.5.2.3. Overall Evaluation of Recirculation and Classification of ZGM mill ........... 66
2.6. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 67
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 68

CHAPTER 3 Modelling of Vertical Spindle Mills
3.1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 69
3.2. MODEL STRUCTURE ...................................................................................................... 70
3.2.1. Three types of pulveriser ........................................................................................... 70
3.2.2. Basic model structure................................................................................................ 72
3.3. MODELLING OF COMMINUTION.................................................................................... 74
3.3.1. Modelling of mill power draw..................................................................................... 75
3.3.2. Modelling of mill specific energy................................................................................ 78
3.3.3. Modelling of particle breakage................................................................................... 79
3.4. MODELLING OF CLASSIFICATION................................................................................. 80
3.4.1. Elutriator models........................................................................................................ 81
3.4.2. Gas cyclone classification model .............................................................................. 84
3.5. VERTICAL SPINDLE MILL MODELS ............................................................................... 85
3.5.1. Model algorithm......................................................................................................... 85
3.5.2. E-Mill (ball-race) model.............................................................................................. 87
3.5.3. MPS mill (roller-race) model ...................................................................................... 91
3.5.4. CKP mill model .......................................................................................................... 93
3.6. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE VSM MODELS IN EXCEL VIA MDK PROTOCOL............. 96
3.7. CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................ 98
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 99
NOMENCLATURE USED IN CLASSIFICATION MODELS...................................................... 100

Table of Contents x
CHAPTER 4 Coal Breakage Characterisation
4.1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 102
4.2. EXPERIMENT................................................................................................................. 103
4.3. DATA REDUCTION......................................................................................................... 105
4.4. MULTI-COMPONENT COAL BREAKAGE CHARACTERISATION................................ 106
4.5. PREDICTION OF HGI VALUE FROM THE BREAKAGE MODEL PARAMETERS........ 109
4.6. CONCLUSIONS.............................................................................................................. 112
4.7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... 113
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 113

CHAPTER 5 Mineral Removal using a Vibrating Fluidised Bed Separator
and a Triboelectrostatic Separator
5.1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 114
5.2. SAMPLE COLLECTION.................................................................................................. 114
5.3. THE MINERAL REMOVAL MACHINES AND THEIR TECHNICAL PRINCIPLES.......... 117
5.3.1. Vibrating fluidised bed separator ............................................................................. 117
5.3.2. Triboelectrostatic separator ..................................................................................... 119
5.4. COAL PROPERTIES OF THE VSM GROUND PRODUCTS......................................... 122
5.4.1. Tarong VSM ground product.................................................................................... 122
5.4.2. Xutang VSM ground product ................................................................................... 125
5.5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF MINERAL REMOVAL.................................................. 128
5.5.1. The VFS treating Tarong mill ground product.......................................................... 128
5.5.1.1. Feed size effect........................................................................................ 128
5.5.1.2. Three-product VFS experiment ............................................................... 129
5.5.2. The VFS treating Xutang mill ground product ......................................................... 132
5.5.3. The TES treating Tarong mill ground product.......................................................... 134
5.5.4. The TES treating Xutang mill ground product ......................................................... 134
5.6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 135

CHAPTER 6 Optimisation of Coal Grinding for Coal-Water Slurry Preparation
6.1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 136
6.2. FEATURES OF COAL-WATER SLURRY....................................................................... 137
6.2.1. CWS properties ....................................................................................................... 137
6.2.2. Factors affecting the properties of CWS ................................................................. 137
6.3. OPTIMISATION OF COAL GRINDING FOR COAL-WATER SLURRY PREPARATION139
6.3.1. Sample collection .................................................................................................... 139
6.3.2. Grinding procedures................................................................................................ 139
6.3.3. Grinding optimisation............................................................................................... 141
6.3.4. Optimisation of grinding conditions ......................................................................... 143
Table of Contents xi
6.4. RAW COAL PROPERTY MEASUREMENT ................................................................... 145
6.4.1. Proximate analysis .................................................................................................. 145
6.4.2. Ultimate analysis of the raw coals........................................................................... 146
6.4.3. The infrared spectrum analysis of the raw coals..................................................... 146
6.4.4. Zeta-potential of the coal samples........................................................................... 147
6.5. COMPARISON OF CWS QUALITY................................................................................ 148
6.5.1. Size distribution ....................................................................................................... 148
6.5.2. Solids concentration ................................................................................................ 149
6.5.3. CWS fluidity and stability......................................................................................... 150
6.6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 152
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 153
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................ 154
REVIEW OF IGCC TECHNOLOGY................................................................................ 154
A6.1. INTRODUCTION TO IGCC TECHNOLOGY .................................................................. 154
A6.1.1.The development of IGCC in the world................................................................... 154
A6.1.2.The development of IGCC in China........................................................................ 155
A6.2. COAL GASIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OF IGCC.......................................................... 156
A6.2.1. Texaco coal water slurry gasification technology................................................... 156
A6.2.2. Shell pulverized coal gasification technology ........................................................ 157
A6.2.3. The Tetra-nozzele-pair-mounted coal water slurry gasification technology........... 157
A6.3. HIGH-TEMPERATURE GAS DESULPHURIZATION TECHNOLOGY IN IGCC............ 158

CHAPTER 7 Potential Benefits of Mineral Removal from Power Station
Grinding Systems
7.1. CURRENT SITUATION OF COAL UTILIZATION AND ENVIRONMENT PROBLEM.... 160
7.1.1. Utilization status of coal ........................................................................................... 160
7.1.2. Status of the international and domestic electricity industry.................................... 162
7.1.3. The environmental influences produced by the power plants................................. 164
7.2. CYCLING RATIO OF THE CLASSIFIER AND THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ZGM MILL. 165
7.2.1. The operational status of the ZGM mill ................................................................... 165
7.2.2. The calculation of the circulation in the pulverizer................................................... 165
7.2.3. The influence of circulation on energy conservation............................................... 165
7.3. THE INFLUENCE OF THE THERMAL GENERATION ON ENVIRONMENT................. 167
7.3.1. The environment influence and the control status of SO2 emission....................... 167
7.3.2. The analysis of emission-reduction of the pyrite..................................................... 168
7.3.3. Environmental impact caused by other hazardous substances .............................. 168
7.4. CONCLUSIONS.............................................................................................................. 170

xii
LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 1
Fig. 1.1: Ball-race mill and roller-race mill................................................................................. 3
Fig. 1.2 (a): E-mill model simulation output for two coal samples in Excel spreadsheet interface 7
Fig. 1.2 (b): E-mill model simulation output for two coal samples in Excel spreadsheet interface 8
Fig. 1.3: Comparison of the feed size distributions between the Tarong coal and the Yulin
coal.............................................................................................................................. 9
Fig. 1.4: The measured size distribution curves (after mass balance) of grinding table feed
and product from the three VSMs.............................................................................. 12
Fig. 1.5: The CKP mill liners are in a very good condition after 15 years continuous service. 13
Fig. 1.6: A conceptual circuit comprising a CKP mill and a VFS for the power station fine
coal grinding............................................................................................................... 20
Fig. 1.7: Share of total primary energy supply in 2007 in the seven countries involved in the
APP Program, data from IEA, 2010. .......................................................................... 25

CHAPTER 2
Fig. 2.1 (a): ZGM-95 Mill at Xutang Power.................................................................................... 39
Fig. 2.1 (b): Sampling port locations on top half of mill body ........................................................ 39
Fig. 2.2: Accessories for ZGM-95 mill modification ................................................................. 40
Fig. 2.3: Feed sampling device for ZGM-95 mill ...................................................................... 41
Fig. 2.4: Dynamic seal sockets installed on the pulverized fuel pipes of ZQM mill ................. 41
Fig. 2.5: Flat head sampling system for pulverized fuel ( 8 mm sampling duct)................... 42
Fig. 2.6: Flat head sampling system for pulverized fuel ( 20mm sampling duct) ................... 43
Fig. 2.7: Schematic diagram of separator reject sampling tool................................................ 43
Fig. 2.8: Separator reject sampling tool manufactured by BPEG............................................ 44
Fig. 2.9: Sampling cutters used in JO Cement ........................................................................ 45
Fig. 2.11: Summary of ZQM mill sampling surveys at YLEC (the first number after the Survey
numbers indicating coal feed rate, and the second indicating air flow rate).............. 47
Fig. 2.12: Collection of the ZQM mill feed sample fell from a plough tripper at YLEC............... 47
Fig. 2.13: Collection of the ZQM mill pulverized fuel from a dynamic seal socket at YLEC..... 48
Fig. 2.14: Summary of CKP mill sampling surveys.................................................................... 49
Fig. 2.15: Summary of LM mill sampling surveys ...................................................................... 50
Fig. 2.16: Collection samples from CKP mill .............................................................................. 51
Fig. 2.17: Comprison between normal and refined sieving procedures .................................... 55
Fig. 2.18: Example of size distribution curves of the samples from CKP mill ............................ 55
Fig. 2.19: Size distributions of ZQM mill feed ............................................................................ 56
Fig. 2.20: Coal properties of ZQM mill feed ............................................................................... 56
Fig. 2.21: Size distribution of the internal and external stream samples ................................... 57
Fig. 2.22: Profile of internal streams of ZGM mill (dry coal t/h) in Xutang Survey 1.................. 58
Fig. 2.23: Relation between separator flow rate and air flow rate.............................................. 61
Fig. 2.24: Recirculation ratio in separator (-180 m) ................................................................. 62
Fig. 2.25: Ratio of +180 m recirc.load/full size recirc.load....................................................... 62
Fig. 2.26: Classification efficiency curve parameters C (1-Bypass)........................................... 63
Fig. 2.27: Classification efficiency curve parameters - Cut size ................................................ 64
Fig. 2.28: Relationship between elutriator feed flow rate and air flow rate................................ 65
Fig. 2.29: Mill body efficiency curve parameters - Sharpness ................................................... 65
Fig. 2.30: Mill body efficiency curve parameters - Cut size ....................................................... 66

List of Figures and Tables xiii
CHAPTER 3
Fig. 3.1: Schematic of ball-race mill (Fern, 1982) used by Tarong power station.................... 70
Fig. 3.2: ZGM-95 pulveriser used by Xutang power station..................................................... 71
Fig. 3.3: Photograph of CKP-180 mill used by the Jiangnan-Onoda cement plant ................. 72
Fig. 3.4: Schematic of elutriation zone and the main classification Zone in the E-mill
Tarong Energy Technical Services, 2006).................................................................. 73
Fig. 3.5: Proposed JKMRC VSM model structure for B&W E10 and MPS pulverisers ........... 73
Fig. 3.6: Proposed model algorithm structure for comminution ............................................... 74
Fig. 3.7: Effect of sample volume and particle size on torque in a Hardgrove mill .................. 76
Fig. 3.8: Tarong E-Mill net power draw in relation to the grinding table feed rate.................... 77
Fig. 3.9: Comparison of the calculated mill power draw by friction coefficient model with the
measured ones from Tarong ball-race mill................................................................. 78
Fig. 3.10: Proposed specific energy (Ecs) vs size relation used in grinding model................... 79
Fig. 3.11: Contours of vertical air velocity in elutriator from CFD modelling.............................. 82
Fig. 3.12: Model algorithm for B&W E10 and MPS pulverisers ................................................. 87
Fig. 3.13(a) Linear relation for grinding process parameter k as a function of primary
air mass flow rate Ma, (B&W E10 pulveriser) ............................................................ 88
Fig. 3.13(b) Linear relations for elutriator parameters, and Ru as a function of primary
air mass flow rate Ma (B&W E10 pulveriser) ............................................................. 89
Fig. 3.13(c) Linear relations for classifier parameters, Gb and n as a function of primary
air mass flow rate Ma (B&W E10 pulveriser) ............................................................. 89
Fig. 3.14: Comparison of survey and simulated stream size distributions for Tarong
E-Mill Survey 1 (points show raw data, lines represent model simulations).............. 90
Fig. 3.15: Comparison of survey and simulated stream size distributions for Xutang
MPS Survey 5 (points show raw data, lines represent model simulations) ............... 93
Fig. 3.16: Schematic of CKP mill flowsheet; sampled streams shown in red............................ 94
Fig. 3.17: Comparison of MPS and CKP mill grinding table feed and product size
distributions............................................................................................................... 94
Fig. 3.18: Comparison of survey and simulated stream size distributions for
Jiangnan-Onoda CKP Survey 6 (points show raw data, lines represent
model simulations) ..................................................................................................... 96
Fig. 3.19: Excel mill simulator interface for E-Mill pulveriser ..................................................... 97

CHAPTER 4
Fig. 4.1: Enhanced HGI mill testing rig for coal breakage characterisation........................... 103
Fig. 4.2: Example of the net torque in relation with grinding time.......................................... 104
Fig. 4.3: The breakage model fitted to the enhanced HGI mill grinding data ........................ 106
Fig. 4.7: Procedures to predict HGI values from the breakage model parameters ................110
Fig. 4.8: Comparison of the predicted HGI with the measured ones for various coal
samples, error bars indicating 10% experimental errors associated with HGI tests.111

CHAPTER 5
Fig. 5.1: Mill reject gate used to collect the ground product after reducing the airflow rate
during the sampling campaign..................................................................................115
Fig. 5.2: Comparison of size distributions of the Tarong mill ground sample, determined by
JKMRC and CUMT respectively ...............................................................................116
Fig. 5.3: The separation principle of the VFS counter-flow separator.....................................118
Fig. 5.4: The pilot scale VFS separator with APP badge........................................................119
Fig. 5.5: Diagram of TES separator ....................................................................................... 120
Fig. 5.6: The pilot scale TES separation system with APP badge......................................... 121
Fig. 5.7: Washability curve of the Tarong coal sample (-3+0 mm)......................................... 123
Fig. 5.8: Washability curve of the Tarong coal sample (-13+3 mm)....................................... 125
Fig. 5.9: Size distribution of the ground products of the two mills in Xutang power plant..... 126
Fig. 5.10: The distribution coefficients curves from the first to the fourth groups of VFS tests
for the Tarong sample .............................................................................................. 132
List of Figures and Tables xiv
CHAPTER 6
Fig. 6.1: The mills used for optimisation of CWS grinding at JKMRC ................................... 140
Fig. 6.2: Example of a typical rheological flow curve of a CWS sample measured by
Metter-180 Viscometer............................................................................................. 142
Fig. 6.3: Apparent viscosity at a shear rate of 100 s-1 in relation to slurry density ............... 142
Fig. 6.4: Size distribution curves (Left cumulative passing; Right - % retained) from the
initial trial using the IsaMill ....................................................................................... 143
Fig. 6.5: The size distribution curves and the viscosity-solids concentration response
curves for the Tarong raw coal sample ground at the JKMRC................................ 144
Fig. 6.6: The size distribution curves of the Shenhua and Yanzhou coal samples
ground at using the rod mill-IsaMill circuit................................................................ 145
Fig. 6.7: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrogram of the Tarong coal and Shenhua
coal samples ............................................................................................................ 147
Fig. 6.8: Viscosity-solids concentration response of the Tarong coal ground by rod
mill-IsaMill in comparison with the traditional rod mill approach. ............................. 151
Fig. 6.9: Comparison of size distributions of the Yanzhou coal prepared by the traditional
grinding vs the rod mill-IsaMill method .................................................................... 152

CHAPTER 7
Fig. 7.1: The Proportion of Primary Energy sources in 2007................................................. 161
Fig. 7.2: The distribution of the electric power sources in the seven APP countries ............. 163
Fig. 7.3: The average coal consumption of China compared with the international
advanced level (coded as AWS) .............................................................................. 163

LIST OF TABLES

CHAPTER 1
Table 1.1: Summary of case studies conducted in power stations/plants ................................... 4
Table 1.2: Comparison of mill performance................................................................................. 5
Table 1.3: Comparison of the E-mill performance between the Tarong power station in
Australia and the Yulin power plant in China .............................................................. 8
Table 1.4: Comparison of energy efficiency between the roller-race mill (ZGM) at the
Xutang power station in China and the ball-race mill (E-mill) at the Tarong
power station in Australia........................................................................................... 10
Table 1.5: Air classifier performance data under normal operation conditions........................... 14
Table 1.6: Comparison of ash and sulphur contents between the fresh feed and the grinding
table product at normal operation conditions............................................................. 15
Table 1.7: Proportion of energy consumptions by the mill and PA blower.................................. 16
Table 1.8: Simulation results of the optimal operating conditions for the Tarong E-mill ............. 18
Table 1.9: Simulation result for changes in air classifier geometry and other operating
conditions for the Tarong E-mill.................................................................................. 19
Table 1.10: Simulation of the CKP plus VFS circuit treating the Tarong coal ............................... 23
Table 1.11: Simulation of CKP plus VFS circuit treating the Xutang coal..................................... 24
Table 1.12: Simulation of CKP plus VFS circuit treating the Yulin coal ........................................ 25
Table 1.13: Economic benefits resulting from the improvements of grinding energy efficiency
by the CKP mill plus VFS system in Australian coal fired power stations.................. 26
Table 1.14: Economic benefits resulting from the improvements of grinding energy efficiency
by the CKP mill plus VFS system in Chinese coal fired power stations .................... 28
Table 1.15: Reduction of CO2 emissions due to the energy saving by applying the CKP and
VFS technology.......................................................................................................... 30
Table 1.16: Comparison of desulphurisation costs to treat pulverised fuel with sulphur contents
above 1% and less than 1% in the Chinese power stations...................................... 31
List of Figures and Tables xv
CHAPTER 2
Table 2.1: Scope of power plant research work ........................................................................... 37
Table 2.2: List of coal nature characterizations ............................................................................ 38
Table 2.3: Operational conditions for sampling surveys............................................................... 52
Table 2.4: CUMT collaborative research partners working for the APP Project ........................... 53

CHAPTER 3
Table 3.1: Summary of fitted model parameters for E-Mill (Tarong Survey 1) ............................. 88
Table 3.2: Comparison of model simulation vs survey for E-Mill (Survey 1) ................................ 90
Table 3.3: Comparison of model simulation vs survey for MPS Mill (Survey 5)........................... 93
Table 3.4: Comparison of model simulation vs survey for CKP mill (Survey 6) ........................... 95

CHAPTER 5
Table 5.1: Size distribution, ash and sulphur contents of the ................................................... 122
Table 5.2: Float-sink test results of the Tarong ground coal sample (-3+0 mm)....................... 123
Table 5.3: Float-sink test result of the Tarong ground coal sample (-13+3 mm) ...................... 124
Table 5.4: Duplicate analysis of the Xutang ground product sample (Mill No.64) .................... 126
Table 5.5: Float-sink test results of the Xutang ground coal sample (Mill No.62) .................... 127
Table 5.6: Float-Sink test results of the Xutang ground coal sample (Mill No.64).................... 127
Table 5.7: Feed size effect on VFS performance treating the Tarong mill ground products.... 128
Table 5.8: Effect of flow rate on the three-product VFS performance treating the Tarong
mill ground product sample...................................................................................... 129
Table 5.9: The results of separation with different yields of the cleaned coal for the Tarong
mill ground product sample...................................................................................... 130
Table 5.10: Float-sink test result of the first group VFS testing products for the Tarong sample131
Table 5.11: Float-sink test result of the second group for the Tarong sample............................ 131
Table 5.12: Float-sink test result of the third group for the Tarong sample ................................ 131
Table 5.13: Float-sink test result of the fourth group for the Tarong sample .............................. 132
Table 5.14: Effect of flow rate on the three-product VFS performance treating the Xutang
mill No. 62 ground product sample.......................................................................... 133
Table 5.15: Result of duplicate VFS tests................................................................................... 133
Table 5.16: Result of the TES separation for the VFS composites product from the
Tarong sample.......................................................................................................... 134
Table 5.17: Result of the TES separation for the VFS PF fines product from the
Tarong sample.......................................................................................................... 134
Table 5.18: Result of the TES separation for the VFS PF fines product from the
Xutang sample ......................................................................................................... 135

CHAPTER 6
Table 6.1: Grinding conditions of the samples sent to CUMT for CWS preparation ................ 144
Table 6.2: Proximate analysis and grindability test of the three coal samples ......................... 146
Table 6.3: Ultimate analysis of the three coal samples ............................................................ 146
Table 6.4: Isoelectric point of the three coal samples............................................................... 148
Table 6.5: Size distributions (% passing by volume) of the samples used for CWS
preparation............................................................................................................... 149
Table 6.6: Solids concentration at a nominal apparent viscosity 1000 mPa.s measured at a
shear rate of 100 s-1................................................................................................ 150

List of Figures and Tables xvi
CHAPTER 7
Table 7.1: Coal consumption in various areas of the world (1999-2009) ................................. 161
Table 7.2: Installed Capacity and Power Generation in China (2001-2009) ............................ 162
Table 7.3: The discharge of pollutants from the electricity industry in China in 2006............... 164
Table 7.4: The experiment results of the VFS and TES separation ......................................... 166
Table 7.5: The distribution of the existing desulphurization unit capacity in the major power
groups between 2006 and 2010 in China................................................................ 167
Table 7.6: The annual economic benefits created by sulphur content reduced to 1%............. 168
Table 7.7: Comparison of mercury and arsenic content in Chinese, USA, and Australian coal,
and world average ................................................................................................... 169
Table 7.8: Distribution of As, Hg concentrations in Chinese coals (ug/g)................................. 169
Table 7.9: The Content of Hg, As and Pb in the Feed and Tailings of the Separation System170

1


Chapter 1: Protocols for Best Practice in Coal Grinding in
Power Stations

Frank Shi
(JKMRC, The University of Queensland)

Summary

An extensive power station site campaign in Australia and China was conducted to collect
coal grinding operation data for the case studies and model development. Three types of
vertical spindle mills (VSM) were surveyed and their mathematic models were developed.
The mill internal sampling data suggested that in the current coal pulverisation operations the
efficiencies of mill grinding and classification were not ideal. Very high circulating loads with
high content of mineral matter were found to be common in the power station VSM
operations.

A novel solution to improve the coal grinding efficiency was investigated and assessed by
adopting a CKP mill that is currently operated in the cement industry and a vibrating fluidised
bed separator (VFS). Computer simulations were conducted by using the CKP mill model
and the VFS model calibrated to the operation data and using the coal breakage
characteristic parameters. The simulations predicted that energy savings of 24% for the
ball-race mill and 23% for the roller-race mill may be realised. The economic and
environmental benefits resulted from the CKP mill plus VFS technology were estimated.
Protocols for best practice in coal grinding in power stations were recommended.

This chapter is a technical summary using the APP research outcomes, with contributions
made by the JKMRC and CUMT team presented in the Acknowledgement section. More
technical details can be found in the individual chapters in the Final Report.

1.1. INTRODUCTION
Coal has to be ground very fine to be used in modern power stations, and this process is
currently very energy intensive. About 0.5 to 1% of gross power generation from coal fired
power stations is consumed by coal grinding, ie. about 43.5 to 87 billion kWh per annum
based on the projected 8.7 trillion kWh in 2010 world electricity generation by coal (EIA,
2009).

In 2006 and 2007 an ACARP funded research project (ACARP C15079: Improving the
efficiency of fine coal grinding circuits) was undertaken by the JKMRC (Julius Kruttschnitt
Protocols for Best Practice in Coal Grinding in Power Stations 2


Mineral Research Centre) at the University of Queensland. A new technique to collect
internal samples from a fully enclosed vertical spindle mill was developed. This sampling
technique was applied and further developed in a number of Chinese power stations by
JKMRC research partner CUMT (China University of Mining and Technology) in the present
APP project. The extensive sampling campaign in power station coal grinding circuits
provided a useful database for the case study and mill model development. Coal samples
collected from Australian and Chinese power stations were used for breakage
characterisation by JKMRC, mineral removal experiments conducted by CUMT using two
novel separation devices, and optimisation of grinding for coal-water slurry preparation jointly
conducted by JKMRC and CUMT. Based on these outcomes, a protocol of best practice in
coal grinding in power stations was prepared, as presented in this chapter.

1.2. CASE STUDIES
1.2.1. Brief Description of Pulverisers
To achieve complete combustion in furnace in power stations, Run-of-Mine coal or primary
crushed coal with a typical top feed size of 50 mm is ground to become Pulverised Fuel (PF)
with a product top size 300 m and more than 70% passing 75 m. The pulverisers used in
power station grinding circuits can be classified into three categories according to their
rotational speed. Low speed mills such as ball mills at less than 35 rpm are used for highly
abrasive hard coal. Medium speed mills such as vertical spindle mill (VSM) are normally
operated between 35 and 150 rpm to treat medium hardness coal. High speed mills such as
hammer mill and attrition mill are run at a speed higher than 400 rpm, which is used for soft
coal. The pulverisers are typically in dry operation. As medium hardness coals are
dominant in the market, VSMs are prevailingly employed in modern power stations.

Vertical spindle mills can be roughly classified in two groups based on grinding component:
The ball-race mill such as E-mill and the roller-race mill such as MPS mill (Fig. 1.1). One
common feature of the VSMs is their small footprint due to their vertically compact design.
The VSM typically employs a grinding unit and a classifier unit in one fully enclosed mill
chamber with hot air carrying out mass transportation in the system. However, such design
renders difficulties in understanding the behaviour of particle motion inside the chamber as no
internal particle samples are easily available for analysis, which in turn prevents optimisation
of the VSM operation. As a result, coal fine grinding circuits have not changed appreciably in
design for forty years. The grinding process is non-optimised, resulting in either increased
operational costs (power and maintenance), increased greenhouse gas emissions, decreased
performance in use through the utilisation of coal with non-ideal size distributions, or
restrictions on the range of coal types which can be used.



Ball-race mill (after Fern, 1982) Roller-race mill with one roller removed

Fig. 1.1: Ball-race mill and roller-race mill

1.2.2. Summary of Data Collection
Experimental work was conducted at four operational power stations/plants. Table 1.1 lists
the plants involved, the type of mills surveyed, and the number of surveys conducted. Strong
support from all these power stations and plants was a key to the success in collecting the
reliable data. A wide network of power stations and manufacturers has been established
through the plant survey campaign. A novel sampling technique to collect mill internal
samples was developed at JKMRC, which was applied and further developed in the Xutang
power station site work.

FEED
AIR
FLOW
AIR
CLASSIFIER
PF
REJECT


Table 1.1: Summary of case studies conducted in power stations/plants

Power station/Plant Country Grinding Mill Survey
Tarong power station Australia E-mill (ball-race) 7 surveys with internal and
external samples
Xutang power station China MPS mill (roller-race) 6 surveys with internal and
external samples
Yulin Energy and
Chemistry
China E-Mill (ball-race) 5 surveys with external
samples
Jiangnan-Onoda
Cement
China CKP mill 15 surveys with external
samples

A total of 33 plant surveys were conducted, with 475 man-days from the JKMRC team and the
CUMT team spent on site to collect the data. In total, 589 samples were taken from the
grinding circuits. Size analysis on all samples was performed to determine particle size
distributions. 654 float-sink tests were undertaken by the JKMRC and CUMT team to
determine particle density distributions. Over 5000 analysis to determine ash content,
sulphur content, calorific value and other characterisation parameters of the samples were
completed. Extensive effort was spent on mass balancing the internal sampling data in order
to reliably estimate the circulating load inside the fully enclosed grinding-classification
systems and to use the data for model development.

The typical plant operations are summarised in Table 1.2 for comparison. In the case studies,
three comparisons were made, viz.:
- E-mill operated at Tarong power station in Australia vs E-mill operated at Yulin
Energy plant in China;
- E-mill (ball-race) vs MPS (roller-race); and
- E-mill/MPS mill used in the coal fired power stations vs CKP mill used in the cement
plant.



Table 1.2: Comparison of mill performance

Plant Tarong Power Xutang Power
Yulin
Energy
Jiangnan-Onoda
Cement
General
Station capacity (MW) 1400 1200 50
4000 t
cement/day
Units of power generator 4 4 1 -
Unit power capacity (MW) 350 300 50 -
Pulverisers per unit 6 5 9 2
Material Properties
Material treated Black coal Black coal Coal A Coal B Yulin coal Clinker
Material grindability HGI 52 33 92 80 45 68
Moisture content (as) (%) 12 10 6 7 10 -
Ash content in feed (%) 28 10 51 35 4 -
Minerals in ash content
Silica,
alumina
Silica,
alumina Pyrite Pyrite
Silica,
alumina -
Sulphur content (%) 0.07 - 1.78 1.96 0.44 -
Grinding equipment and operation
Mill type
Babcock-Hitachi
(E-Mill)
BPEG-ZGM
(MPS Mill)
Xian-ZQM
(E-Mill)
Kawasaki
(CKP mill)
Mill Model 10E10 ZGM95 ZQM178 CKP180
Grinding components Ball-Race Roller-Race Ball-Race Roller-Race
Mill fresh feed (t/h) 29.1 14.9 25.1 26.2 8.3 97.0
Feed F
80
(mm) 23.2 21.3 9.7 10.8 8.9 17.1
% Passing 75 m in PF 72.4 62.7 84.6 81.5 56.3 36.1
PF P
80
(m) 90.3 90.1 78.9 51.0 118.3 119.3
Circulating load (%) 800 1200 1050 1200 - 10.3
Air flow rate (t/h) 69 60 59 60 31.4 -
Ball or roller load (Mpa) 5 5 13 13 - 12-12.5
Mill power draw (kW) 280 286 344 339 90 690
Mill specific energy (kWh/t) 9.6 19.2 13.7 12.9 10.9 7.1
Air fan power per mill (kW) 263 231 127 127 131 -
Total specific energy
(kWh/t) 18.7 34.7 18.8 17.8 26.7 7.1

1.2.3. Comparison of ball-race mills (E-mill)
Table 1.2 lists Tarong E-mill performance when treating two types of coals, one being the
current coal with HGI = 52 and the other being future coal with HGI = 33. At similar mill
power draw, the mill throughput dropped from 29.1 t/h to 14.9 t/h. As a result, the mill
specific energy doubled from 9.6 kWh/t to 19.2 kWh/t. This is a challenge that Tarong will
deal with when treating the harder coal in the near future. It was noticed that at 29.1 t/h coal


feed rate, the unit power generation was 330 MW, almost reaching its full load of 350 MW.
But at 14.9 t/h coal feed rate when treating the harder coal with HGI = 33, the unit output
would only be around 200 MW. This indicates that when Tarong power station feed coal
changes from HGI = 52 to HGI = 33, the grinding system will consumes 1.29% of the energy
generated to prepare the PF material from the normal operation of 0.82%.

In comparison, Yulin E-mill treated a coal with HGI = 45, slightly harder than the Tarong
current coal but with a finer feed size (F
80
= 23.2 mm at Tarong vs 8.9 mm at Yulin). The mill
used 10.9 kWh/t specific energy that is marginally higher than the Tarong E-mill (9.6 kWh/t).
To assess and compare the milling efficiency, an energy efficiency index was adopted (Eq.
1.1):

=
T
l x x P F
W
10 ( )
(1.1)

where I is the energy efficiency Index (E-Index) defined as the net production of -75 m
material per unit of energy (kg of -75 m/kWh), T is mill fresh feed rate (t/h), W is mill power
draw (kW), P is cumulative passing 75 m in the PF product (%), and F is cumulative passing
75 m in the fresh feed (%). The constant 10 is for unit conversion. A higher index
indicates better energy efficiency in generating the PF product.

However, as both coal properties and machine operational conditions affect the efficiency
index, it cannot unambiguously be used to represent the true machine efficiency. For
example, a higher HGI coal would give a higher E-Index since the specific energy is smaller
(comparing the two sets of Tarong data in Table 1.2). Another influence is the feed size
distribution. Despite the fact that
75
F that represents the fine end of the feed size
distribution is incorporated in Eq. 1.1, the coarse end of the feed would affect the mill
performance as well. Traditionally, a direct comparison using the same coal in two
pulverisers can provide good data for energy efficiency assessment, but it is not practical to
transport a few hundred tons of coal from Australia to China or from China to Australia in order
to run the systems in a single one-day trial.

Computer simulations can help to solve this problem. As detailed in Chapter 3, a set of
models for the E-mill, MPS mill and CKP mill have been developed in the APP project. A
major feature of the models is that they incorporate two sets of model parameters: the
machine-dependant and the material-dependant parameters. The machine-dependant
parameters can be determined by the pulveriser geometry and operational conditions, and
once determined, they remain constant during the simulation. The material-dependant
parameters can be directly measured on the coal samples by a new breakage
characterisation method that was developed within the APP Project and is reported in Chapter
4.



The modelling and simulation technique was employed to de-couple the interactions between
the coal property and the machine efficiency, and to compare the energy efficiencies of the
E-mills operated at Tarong in Australia with that at Yulin in China. The E-mill
machine-dependant parameters were first calibrated with Tarong survey data at the typical
operation conditions. Simulation was then conducted using the Yulin coal breakage
characteristic parameters and the feed size distribution in the Tarong E-mill model, which is to
mimic the condition of the Tarong E-mill treating the Yulin coal. The model predicted the mill
power draw at a nominal mill throughput that was the same as the Tarong base case feed rate.
The model also predicted the PF size distribution and the internal circulating load. The
model predictions were compared with the Yulin E-mill survey data to assess the efficiency of
the two mills treating the same coal. The simulation output files in Excel spreadsheet are
shown in Fig. 1.2 and the results are summarised in Table 1.3.

(a) Tarong coal

Fig. 1.2 (a): E-mill model simulation output for two coal samples in
Excel spreadsheet interface



(b) Yulin coal

Fig. 1.2 (b): E-mill model simulation output for two coal samples in
Excel spreadsheet interface

Table 1.3: Comparison of the E-mill performance between the Tarong power station in
Australia and the Yulin power plant in China

Measured Tarong
mill / Tarong coal
Measured Yulin
mill / Yulin coal
Simulated Tarong
mill / Yulin coal
HGI 52 45 45
Mill new feed rate (t/h) 29.1 8.3 29.1
Mill power draw (kW) 281 90 264
Feed 80% passing size (mm) 23.2 8.9 8.9
-75 m in feed (%) 2.1 4.8 4.8
-75 m in product (%) 71.3 56.3 73.4
Circulating load (%) 800 N/A 515
E-Index (kg -75/kWh) 71.9 47.4 75.6

The simulations indicate that when the Tarong E-mill is used to treat the Yulin coal, its
performance is better than the Tarong mill treating the Tarong coal. The net production of
-75 m material increases from 71.9 kg/kWh to 75.6 kg/kWh, and the circulating load
decreases from 800% to 515%. Despite the Yulin coal being slightly harder than the Tarong
coal (HGI=45 vs 52), the Yulin coal is significantly finer than the Tarong coal (refer to Fig. 1.3),
which enhances the grinding performance. However, when the same coal was treated with
the E-mill at Yulin, the net production of -75 m material was 47.4 kg/kWh, which suggested
that the Tarong E-mill was operated more energy-efficiently (75.6 kg/kWh vs 47.4 kg/kWh).


Fig. 1.3: Comparison of the feed size distributions between the Tarong coal
and the Yulin coal

1.2.4. Comparison of the roller-race mill (MPS) with the ball-race mill (E-mill)
Tarong power station has a slightly larger generator capacity than the Xutang power station:
total power generation is 1400 MW at Tarong vs 1200 MW at Xutang, and unit capacity 350
MW at Tarong vs 300 MW at Xutang. The feed coals at the two power stations were different.
Tarong used a cleaner coal (28% ash content and 0.07% sulphur content) than Xutang
(3551% ash content and 1.781.96% sulphur content). The coal fed to the Tarong power
station was more difficult to grind (HGI = 3352, F
80
= 22 mm) than Xutang (HGI = 8092, F
80

= 10 mm). Comparison of the specific energy between the ball-race mill operated at Tarong
with the roller-race mill operated at Xutang demonstrated that the roller-race mill consumed
marginally higher energy than the ball-race mill treating the current coal (12.913.7 kWh/t for
the roller-race mill vs 9.6 kWh/t for the ball-race mill).

As reasoned above, the specific energy comparison does not take into account the coal
breakage properties, and hence may not truly reflect the machine performance efficiency. A
similar modelling and simulation approach was adopted by using the Xutang coal parameters
in the Tarong E-mill model, then comparing the net production of PF material per unit of
energy between the Xutang ZGM mill (a local MPS mill manufactured by Beijing Power
Equipments Group - BPEG) and the Tarong E-mill treating the same Xutang coal.
Simulations were carried out by adjusting the fresh coal feed rate and the air flow rate in the
E-mill model until the amount of -75 m material in the simulated PF product reached the
same level of the Xutang product, while the predicted E-mill power draw did not exceed the
power constraint (316 kW) of the E-mill operated at Tarong. The simulation results are
summarised in Table 1.4.

0
20
40
60
80
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
C
u
m
P
a
s
s
i
n
g

Size(mm)
Yulin
Tarong


Table 1.4: Comparison of energy efficiency between the roller-race mill (ZGM) at the
Xutang power station in China and the ball-race mill (E-mill) at
the Tarong power station in Australia

Measured
Tarong mill /
Tarong coal
Measured
Xutang mill /
Xutang coal
Simulated
Tarong mill /
Xutang coal
HGI 52 80 80
Mill new feed rate (t/h) 29.1 26.2 25.3
Feed 80% passing size (mm) 23.2 10.6 10.6
-75 m in feed (%) 2.1 7.3 7.3
-75 m in product (%) 71.3 81.5 81.4
Circulating load (%) 800 1200 663
E-Index (kg -75/kWh) for mill 71.9 57.3 62.9
PA blower power draw (kW) 263 127 190
E-Index (kg -75/kWh) for system 40.3 41.7 38.4

The simulation indicated that the Xutang coal was easier to grind (HGI = 80 for the Xutang
coal vs HGI = 52 for Tarong), but in order to achieve a finer PF product (81.5% passing 75 m
at Xutang vs 71.3% at Tarong), the air flow rate had to be reduced. The reduced air flow
resulted in increased circulating load, and hence mill power draw. To maintain the mill power
draw below the Tarong E-mill power constraint, the mill throughput should be reduced. As a
result, the model predicted that when the Xutang coal was processed in the Tarong E-mill, the
mill would draw 298 kW power and produce a PF product with 81.4% passing 75 m, which is
similar to the Xutang normal operation (81.5% passing 75 m), but significantly finer than the
Tarong typical operation (71.3% passing 75 m). The simulation also indicated an energy
efficiency index of 62.9 kg net production of -75 m per unit of mill energy for the mill alone.
This is better than the Xutang operation (57.3 kg/kWh) treating the same coal.

However, despite the ball-race mill grinding component at the Tarong power station
consuming less energy than the roller-race mill at the Xutang power station, its primary air (PA)
blower that was employed to heat and transport coal particles consumed much more power
than the roller-race mill (263 kW vs 127 kW). The combined power from the grinding mill and
the PA blower gives 40.3 kg of net production of -75 m per unit of energy for the ball-race mill,
and 41.7 kg per unit of energy for the roller-race mill at Xutang. Overall, the roller-race mill
such as the ZGM mill operated at Xutang power station has slightly better energy efficiency
due to the reduced energy consumption by the PA blower.

The reasons why the air blower in the roller-race mill consumed less energy than that in the
ball-race mill may be sought from the pulveriser design. For a similar pulveriser diameter,
the E-mill employs 10 balls while the MPS mill has three rollers. Such configuration leaves
more space in the mill cross sectional area of the MPS mill than that in the E-mill, which


renders less air resistance inside the pulveriser. As a result, the air blower in the MPS mill
consumes less energy at a similar air flow rate to the E-mill.

There are other factors that are specific to each site, which will affect the grinding system
power consumption. This applies particularly to the type of air heaters installed on the boiler.
For instance, if the system employs tubular air heaters that are fully sealed, there is virtually
zero leakage. The Rothemuhle type air heaters at Tarong power station have about 15%
leakage normally. This adds a lot to PA fan power consumption. It was observed that the
PA power consumption per mill during the baseline survey was 310 kW including the hot air
leakage. The figure (263 kW) listed in Table 1.2 was from the post-repair PA power
measurement. The primary air to coal ratio being run can also vary a lot, depending on what
mill outlet temperature is being run, what velocity is required for fuel transport to the burners,
the "primary air bias" selected by the operators to increase mill throughput/response, and all
of these things affect PA flow and consequently the fan motor power (Miller, 2011).

1.2.5. CKP mill
The CKP mill is a roller-race mill (similar to the MPS mill) without an internal air classifier.
The CKP mill was developed and manufactured in Japan, and is currently used in the cement
industry. No report on its application in the coal industry was found. There are a number of
the CKP mills installed in Chinese cement plants. The one installed at Jiangnan-Onoda
cement plant is used for pre-crushing cement clinker and its product goes to the ball mill to
produce the final cement product.

Table 1.2 shows that the air blowers used in the vertical spindle mills consume a significant
amount of energy. The CKP mill does not employ any air blower to transport and to classify
particles. Instead, it uses a mechanical elevator to circulate part of the ground product back
to the mill to control product fineness. It is understood that the duty requirement for the CKP
mill in the cement plant is different to the vertical spindle mills at the power stations, however,
the difference in the energy efficiency is obvious. The survey data showed that without the
air blower, the CKP mill only consumed 7.1 kWh/t specific energy to treat the clinker with HGI
= 68. The case study indicated that there may be a potential to use the CKPtype of vertical
spindle mill together with other classifiers in the power station grinding circuit to improve
energy efficiency.

One important feature of the CKP mill is the size reduction. Figure 1.4 displays the size
distribution curves of the grinding table feed and product for the three types of VSM. For the
two mills operated at the coal fired power stations the grinding table feed and product curves
are very close, particularly for the Xutang XGM mill, indicating that there was not much size
reduction taking place in each cycle when the particles passed through the balls/rollers. In
contrast, the CKP mill generated significant size reduction (wide gap between the two curves)
when the material passed through the roller-race. This observation suggested that the CKP
mill operated with very little circulating load produced better breakage than the VSM operated


at coal power stations, and hence may be employed to improve energy efficiency in power
stations.

Fig. 1.4: The measured size distribution curves (after mass balance) of
grinding table feed and product from the three VSMs


Another important feature is the CKP mill liner life. One of the two CKP mills operated at the
Jiangnan-Onoda cement plant has not changed the rollers liner since its installation in 1995.
Figure 1.5 demonstrates its current liner condition. The photograph shows that the CKP mill
liners are still in a very good condition after 15 years continuous service. This may be
attributed to the fact that clinker contains less abrasive material. Nevertheless, comparing
with a typical liner life of 6-9 months for balls or rollers of the VSM used in power stations, the
CKP mill liner life is impressive. This evidence strongly supports the need to remove mineral
matter that is often much more abrasive than coals from the grinding system to reduce the
machine wear.

Fig. 1.5: The CKP mill liners are in a very good condition after
15 years continuous service

1.3. THE LIMITING ISSUES
The case studies through the internal sampling campaign have identified a number of issues
that significantly affect energy efficiency of the current vertical spindle mill operations in the
power stations. Solving these issues holds the key to improving the energy efficiency of the
existing vertical spindle mills. The most important issues include:

- Poor air classifier separation efficiency
- Very high circulating load
- High PA blower energy consumption.



1.3.1. Air Classifier
Ideally, an air classifier inside the pulveriser should send all fine coal particles smaller than 75
m to the PF product. In reality, part of the PF material entering the classifier returned to the
grinding table due to its separation efficiency. People working in the power stations felt that
their air classifiers may not work in a way they expected. However, there was a lack of data
to support this view, because the air classifiers are fully enclosed in the mill shells.

The internal sampling technique and the mass balance tool applied in the APP project
provided useful data to assess the classifier separation efficiency. Table 1.5 summarises the
mass balanced data of the two air classifiers in the ball-race mill (E-mill) operated at the
Tarong power station and the roller-race mill (ZGM) operated at the Xutang power station,
both under their normal operation conditions.

Table 1.5: Air classifier performance data under normal operation conditions

Mill Fresh feed
(t/h)
Fines (-75 m) in
classifier reject
(t/h)
Fines (-75 m)
by-pass
(%)
#

Classifier feed
returned to
grinding (%)
$

Tarong
ball-race mill
29.1 16.0 47.6 83.5
Xutang
roller-race mill
26.2 30.0 62.2 89.9

Note:
# is calculated as percentage of fines in the classifier feed reported to the classifier reject;
$ is calculated as percentage of the classifier feed material reported to the classifier reject.

The data provide strong evidence of the inefficiency of air classifiers in the current vertical
spindle mill operations. In the Tarong power station operation about 48% of fines (-75 m)
that should go to the PF product by-passed the separator and was circulated in the grinding
mill. The situation at the Xutang roller-race mill operation was even worse, with 62% fines
by-passing the separator. The data in the last column of Table 1.5 also show the inefficiency
of the air classifiers. About 84% of classifier feed went back to grinding at the Tarong
operation, and 90% at the Xutang operation.

In realising the limiting issue of the air classifiers, significant effort has been put into improving
air classifier efficiency at the power stations, such as development of the dynamic air
classifiers in place of the static air classifiers, and other methods to improve the static
classifier performance. Tarong Energy and Tarong power station dedicated significant effort
in the trial of a high performance classifier that was an improved static classifier with extended
classifier height and other geometry modifications. The preliminary CFD simulation of the air
classifier operation conducted at the JKMRC indicated that classifier height was a major
bottleneck. However, due to the existing design of the pulverisers system, the power plant


building conditions and PF pipes connection constraints, further increasing the height of the
air classifier is difficult.
1.3.2. Circulating load
The case studies using the data from Australian and Chinese power stations showed that the
circulating loads in the fully enclosed milling-classification system varied between 800% and
1200%. A circulating load of 900% means that a grinding mill consumes the energy to grind
300 t/h of coal, with 30 t/h coming from new feed, and 270 t/h from the previously ground
product. If the circulating load can be reduced to 400%, the new feed can be increased up to
60 t/h while the mill consumes the same energy to grind 300 t/h. Alternatively, for the same
mill new feed rate of 30 t/h, 400% circulating load means that the mill is only required to grind
150 t/h coal, and energy consumption can be reduced. Obviously the very high circulating
load in the vertical spindle mills causes many problems such as the high energy consumption,
excessive wear of the machine, and reduced mill capacity, etc.

The high circulating load found in the existing vertical spindle mill operation was directly
related to the inefficient operation of the air classifier. As shown in Table 1.5, about half of
the fines in the air classifier feed went to the PF product, and half came back for re-grinding.
More than 80% of the air classifier feed material went back for re-grinding at each cycle.
Since the air classifier separation was based on gravity, heavier particles needed to be ground
finer in order to exit into the PF product. As a result, the mineral matter that is almost twice
as heavy as the coal particles stayed longer inside the mill. Table 1.6 presents ash and
sulphur content measured from the new feed sample and the grinding table product collected
during the normal plant operations from the Tarong and Xutang power stations.

Table 1.6: Comparison of ash and sulphur contents between the fresh feed and the
grinding table product at normal operation conditions

Site/Mill Fresh Feed Grinding table product
Ash (%) Sulphur (%) Ash (%) Sulphur (%)
Tarong
ball-race mill
28 0.07 46 0.23
Xutang
roller-race mill
35 1.96 73 9.50

It was clear that the ash content increased from 28% in the fresh feed to 46% in the ground
product and sulphur content from 0.07% to 0.23% for the Tarong ball-race mill. Similar
trends were observed in the Xutang roller-race mill operation, with the ash content increasing
from 35% to 73%, and the sulphur content from 1.96% to 9.50%. The data support the
hypothesis of mineral matter accumulation in the vertical spindle mill.

The accumulation of mineral matter inside a vertical spindle mill affects the circulating load in


two ways. Firstly, the mineral matter is, in general, more abrasive and harder to grind. As it
accumulated in the grinding circuit, the mill grinding rate decreased, leading to coarser
grinding table product. At the same cut size of the air classifier, more material reported to the
classifier reject and was recirculated. Secondly, the efficiency of the air classifier
deteriorated due to the existence and accumulation of the fine mineral matter in the system,
which resulted in further increasing the circulating load.

The high circulating load also adversely affects the size reduction by the comminution device.
As shown in Fig. 1.4, there was only minor size reduction generated when the material
passed through the grinding zone, particularly for the Xutang mill (the two size distribution
curves of the material before and after passing the grinding rollers are very similar).
Comparing with the CKP operation in which there was less than 20% circulating load, the size
reduction is significant. The poor classification and poor grinding efficiency are interrelated,
which causes very high circulating load in the current VSM operation, and is one of the major
limiting issues in improving the power station grinding energy efficiency.

1.3.3. PA blower energy consumption
Power stations use the primary air fans and hot air to heat coal and to pneumatically transport
particles in the grinding system. The case study found that the PA blower consumed
significant amount of energy that cannot be ignored in optimisation of the coal pulverisation
system. Table 1.7 summarises the proportions of energy consumptions by the grinding mill
and the PA blower respectively for the three power stations surveyed. Also included in the
table is the percentage of the power generation being used for coal pulverisation.

Table 1.7: Proportion of energy consumptions by the mill and PA blower

Tarong
Ball-race mill
Xutang
Roller-race
mill
Yulin
Ball-race mill
Unit power generation during surveys (MW) 330 300 60
Number of pulverisers running 5 5 6
Total mill power consumption (kW) 1401 1693 541
Primary air power consumption (kW) 1313 637 786
Mill + PA blower power (kW) 2714 2330 1328
Mill power consumption (%) 51.6 72.7 40.7
PA blower power consumption (%) 48.4 27.3 59.3
% Power generation used for grinding 0.82 0.78 2.66

The data show that in the ball-race mills, the PA blower accounted for near half of the total
energy consumption. For example, at the Tarong power station 48% of the total energy was
consumed by the PA blowers. It was even more significant at the Yulin operation where 59%


of the energy was used by the PA blowers. In comparison with the roller-race mills at the
Xutang power station, only 27% of the energy was consumed by the PA blowers. This is one
of the advantages of the roller-race mill over its competitor ball-race mill, and may explain why
in modern power stations the roller-race mills have dominated the pulveriser choice.

Table 1.7 also demonstrates that 0.82% of the generated power was used for the PF
preparation by the ball-race mills at the Tarong power station, and 0.78% by the roller-race
mills at the Xutang power station. Comparatively, the ball-race mill at the Tarong power
station and the roller-race mill at the Xutang power station achieved similar performance
results. As the coals were different, the simulation of Tarong ball-race mill treating Xutang
coal predicted an overall energy efficiency of 38.4 kg net production of PF material per unit of
energy, which is not as good as the Xutang roller-race mill performance with 41.7 kg net
production of PF material per unit of energy (Table 1.4). This is due largely to the reduced
PA blower power consumption in the roller-race mill.

The figure of percent power generation used for grinding at the Yulin power plant was much
larger (2.2%) than its E-mill family, which is in the 0.5-1% range. Perhaps this was due to the
use of much smaller ball-race mills in the self-contained power generators in the Yulin
Chemical plant, and the configuration of one small PA blower to match one small mill.
Apparently, such a configuration offers more flexibility for operation, but is less energy
efficient.

1.4. OPTIONS TO IMPROVE VSM ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The VSM models developed in the APP Project (refer to Chapter 3) provide a useful
simulation tool to investigate the options to tackle those limiting issues as presented above.
Computer simulations based on these models can be employed to examine the various
options of improving VSM energy efficiency and to optimise power station grinding circuit
operation. The options are presented below based on three levels of involvement, viz.
- Optimisation of the current operating conditions without modifying the existing
equipment design configurations;
- Modification of air classifier geometry and circuit operating conditions; and
- Simulations on a revolutionary option using a CKP mill together with a three-product
vibrating fluidised bed separator (VFS) acting as a mineral removal device and an air
classifier.

1.4.1. Optimisation of the current operating conditions
After the VSM models have been calibrated with the operational data, and the feed coal
breakage characteristic parameters are experimentally measured, the model can be used for
simulations of changes in operational conditions to find the best practice in the existing plant
operation.



Simulations were conducted using a MDK (Model Development Kits) version of the ball-race
mill model (Chapter 3) calibrated with the Tarong survey data under normal operation
conditions. Three operational conditions, ie. the air flow rate, the grinding table rotational
speed, and the compression force on each ball, were manipulated in different directions and
at various magnitudes until the minimum power draw was achieved to keep the same PF
tonnage and similar PF quality. The best operating conditions simulated are given in Table
1.8. The PA blower power consumption is calculated according to the PA flow rate during the
simulations. The total mill plus PA power consumption is calculated for one unit of the
electricity generator with five mills running to supply 145.5 t/h PF. The installed power for the
6
th
mill as the backup in the Tarong operation system is not included.

Also included in Table 1.8 is the simulation result of the finer feed size distribution. The size
distribution of the Yulin feed (Fig. 1.3) was adopted for the Tarong fine feed simulation. The
80% passing size of 23.2 mm for the original Tarong feed was replaced by the Yulin feed with
F
80
= 8.9 mm. The breakage characteristic parameters for the Tarong coal remained
unchanged in the simulation. This is to mimic the finer feed condition when the coal size can
be reduced before the E-mill grinding.

Table 1.8: Simulation results of the optimal operating conditions for the Tarong E-mill

Operating conditions Baseline Op. conditions Fine feed
Unit generator during survey (MW) 330 330 330
New feed rate per mill (t/h) 29.1 29.1 31.5
Primary air rate (kg/s) 19.1 18.8 20
Grinding table speed (rpm) 37.9 36.5 37.9
Force on each ball (kN) 54.5 52.0 54.5
% -75 m in PF 71.3 71.3 70.2
Amount of fines by-passing classifier (%) 36.6 37.7 33.5
Total mill + PA power per generator (kW) 2714 2628 2564
E-Index (kg of -75 m/kWh) 37.1 38.3 37.1
Energy saving (%) - 3 6

The simulation predicted that with variations in the three key operational conditions, a minor
3% energy saving may be realised in achieving the same PF product. The energy efficiency
index (net production of PF material per kWh) increases from 37.1 to 38.3 kg/kWh. The
proportion of the power generation being used for grinding decreased from 0.821% to
0.795%.

Compared with the changes in operational conditions, the change in feed size distribution
exerts a more significant influence on the grinding system performance. At the same
machine settings, the finer feed allowed the mill throughput to increase from 29.1 t/h to 31.5


t/h, an 8% increase in tonnage. The proportion of power generation used for grinding
decreased from 0.821% to 0.776%, representing a 6% energy saving, but the energy
efficiency index remained unchanged.

1.4.2. Optimisation by changing air classifier and operating conditions
As discussed in Section 1.3.1 the air classifier is one of the limiting issues in optimisation of
the grinding circuit. In the computer simulations, two parameters of the air classifier were
varied: the cylinder height increasing from 0.8 m to 1.4 m, and the apex height decreasing
from 1.46 m to 1.2 m. Together with other variations in the operational conditions, the total
mill plus PA power draw decreased from 2714 kW to 2626 kW. The amount of the PF
material by-passing the classifier decreased from 36.6% to 31.1% due largely to the improved
classification efficiency. The PF product is finer with the content of -75 m increasing from
71.3% to 73.4%. The energy efficiency index (net production of the PF material per kWh)
increased from 37.1 to 39.5 kg/kWh. The proportion of power generation being used for
grinding decreased from 0.821% to 0.795%. The simulation results are given in Table 1.9.

Simulation was also conducted on changes in air classifier height plus machine settings, and
finer feed (Table 1.9). The model predicted the total grinding system power draw per
generator decreased from 2714 kW to 2490 kW, and the proportion of power generation used
for grinding decreased from 0.821% to 0.754%, representing a 8% energy saving. Net
production of the PF material per kWh increased from 37.1 kg to 41.8 kg, a 13% increase.

Table 1.9: Simulation result for changes in air classifier geometry and other
operating conditions for the Tarong E-mill

Operating conditions Baseline

Classifier
+ Operation
conditions
Classifier
+ Operation
+ Fine feed
Unit generator during survey (MW) 330 330 330
New feed rate per mill (t/h) 29.1 33.0 34
Primary air rate (kg/s) 19.1 22.0 21.0
Cylinder height (m) 0.8 1.4 1.4
Apex height (m) 1.46 1.2 1.2
Force on each ball (kN) 54.5 52.0 50
% -75 m in PF 71.3 73.4 76.4
Amount of fines by-passing classifier (%) 36.6 31.1 34.4
Total mill + PA power per generator (kW) 2714 2626 2490
E-Index (kg of -75 m/kWh) 37.1 39.5 41.8
Energy saving (%) - 3 8



1.4.3. Simulation of a conceptual grinding circuit using the CKP mill and VFS
The case study has identified that the CKP mill operated in the cement industry has a number
of advantages compared with the existing VSM mills operated at the power stations (Section
1.2.5). Investigation of the possibility of applying the CKP mill to treat coal samples was
therefore conducted, aiming to improve grinding energy efficiency in power stations and to
remove mineral matter before entering the PF for burning.

In addition, the APP research team has explored the opportunity using a vibrating fluidised
bed separator developed by the CUMT to remove mineral matter from the VSM ground
product, rather than the traditional way to de-ash and de-sulphur from the PF product, with the
objective to reduce the circulating load and minimise the adverse influence of mineral matter
accumulated in the grinding circuit. The experimental results are promising (refer to Chapter
5). The CUMT has further developed the VFS into a three-product machine that combines
the separation and classification functions together.

Fig. 1.6: A conceptual circuit comprising a CKP mill and a VFS for the
power station fine coal grinding

A novel coal grinding circuit comprising a CKP mill and a three-product VFS in the place of
VSM for the power station was proposed. A conceptual circuit is presented in Fig. 1.6. In
the proposed circuit, the new feed is firstly ground by the CKP mill. The CKP ground product
then goes to the VFS. Three products are produced from the VFS. The mineral matter is
discharged by gravity as the circuit reject. The composites are returned to the CKP mill as
circulating load for re-grinding. The fine clean coal is entrained with the hot air during the
VFS process and becomes the PF product.

New feed
PF
Circulating
load
CKP
product
Reject


Since this conceptual circuit is virtually not existing, model simulations were carried out to
assess its potential performance in coal grinding in the power stations. A CKP mill model
has been developed (Chapter 3) and is available for the simulation. For modelling of the
VFS performance, a simple efficiency curve equation was used to fit the VFS experimental
data. The VFS efficiency equation takes the form:

50
0.693
(
| |
(
|
(
|
\ .
(

i
i
n
y =1 - exp
(1.2)

where
i
y is the probability of a particle in density bin i reporting to tailing,
i
is particle
density in bin i,
50
is the cut density at which 50% of the particles reporting to tailing, n is
model parameter, and the constant -0.693 is used to balance the equation when
i 50
= ,
i
y
must be 0.5.

The parameters n and
50
were fitted to the VFS experimental data, and regressed to
generate the following relationship:

( )
= n exp
50
0.0086 2.743 (1.3)

In the simulations,
50
was set as 2.6, thus n=10.76.

Equation 1.2 separates the CKP ground product into two parts: the particles with RD
(Relative Density) higher than
50
report to the tailing as a reject, and those lower than
50

report to the composite product. However, there are inefficiencies which means that some
heavy goes to light and vice versa. The separation efficiency is determined by the efficiency
constant n, which is fitted to the experiment data of the VFS treating the ground coal samples
collected from inside the VSM pulverisers (Chapter 5).

To mimic the three-product VFS operation, another efficiency curve equation was employed to
describe the classification function for the composite product. The classification efficiency
uses a Rosin-Rammler efficiency function (Eq. 1.4):

50
0.693
o | |
| |
|
=
|
|
| \ .
\ .
i
i
d
E Cexp
d
(1.4)


where E
i
is the probability of a particle reporting to the fines, d is particle size in the size
fraction i, d
50
is the cut size at which 50% particles reporting to the fines, o and C are model
parameters, with o describing the sharpness of cut on the partition curve, and C determining
the bypass.

Equation 1.4 separates the composite into two products: the clean fine coal as the PF
product, and the coarse composites as the circulating load returning to the CKP grinding
table.

Simulations were conducted by employing the CKP mill model, the density efficiency function
(Eq. 1.2), and the classification efficiency function (Eq. 1.4), both for the VFS, in the
conceptual circuit. Three simulations were performed using this circuit to treat the Tarong
coal, the Xutang coal, and the Yulin coal respectively. The typical coal feed size distributions
and coal breakage characteristic parameters from the samples collected during the power
station surveys were used in each simulation. The model calculations were iterated by
adjusting the new feed rate until the CKP mill power draw reached its typical operation of 690
kW as surveyed. The VFS power consumption was estimated based on the specific energy
data of a pilot scale (max. throughput 2 t/h) VFS installed at the CUMT, which includes the
separator power and the air blower power.

The simulation results for the Tarong coal are summarised in Table 1.10. It is noticed that the
circulating load drops significantly from 800% at the current Tarong operation condition to
88% in the CKP plus VFS circuit simulation. This is attributed to the three major factors:

1. Size reduction created by the CKP mill is much more pronounced (refer to Fig.
1.4). The size reduction ratio in the CKP mill is about 10 (at 80% passing size),
while for the E-mill operated at Tarong it was about 2.

2. Mineral removal from the ground product before it enters the classification. The
VFS effectively prevents mineral matter from accumulating in the circuit, which
causes machine wear and deteriorates the classification efficiency. About 3 t/h
of material is removed as mineral reject from the circuit, which accounts for 6% of
the feed. The reject material has an ash content of 74%, which is similar to the
Tarong mill reject (about 75%), and close to the theoretical ash content 80% from
the Tarong coal washability data.

3. The classification in the VFS virtually takes place on a screen for coal in a
fluidised bed condition, rather than in the air cyclone. The classification area in
the VFS is larger (across the whole surface area of the screen). The coal
particles inside the VFS have many opportunities to be separated and classified
during the journey from the feed point to the discharge end. As a result, the VFS
offers a classification efficiency curve with a clear cut.


The simulation (Table 1.10) indicates that 15% energy saving may be realised using the CKP
plus VFS circuit compared with the existing operation treating the same coal. The energy
efficiency index (net production of PF material per unit of energy) also increases by 15%.

Since the feed size affects the VSM significantly, as discussed in Section 1.4.2, simulations
were performed for the CKP plus VFS system to treat a finer feed. The feed size distribution
of the Yulin coal (refer to Fig. 1.3) was employed. The result is given in Table 1.10. The
simulation indicates 24% energy saving and 26% increase in the energy efficiency index.

Table 1.10: Simulation of the CKP plus VFS circuit treating the Tarong coal

Operating conditions Baseline Model simulation Finer feed
Mill type 10E10 (ball-race) CKP + VFS CKP + VFS
New feed rate (t/h) 29.1 52.5 60.0
Coal HGI 52 52 52
% -75 m in feed 2.1 2.1 4.8
% -75 m in PF 71.3 69.9 71.0
Mill reject (t/h) 0.1 3.2 3.5
Ash content in mill reject (%) 73.9 74.2
Circulating load (%) 800 85 59
Air system power draw (kW) 263 139 160
Total specific energy (kWh/t) 18.7 15.9 14.2
E-Index (kg of -75 m/kWh) 37.1 42.5 46.6
Specific energy saving (%) - 15 24
E-Index increase (%) - 15 26

Comparison of the roller-race mill at the Xutang power station with the CKP plus VFS circuit
treating the same Xutang coal is summarised in Table 1.11. The simulation indicates 24%
energy saving and 17% increase in the energy efficiency index over the roller-race mill
operated at the Xutang power station.



Table 1.11: Simulation of CKP plus VFS circuit treating the Xutang coal

Operating conditions Baseline (Survey 3) Model simulation
Mill type ZGM-95 CKP + VFS
New feed rate (t/h) 26.2 63.3
Coal HGI 80 80
% -75 m in feed 7.3 7.3
% -75 m in PF 81.5 73.6
Mill reject (t/h) 0 2.9
Ash content in mill reject (%) 73.3
Circulating load (%) 1200 51
Mill power draw (kW) 339 691
Air system power (kW) 127 169
Total specific energy (kWh/t) 17.8 13.6
E-Index (kg of -75 m/kWh) 41.7 48.7
Specific energy saving (%) 23
E-Index increase (%) 17

The improvements using the CKP plus VFS circuit to treat the Yulin coal are much more
significant compared with the current ball-race mill operation at the Yulin power plant. The
simulation indicates 53% energy saving and 167% increase in the energy efficiency index.
This outcome is largely due to the fact that the E-mills operated at Yulin were not at optimal
condition, since the design of one PA blower working with one mill consumed significantly
more energy in the current operation in the Yulin power plant (refer to Section 1.2.3).
Another reason is the finer feed of the Yulin coal, which enhances the CKP plus VFS circuit
performance.



Table 1.12: Simulation of CKP plus VFS circuit treating the Yulin coal

Operating conditions Baseline Model simulation
Mill type ZQM-178 (ball-race) CKP + VFS
New feed rate (t/h) 8.3 70.0
Coal HGI 45 45
% -75 m in feed 4.8 4.8
% -75 m in PF 56.3 69.6
Mill reject (t/h) 0.99
Ash content in mill reject (%) 71.0
Circulating load (%) N/A 37
Mill power draw (kW) 90 690
Air system power (kW) 131 191
Total specific energy (kWh/t) 26.7 12.6
E-Index (kg -75/kWh) 19.3 51.5
Specific energy saving (%) 53
E-Index increase (%) 167

1.5. ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Australias energy production is dominated by coal. In 2008-2009, it accounted for 54% of
the total Australian energy production (RET, 2011). In China, this figure is even more
significant. In 2007, the energy generated by coal accounted for 65% of the total Chinese
energy production (IEA, 2010). Fig. 1.7 displays the share of total primary energy supply in
2007 for the seven countries involved in the APP Program.

Fig. 1.7: Share of total primary energy supply in 2007 in the seven countries involved
in the APP Program, data from IEA, 2010.


Apparently, coal fired power generation dominates the power production in China, Australia
and India, and has significant shares in the other APP countries. Therefore any
improvements in increasing coal fired power station grinding efficiency will have a significant
impact in terms of economic and environmental benefits for the APP countries. The
assessment of the benefits identified in the protocol of the best practice in coal fired power
station grinding circuit is presented in the following sections.

1.5.1. Economic benefit
There are many ways to assess the economic benefit resulting from improved grinding
efficiency in coal fired power stations. In this report a direct calculation of the potential
economic benefit is employed. The assessment uses a key criterion, proportion of the power
generation being used for coal grinding, to calculate the energy saving between the current
grinding operation and the potential CKP mill plus VFS system. The proportion of the power
generation used for grinding in the base case was determined by the plant survey data, and in
the CKP plus VFS system the simulation results were used. An assumption was made that
the base case can represent the current national power station operation. Thus the national
energy saving was estimated, and the economic benefit resulting from the use of the CKP mill
plus VFS system was calculated. The data of Australian electricity generation by coal in
2008-2009 and the electricity price are taken from the Australian Government Department of
Resources, Energy and Tourism (DRET, 2011). The Chinese data are from the National
Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC, 2010). The results for Australian power stations are
given in Table 1.13. Two sets of the results are included. The first set used the current
Tarong coal (feed coal size distribution and breakage characteristics). The second set
simulated a finer feed size distribution (keep the same Tarong coal breakage characteristics).

Table 1.13: Economic benefits resulting from the improvements of grinding energy
efficiency by the CKP mill plus VFS system in Australian coal fired power stations

Tarong
base case
CKP +
VFS
circuit
CKP +
VFS fine
feed
Unit power generation (MW) 330 330 330
Coal required per unit of generator (t/h) 145.5 145.5 145.5
Coal consumption rate (g/kWh) 440 440 440
Total grinding circuit power consumption (kW) 2714 2469 2193
Power generation used for coal grinding (%) 0.82 0.75 0.66
Australian coal electricity generated 2008-2009 (TWh) 200.1
Grinding power saving (million kWh/annum) - 148 315
Australian industrial electricity price 2009 (Ac/kWh) 9.9
Economic benefit (Million AUD/annum) - 15 31



The data indicate that the Tarong power station used 0.82% of the generated electric power
for coal grinding. Note that during the power station surveys there was a problem of hot air
leakage, which costed about 15% more power consumption in the PA system. The figure
0.82% was based on the PA power data after the hot air leakage fixed. For the generator
capacity of 350 MW, one would expect that the pulverisers consume less the generated
power than the current level.

Either the thermodynamic efficiency of the combustion process or the coal grinding efficiency
would affect the proportion of energy generation used for grinding. If the thermodynamic
efficiency of the combustion is low, more tonnage of PF is required to provide sufficient heat to
generate the required electricity, leading to higher energy consumption in the grinding circuit.
The following check rules out this possibility. The Tarong coal thermal value was measured
at 19.6 MJ/kg (Tarong Energy Technical Services, 2006). The thermal value can be
transformed to the energy density of 5.44 kWh/kg (since 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ). The typical
thermodynamic efficiency of the combustion process is about 30%, which means that for the
Tarong coal the power station obtains approximately 1.6 kWh per kilogram of burned coal, ie.
612 g/kWh coal consumption rate. From the plant survey data, the measured coal
consumption rate was 440 g/kWh (Table 1.13). This coal consumption rate is even better
than the theoretical value of 612 g/kWh at the assumed thermodynamic efficiency of 30%.
The data indicate that the pulverised fuel was burned with a thermodynamic efficiency higher
than the typical operation (the back calculated thermodynamic efficiency from the coal
consumption rate is 42%).

The high energy consumption rate by the grinding process at the Tarong power station is then
attributed to the lower energy efficiency in the existing grinding system. This emphasizes the
need to optimise the existing grinding circuits. The simulations indicate that by using the
CKP mill plus mineral removal and classification device VFS in the existing coal grinding
systems in Australian coal fired power stations, there is a potential of saving 148 million kWh
energy per annum nationwide, assuming the same grinding performance level as at the
Tarong operation. Using the 2009 Australian industrial electricity price of 9.9 cents per kWh
(DRET, 2011), this indicates a saving of 15 million AUD per annum. If finer feed coal is used
for the CKP plus VFS system, 315 million kWh energy saving per annum may be realised,
which represents an economic benefit of 31 million AUD per annum. If the domestic or
export prices of electricity were used, the economic benefits would be higher.

According to the statistical data, of the total energy consumed by industry in Australia, the
electricity generation industry itself consumed 30.2% in 2008-09 (DRET, 2011), which is the
highest proportion of energy consumption. In comparison, the mining industry that is often
regarded as energy intensive industry only shared 7.4%. The statistics provide evidence to
emphasize the importance and urgency to improve the fine coal grinding efficiency in power
stations. Research outcomes from this APP project provide an important option to achieve
the energy saving goal for the electricity generation industry.



The same simulation approach was adopted for the Chinese power stations. The Xutang
power station survey data were used as a base case. Since the Chinese electricity
generation is about 15 times of the Australian generation (2981.4 TWh per annum in China vs
200.1 TWh per annum in Australia), the energy saving (4,560 million kWh per annum) and the
economic benefit (1,824 million Chinese Yuan, ie. approximately 300 million AUD per annum)
by using the CKP mill plus VFS system are more significant: Table 1.14 also lists another
case study using the Yulin power station as a base case. Since the Yulin power station is a
self-contained small power station, its energy efficiency is rather low (2.66% of the generated
power being used for coal grinding), and the CKP plus VFS circuit would therefore achieve
much higher energy saving and economic benefit. However, it is unlikely that the Chinese
power station performance across the country is at the current Yulin operation level.
Therefore the assessment based on Xutang operation would be more reliable than that based
on the Yulin operation.

Table 1.14: Economic benefits resulting from the improvements of grinding energy
efficiency by the CKP mill plus VFS system in Chinese coal fired power stations

Power station Xutang Yulin
Grinding circuit Base
case
CKP +
VFS
Base
case
CKP +
VFS
Unit power generation (MW) 300 300 50 50
Coal required per unit of generator (t/h) 131 131 49.8 49.8
Coal consumption rate (g/kWh) 437 437 996 996
Total grinding circuit power consumption (kW) 2330 1871 1328 634
Power generation used for coal grinding (%) 0.78 0.62 2.66 1.27
Chinese coal electricity generated 2009 (TWh) 2981.4 2981.4
Grinding power saving (million kWh/annum) 4,560 41,335
Chinese electricity price 2009 (Yuan/kWh) 0.40 0.40
Economic benefit (million Yuan) 1,824 16,534

1.5.2. Environmental benefit
Coal-fired power stations generate large quantities of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO
2
),
sulphur dioxide (SO
x
), nitrogen oxides (NO
x
), dust and other toxic substances. According to
statistics, coal burning is one of the main sources of pollution, and causes a serious
greenhouse effect and acid rain. The harmful elements such as Hg, Cd and Pb in the coal
are discharged into the atmosphere with the steam and fly ash during the coal combustion
and they also bring adverse influences on ambient air and human health. Coal-fired power
stations shorten nearly 24,000 lives a year in the United States, including 2,800 from lung
cancer (MSNBC, 2004).



To assess the environmental benefits achieved due to the improved grinding efficiency in
power stations, two general approaches were adopted, viz.
- Calculation of reduction of CO
2
emission due to the improved energy efficiency in
power station grinding circuits using the CKP mill and VFS technology;
- General description of the impact of the emission reduction of SO
x
, NO
x
and the
hazardous substances.

The emission factor for CO
2
can be calculated by theory from the atomic weight of elements.
Take the Tarong coal as an example. The Tarong coal has a thermal value 19.6 MJ/kg and
the calculated energy density of 5.44 kWh/kg, which means for the Tarong coal the power
station obtains approximately 1.6 kWh per kilogram of burned coal, ie. 625 g/kWh coal
consumption rate (refer to Section 5.1). According to the plant survey data, the real coal
consumption rate in the Tarong operation is 440 g/kWh. Assuming the carbon content in the
Tarong coal is 75%, which gives
0.75
0.0625
12
=
kg
kmol
kg
kmol
where 1 mol equals to N
A

(Avogadro Number) atoms.

Carbon combines with oxygen in the atmosphere during combustion, producing carbon
dioxide, with an atomic weight of 12+16x2=44 kg/kmol. The CO
2
released to air for each
kilogram of incinerated coal is therefore 0.0625 kmol x 44 kg/kmol = 2.75 kg. Using the
survey data of coal consumption rate of 440 g/kWh, the direct CO
2
emissions from Tarong
power station are 1.21 kg CO
2
/kWh. The actual figure for Tarong Power Station is about 0.92
kg CO
2
/kWh (Miller, 2011), better than the calculation.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency quotes a lower emission factor of 0.963 kg CO
2
/kWh for
coal power stations (EIA, 2000), which is close to the actual figure from Tarong Power Station.
To be consistent with the internationally accepted figure, the emission factor 0.963 kg
CO
2
/kWh was used in the following assessment. Table 1.15 summarises the reduction of
CO
2
emission due to the energy saving by applying the CKP and VFS technology. The
Australian result was based on the energy saving by the simulated CKP plus VFS circuit in
comparison with Tarong power station at a normal grinding operation. It is expected that
0.469 million tons of CO
2
emissions reduction per annum can be achieved in Australian coal
fired power stations. The Chinese outcome was based on the simulation for Xutang power
station at the typical operation conditions. The simulation predicts a reduction of 4.391
million tons CO
2
emissions per annum may be achieved in China.



Table 1.15: Reduction of CO
2
emissions due to the energy saving by applying
the CKP and VFS technology

Nations Australia
(based on Tarong
fine feed condition)
China
(Based on Xutang
plant survey data)
Energy saving (million kWh/annum) 315 4560
Reduction of emissions (million tons CO
2
/annum) 0.303 4.391

On the other hand, the reduction of SO
x
, NO
x
and other hazardous materials is mainly
achieved by removal of mineral matter from the ground product before the classification, since
the SO
x
, NO
x
and other hazardous materials are often associated with mineral matter such as
pyrite. This is different to the reduction of CO
2
emissions that is achieved through energy
saving in the power station grinding circuit.

During the CKP plus VFS simulations, a criterion was set to minimise the coal loss. Because
in reality the power stations would not accept a rejection of more than 20% of their feed coal
since this implies a 20% increase of their operating cost. Approximately 5% of tailing reject
rate was implemented in the simulations by controlling the effective separation density at 2.6
RD in the VFS model. Despite the mineral content such as ash and sulphur in the tailing
reject being close to the theoretical washability data, the impact on the ash content and
sulphur content in the PF product is minor, as only approximately 5% of material in the feed
was removed.

Obviously there is a balance between the emissions reduction and the combustibles loss.
Higher reduction of emissions is associated with higher combustibles loss. In the current
simulations, a fixed separation density of 2.6 RD was implemented for easy comparison of the
energy efficiency. Despite the reduction of mineral content in the PF being minor, its
potential impact on the environment is significant.

CUMT observed in the VFS experiment that the sulphur content in the PF was lower than in
the feed to VFS. The average cost of desulfurization is 17.20 Yuan per MWh, or 2.99 Yuan
per kilogram SO
2
. The more sulphur content in the coal, the higher the cost of the
desulfurization will be. When the content of sulphur is above 1.0%, the average of cost is
22.16 Yuan per MWh. The cost reduces to 16.06 Yuan per MWh when the content of
sulphur is below 1.0%. It is estimated by CUMT that the power stations in China can save
more than 10 billion Yuan per annum in the desulfurization process if the sulphur content can
be decreased to below 1%. Table 1.16 details the calculation. It is therefore important to
reduce the sulphur content below 1%, even though the reduction magnitude in the sulphur
content is not very high, such as in the CKP plus VFS simulations.



Table 1.16: Comparison of desulphurisation costs to treat pulverised fuel with
sulphur contents above 1% and less than 1% in the Chinese power stations

Year Electricity
generation by coal
(x10
8
MWh)
Cost (x10
8
)
Sulphur>1%
Cost (x10
8
)
Sulphur<1%
Economic Benefit
(Billion )
2005 20.18 447.19 324.09 12.31
2006 23.57 522.38 378.58 14.38
2007 26.98 597.88 433.30 16.46
2008 27.86 617.31 447.38 16.70
2009 29.81 660.68 478.81 18.19

1.6. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Extensive power station site campaigns in Australia and China were conducted to collect the
internal and external samples of the vertical spindle mills that are prevailingly employed for
coal pulverisation in coal fired power stations. The data were used to assess the current coal
grinding performance for electricity generation in power stations, and for model development
and simulations in the coal grinding circuit optimisation.

The data analysis indicated that the Tarong E-mills and the Xutang ZGM mills were operated
at close to their optimal conditions in the existing design. The Yulin grinding system was
typical for the small scale and self-contained power plants, with apparently lower energy
efficiency than the other two power stations.

The survey data showed that the Tarong grinding system consumed 0.82% of the generated
power for coal pulverised fuel preparation, Xutang consumed 0.78%, and Yulin used 2.66%.
Comparing with the world advanced level, it would expect 0.5% of the power generation be
consumed for grinding based on the similar generator capacity as operated at the Tarong and
Xutang power stations, and less than 1.5% for the Yulin plant.

A number of constraints in energy efficiency improvement of the existing VSM operation were
identified. The poor classification efficiency of the air cyclone, the limited size reduction of
the ball-race or roller race grinding component, and the very high circulating load (800% -
1200%) were some of the major contributing factors. It is not clear if the low grinding and
classification efficiencies were the cause or the result of the excessively high circulating load.
Nevertheless, the VSM mills in the existing design had to consume the energy required to
grind and pneumatically transport an amount of material about 10 times more than that of the
new feed coal.



The plant survey data indicated that the mineral content such as silica, alumina and pyrite in
the circulating load was significantly higher than in the new feed. For example, the ash
content in the Tarong mill feed was 28%, but increased to 46% in the grinding table product.
The data suggested that mineral matter was accumulated inside the fully enclosed
grinding-classification system, due to the fact that minerals are about twice heavier than the
coal particles, and they are required to be ground much finer than the coal in order to exit into
the PF product. The mineral matter was found to be highly abrasive and with high resistivity
to grinding, which consumed more energy to break and caused more wear in the machine.

To improve the grinding efficiency, one of the key solutions is to remove the mineral matter
from the coal grinding system. The ground product samples were collected and tested with a
vibrating fluidised bed separator (VFS) developed by CUMT. The VFS combines the two
functions, separation and classification, into one machine, and produces three products: PF
fines, reject and composites. Efficiency models based on these data have been developed
to describe the separation and classification processes.

Another key limiting issue is the energy consumption of the primary air blower. The survey
data showed that the PA blower consumed nearly the same power as the grinding mill in the
ball-race mill, and less than half of the mill energy in the rollerrace mill. It is understood that
any attempt to optimise the milling efficiency without improving the PA system performance
would not be able to achieve significant improvement of grinding energy efficiency.

Investigation was hence conducted on a CKP mill that is operated in the cement industry to
investigate the potential to employ it in the coal industry. The CKP mill is virtually a
roller-race mill without an air cyclone inside the mill. The survey data were used to develop a
CKP mill model for simulation.

A novel grinding circuit was proposed by using the CKP mill and the VFS as a coal
pulverisation system. The CKP mill model and the VFS models were joined in a circuit to
mimic the virtual system operation. A number of computer simulations were performed to
investigate the possible outcomes when the CKP mill plus VFS system is employed to treat
coal in power stations. The simulations were compared with the existing VSM system
optimisation result obtained also via computer simulations. The following outcomes indicate
the best practice in the power station grinding system.

1. Optimisation of the existing VSM performance by adjusting some operating
parameters of the mill, such as PA flow rate, mill speed, top race pressure, etc, can
achieve about 3-5% specific energy reduction. The improvement is not significant,
as the VSM at the Tarong and the Xutang power stations were already optimised to
close to their best. In addition, the major problems of high circulating load and the
high PA blower power consumption were not tackled yet in this approach.

2. The feed size distribution exerts a significant influence on the grinding efficiency. The
simulation indicated that if the feed F
80
(80% passing size) to the VSM mill at Tarong


can be reduced from the original 23 mm to 9 mm, an energy reduction of 6% can be
realised. This improvement is due to the improved size reduction by the grinding mill,
and hence the decreased circulating load. This idea has been approved and is well
known to the mineral industry through the JKMRCs Mine-to-Mill research projects.
For the power station grinding circuit, to reduce the feed coal from F
80
= 23 mm to 9
mm requires about 1 kWh to treat one ton of coal using a crusher, while in the grinding
process, the energy consumption is about 20 kWh to treat one ton of coal (refer to
Table 1.2).

3. A step change in improving the energy efficiency of grinding circuits in power stations
can be achieved by mineral removal from the ground product before classification.
The CKP mill plus VFS circuit simulations predicted that for the Tarong coal, the new
system can achieve 24% energy saving. Taking the Tarong example as the base
case for the Australian power stations, it was estimated that 315 million kWh of energy
per annum may be saved in the fine coal grinding systems for pulverised fuel
preparation. The energy saving would bring 31 million AUD (based on the electricity
price 9.9 cents for industry) per annum economic benefit to the Australian industry.
Reducing this parasitic loss will increase the power available for export. In addition,
this energy reduction would result in a reduction of 0.3 million tons of CO
2
emissions
per annum in Australia.

4. The same CKP mill plus VFS technology applying to the Xutang power station was
simulated. It predicted that a 23% energy saving can be realised. Using the Xutang
operation as a base case for the Chinese power stations, 4560 million kWh energy per
annum may be reduced by the improved PF preparation technology, which results in
1824 million Yuan (approximately 600 million AUD) economic benefits per annum.
The reduction of 4560 million kWh energy would also lead to a reduction of 4.4 million
tons CO
2
emissions per annum in China. As the Chinese coals contain more
sulphur-rich minerals such as pyrite (eg. sulphur content in the Tarong coal was 0.07%,
and it was 1.96% in the Xutang coal, refer to Table 1.2), the new technology would
also reduce the environmental impact by reducing the emissions of SO
x
and NO
x
and
other hazardous substances.

5. The case study and the simulation tools developed in the APP project have identified
that the CKP mill plus VFS technology is an important option for coal fired power
stations to improve energy efficiency and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during
the coal grinding process for PF preparation. Since the CKP mills are currently
operated in the cement industry, and the VFS separator is a home-made pilot scale
machine developed by CUMT, the system has never been tested in power station
operation for PF preparation. To bring this technology to the power industry, a two
stage research project is proposed. The first stage is a pilot plant trial linking the VFS
with a pilot scale MPS mill (by-pass the classification), and running the system in
continuous operation mode to treat coal at the 1-2 t/h scale. The data collected will
be used to validate the feasibility of the system and to design a large scale


demonstration system (eg. 30 t/h, similar to the full scale E-mill or MPS mill capacity).
Research funds are required to support this project.

6. Coal fine grinding circuits have not changed appreciably in design for forty years,
despite the limitations in the existing operations being recognised by the power
industry. This is mainly due to the lack of proven technology that can demonstrate
the potential economic and environmental benefits. The pioneer work conducted in
the APP project has demonstrated the benefits of the CKP mill plus VFS technology
through the case study and the computer simulations. Further developing this
technology and applying it in coal fired power stations will not only be beneficial to
Australia in green development, but also for Australia to bring green technology
opportunities in China and India, given China and Indias current (and projected) fleet
of coal fired utilities (refer to Fig. 1.7). An Australian-born executive in Beijing
recently criticised Australia for missing out on green energy opportunities in China
(ABC News, 2011). Development of the CKP mill and VFS technology will certainly
create a good opportunity for Australia in the Chinese market, as this technology will
extend collaboration in reciprocal skills between the Australian and Chinese.

1.7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The case study data of the Tarong power station grinding circuit were collected by JKMRC
PhD candidate Mr Can zer and the JKMRC team. The Chinese data of the Xutang power
station, Yulin power station and Jiangnan Onoda cement plant were collected by the CUMT
team led by Prof. Yaqun He. The vibrating fluidised bed separation experiment was
conducted by Prof. Xinxi Zhang and his team at the CUMT. The work from Drs. Toni Kojovic
and Matthew Brennan of the JKMRC in development of the VSM models and the simulation
tool, and the assistance in the CKP-VFS simulations from PhD candidate Mr Weiran Zuo of
CUMT while at the JKMRC as an occupational trainee, is gratefully acknowledged. Profs.
Alban Lynch in initiating, and Emmy Manlapig in supporting the power station coal grinding
research are gratefully appreciated. The strong support from the Tarong Energy, Xutang
Power Company Ltd, Yulin Energy and Chemical Company Ltd, Jiangnan-Onoda Cement
Company, Beijing Power Equipment Group during the site work is greatly appreciated. This
project received funding from the Australian Government as part of the Asia-Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.



REFERENCES

ABC News, 2011. Tax debate obscuring green opportunities in China. Web site:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/10/3160828.htm, retrieved 10 March 2011.
DRET (Australian Government Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism), 2011.
Energy in Australia 2011. Web site: http://www.ret.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx,
Retrieved 5 March 2011.
EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration), 2000. Carbon dioxide emissions from the
generation of electric power in the United States. Web site:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/co2_report/co2report.html, Retrieved 5
March 2011.
EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration), 2009. World energy projections plus. Web
site: www.eia.doe.gov/iea
Fern, J L, 1982. Compact pulveriser gives good grinding efficiency, Modern Power Systems,
2(7): 33-37.
IEA (International Energy Agency), 2010. Key world energy statistics. Web site:
http://www.iea.org/statist/index.htm. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
Miller, L., 2011. Personal communication.
MSNBC (NBC News), 2004. Deadly power plants? Study fuels debate: Thousands of early
deaths tied to emissions. Web site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5174391/,
Retrieved 5 March 2011.
NBSC (National Bureau of Statistics of China), 2010. Power generation capacity in China.
Web site: http://www.stats.gov.cn.
Tarong Energy Technical Services, 2006. Tarong Energy mills. Tarong Energy Operation
Lecture Notes.

36

Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) and China University of Mining and Technology
Chapter 2: CUMT Plant Work and Data Analysis

Yaqun He, Weiran Zuo, Chenlong Duan, Nianxin Zhou, Shuai Wang
(China University of Mining and Technology)

2.1. INTRODUCTION
The APP Project Efficiency Improvements in Coal Fired Utilities started in October 2009 at
CUMT. The power plant site work was part of a large campaign to collect operational data to
evaluate performance of various grinding systems in Australian and Chinese power plants,
and to set up a protocol for best practice in fine coal grinding systems.

This chapter covers the work related to the grinding plants of Xutang Power Station, Yulin
Energy and Chemical Company Power Station and Jiangnan-Onoda Cement Plant. In total,
26 plant surveys have been conducted on five grinding mills.

CUMT has dedicated one PhD and two Masters students working full-time for the power plant
project. In addition, another two PhD students, two Masters students and three
Undergraduate students contributed a total 375 man-days on site. Three staff are
responsible for the supervision and direction of research work.

2.2. SCOPE OF WORK
2.2.1. Scope of Power Plant Work
The objectives were to conduct sampling surveys on two types of fine coal grinding circuits
and a CKP cement pre-crushing mill, and to commence laboratory tests on the samples
collected. After investigation of various grinding plants through literature review and
discussions with mill manufacturers, the ZGM mill, ZQM mill and CKP mill were selected as
the key research targets. Xutang Power Company Ltd (Xutang Power), Yulin Energy &
Chemistry Company Ltd Power Station (YLEC Power) and Jiangnan-Onoda Cement Plant
(JO Cement) in which the ZGM mill, ZQM mill and CKP mill are operated, have been brought
into the APP project as co-operative research partners.

Vertical spindle mills used by coal-fired power plants are divided into roller-race and ball-race
mills. MPS mill is one of the most popular roller-race mills applied in power plants. E-mill is
a ball-race mill that had been studied by JKMRC in the Tarong Power Plant. ZGM and ZQM
mills are the China-localized types of MPS mill and E mill respectively.

Two kinds of sampling surveys were organized. Detailed sampling included mill internal and
external streams to provide data for model development and validation; Circuit sampling only
took mill external samples to assess the circuit performance. The majority of the circuit
CUMT Plant Work and Data Analysis 37

sampling was conducted at various plant operational conditions to investigate how the system
performance responds to the changes in feed and operating condition. As the vertical
spindle mills used in coal fired power stations are fully enclosed in a mill shell with a classifier,
the mill shell needs to be cut to install sampling ports at various positions to collect the mill
internal samples using various sampling tools. This is a rather difficult task and requires
strong support and co-operation from the power station and mill manufacturers. A ZGM mill at
Xutang power plant was selected for this type of detailed study. Xutang Power kindly provided
a new mill that was in service for less than five years for the APP project sampling surveys.
The rest of the surveys on the ZQM, LM and CKP mills were conducted without taking mill
internal samples.

The CKP mill has similar grinding rollers and grinding table to the typical roller-race mill, but
has no air-classifier inside the mill body. It is used for the pre-crushing of cement clinker and
its product goes to a Kawasaki ball mill to produce final cement product. The surveys on the
CKP mill directly collected non-classified particles just departed from grinding table. By
comparing the breakage characterization of coal and cement clinker, the feasibility of applying
the CKP mill on coal grinding will be evaluated.

Information of different grinding plants and mills involved in this project and their survey types
is given in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Scope of power plant research work

Mill Name Mill Type Location Feed Survey Type
ZGM-95 Roller-Race Xutang
Power
Coal Internal and external
sampling
ZQM-178 Ball-Race YLEC Power Coal External sampling
CKP-170 Roller-Race
(without Inside
Classifier)
Cement clinker External sampling
LM-23.21 Roller-Race Coal External sampling
LM-43.40 Roller-Race
JO Cement
Mixed raw
materials
External sampling

2.2.2. Scope of Laboratory Tests
A total of 479 samples (including 126 cement clinker samples, 24 mixed raw material samples,
and 113 coal samples from YLEC, 216 samples from Xutang) were processed in the
laboratory tests.

Precise size distributions of all the 479 samples were obtained by sieving and laser sizing.
Eighteen different coal nature characterizations were carried out on the coal samples.

More than one ton of coal and cement clinker samples were transported to the JKMRC to
complete breakage characterization.

From this testwork the size distribution, washability, combustion characteristics, heat balance
calculation and relationship between size and density, etc, were analysed in order to compare
the performance of various grinding mills and to assess their energy efficiency. The physical
properties and mineral compositions of coal were used in breakage characterization and in
model simulations.

The laboratory tests were undertaken in the Key Laboratory of Coal Processing and Efficient
Utilization in CUMT funded by the Ministry of Education of China. Details of the laboratory
analysis are given in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2: List of coal nature characterizations

Items of coal quality assay Purpose
Moisture content
Ash content
Volatile
Proximate
Analysis
Fixed carbon
Proximate analysis is the fundamental basis for the
evaluation of coal, and also is the main method to
determine the classification of coal.
Content of C/H
Content of N
Content of O
Elementary
Analysis
Content of total sulphur
Elementary analysis is one of the indicators of coal
scientific classification, and also the basis to calculate
the products of combustion and heat balance. The
determination of pyrite sulphur content and ingredient
in coal is one of the important basis for the circulation
ratio of non-combustible components in the
classification system of mill.
Floating and sinking
Hardgrove Grindability
Index(HGI)
Abrasion index
Stacking density
Physical
Properties
Angle of repose
The relationship between size and density of coal is
analysed through float and sink tests in order to
establish the classification model of coal. HGI is a
supplementary of coal breakage characteristics; the
abrasion ability of coal to the mill was evaluated by
abrasion index; Stacking density and angle of repose
are helpful for the establishment of the motion model
of coal on grinding table.
Calorific value Combustion
Properties Ignition point
Ash fusibility
Combustible
component of ash and
slag
Ash
Characteristics
Ash constituents
To provide data for the attempt of relating the
performance of grinding circuit with that of boiler and
evaluating the efficiency of grinding circuit, boiler and
fans synthetically.

2.3. SITE WORK
2.3.1. Preparation of Sampling Surveys
2.3.1.1. Modifications on Grinding Circuits
Modification of the ZGM-95 mill was the most important preparation work for internal sample
collection. Xutang Power provided the latest hydraulic pressure mutative loading type
ZGM-95 mill that was in operation for less than 5 years. Three sampling ports were cut on
the mill shell for internal stream sampling. BPEG provided the modification drawing and
necessary accessories, as shown in Fig. 2.1 and Fig. 2.2.

(a) (b)
Fig. 2.1: (a) ZGM-95 Mill at Xutang Power
(b) Sampling port locations on top half of mill body



Fig. 2.2: Accessories for ZGM-95 mill modification

The following three internal stream samples were taken through the three sampling ports on
the mill shell:
- Mill Body (Port A) This sampling point was located below the separator inlet vanes. It
was expected that this sample would represent the feed to the separator since the
cross-sectional area remains unchanged above this sampling point.
- Tapered channel inlet (Port B) This sampling point was located on the inlet of the
tapered channel between the mill shell and separator. Theoretically, particles that
can reach the inlet of the tapered channel are expected to reach the inlet of the
separator because of the tapered channel.
- Separator Reject (Port C) This sample port was a pipe that cuts through the mill
body and reaches the separator cone. A specific sampling tool manufactured under
this project was fabricated to collect this sample.

The feed sample of the ZGM mill was collected using a sampling device which was designed
by CUMT and installed on the mill feeder of Xutang Power at the same time as the mill
modification. The sample was taken as it fell from the feeder transfer belt into the mill using
a sample cutter driven manually on guide rolls, so that it cut the full length of the stream in a
single pass. This design provided an optimized way to collect a reliable mill feed sample.
The picture of the feed sampling device is given in Fig. 2.3.
Accessories of
Sampling port A and
B
1.385m

Accessories of
Sampling port C



Fig. 2.3: Feed sampling device for ZGM-95 mill

Existing sampling devices in Xutang Power satisfied the requirement for mill reject and
pulverized fuel sample collection. Necessary modifications had been completed on the
grinding circuits in YLEC Power and JO Cement, including the installation of eight dynamic
seal sockets on the four pulverized fuel pipes of ZQM mill (Fig. 2.4) and the cutting of the
protective cover of the CKP mill feeder.

Fig. 2.4: Dynamic seal sockets installed on the pulverized fuel pipes of ZQM mill


2.3.1.2. Sampling Tool Preparation
A key issue to collect reliable samples from pneumatically transported material is to equalize
the air flow speed inside and outside a sampling probe. The flat head static pressure zero
bias isokinetic sampling system produced by BPEG is applied to collect samples from
pulverized fuel pipes and the ZGM mill body. The flat head sampling system adopts
compensating static pressure balance principles and consists of the flat head sampling probe,
two-stage cyclone separator, differential manometer, negative pressure unit, etc. Built-in
pressure propagation devices connected to the differential manometer display the differential
air flow speed inside and outside the sampling probe.

Two flat head sampling systems with different sizes were manufactured to collect samples
from pulverized fuel pipes and the ZGM mill body (Fig. 2.5).

Fig. 2.5: Flat head sampling system for pulverized fuel ( 8 mm sampling duct)

In order to match the larger size millan enlarged flat head sampling system with a | 20 mm
sampling duct was manufactured by BPEG. The structure of the sampling duct inlet was
redesigned by the experts at BPEG to compensate for static pressure loss. This larger flat
head sampling system is shown in Fig. 2.6.


Fig. 2.6: Flat head sampling system for pulverized fuel (| 20mm sampling duct)

Based on the separator reject sampling tool used in Tarong Power Station by the JKMRC
(zer et al, 2009), an improved tool was manufactured by BPEG. This sampling tool makes
use of gravity to collect the samples from the separator reject port. The sampling tool, shown
in Figs. 2.7 and 2.8, consists of an external pipe of 40 mm in diameter and 2500 mm in length,
the top half being cut for 600 mm at one end. The internal pipe 30 mm in diameter has the
same length as the external pipe whose top half is cut away and has sample compartments
formed by metal plates. Two O-type airproof circles are set between the two pipes. The
sampling representation is increased by the expansion of the two pipes diameter.

Fig. 2.7: Schematic diagram of separator reject sampling tool


The sampling pipes, one inside the other and the external one covering the compartments of
the internal pipe, can be inserted into the sampling port until it reaches the end of the
sampling plane (hits the mill feed entry pipe). Then, the external pipe is rotated 180 to
uncover the internal pipe for a specific time and covered back again with the external pipe by
rotating it for another half turn. Then the sampling tool can be carefully taken out of the
sampling port.

Fig. 2.8: Separator reject sampling tool manufactured by BPEG

Nine sampling cutters of five sizes had been manufactured in accordance with the
requirements of JO Cement grinding circuits and applied successfully in the sampling surveys
(Fig. 2.9).


Fig. 2.9: Sampling cutters used in JO Cement

2.3.1.3. Air Flow Speed Measurement System
Air flow speed is a key parameter for the operation of vertical spindle mills. The air flow
speed measurement system employed by CUMT comprises an S-type pitot tube, a
multifunction pressure recorder meter and a computer (Fig. 2.10). With the use of the air
flow speed measurement system, the air pressure signal can be transformed into a digital
signal and recorded on the computer. Then the air flow speed curves can be calculated.


2.3.2. Site Work in Three Grinding Plants
2.3.2.1. YLEC Power Site Work
An advantage of the sampling survey was that YLEC has its own mine which provides the low
ash, high thermal value coal with steady quality for both the YLEC carbinol plant and power
plant. Sampling surveys conducted here gave a rare opportunity to collect data of an
excellent quality coal grind. Five surveys, including two repeated surveys, were conducted
to investigate the effects of feed rate and air flow rate.

One plant survey typically took 2-3.5 hours. The performances of both the mill and the
primary air fan were recorded during the sampling periods. This is helpful for the
assessment of the whole system efficiency.

A graphical summary of the sampling surveys are given in Fig. 2.11.
S-Type Pitot
T b
Fig. 2.10: Air flow speed measurement system


Fig. 2.11: Summary of ZQM mill sampling surveys at YLEC (the first number after the
Survey numbers indicating coal feed rate, and the second indicating air flow rate)

It was impossible to install a mill feed sampling facility similar to that for ZGM mill because of
physical restrictions in the YLEC Power plant. A sampling cutter designed for CKP mill feed
sampling was applied to cut the full length of coal stream between a plough tripper and the
surge bin of the ZQM mill (Fig. 2.12). Size distribution anaylsis of the collected samples
improved the reliability of this sampling method.

The flat head sampling system for pulverized fuel sampling provided by BPEG was applied to
collect pulverized fuel together with the dynamic seal sockets from the pulverized fuel pipes at
YLEC Power (Fig. 2.13).

Fig. 2.12: Collection of the ZQM mill feed sample fell from a plough tripper at YLEC


Fig. 2.13: Collection of the ZQM mill pulverized fuel from a dynamic
seal socket at YLEC

2.3.2.2. JO Cement Site Work
Seven surveys on the CKP mill were conducted, six of them on ASTM standard clinker to
investigate the effects of feed rates and circulating load on mill performance, and another
survey on China standard clinker to investigate the pulveriser response to a different clinker.
A graphical summary of the surveys is given in Fig. 2.14.


84 84
88
73
80 80
9 9 1
20
8 8
97
10
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
Survey 1 Survey 2 Survey 3 Survey 4 Survey 5 Survey 6 Survey 7
F
l
o
w

R
a
t
e

(
t
/
h
)
China Clinker Circulating Load
China Clinker New Feed
ASTM Clinker Circulating Load
ASTM Clinker New Feed

Fig. 2.14: Summary of CKP mill sampling surveys

During the plant audit time the plant management team put significant effort into avoiding
disturbing the milling system, including making the temperature of the cement in the outlet rise
to the utmost value. The operation trendlines of the surveyed milling system indicated that
all of the surveys on the LM-43.40 mill and the LM-23.21 mill were conducted at very steady
conditions. One survey lasted for one hour. Fig. 2.15 shows a summary of the LM mill
sampling survey conditions.

8500
1900
324
12.7
1
10
100
1000
10000
1
10
100
1000
10000
LM 43.40 (Raw
materials)
LM 23.21 (Coal)
F
e
e
d

R
a
t
e

(
t
/
h
)
A
i
r

F
l
o
w

(
m
3
/
m
i
n
)
Air Flow(m3/min) Feed Rate (t/h)

Fig. 2.15: Summary of LM mill sampling surveys

The samples in JO Cement were collected with various sampling cutters except the feed
samples that were collected on the sample transport belts. Duplicate samples were
collected during the surveys to establish the experimental errors. Photographs of the CKP
mill sampling surveys in JO Cement are shown in Fig. 2.16.



Fig. 2.16: Collection samples from CKP mill
1 - CKP mill; 2 - Sampling circulation of CKP mill;
3 - Circulation ratio measurement; 4 - Sampling CKP mill feed;
5 - Sampling CKP mill output
1
2
3

4 5

2.3.2.3. Xutang Power Site Work
The effect of three operational variables, namely coal type, roller load pressure, air and fresh
coal flow rate were investigated in six sampling surveys. The operational conditions are
summarized in Table 2.3, in which the air and coal flow rate are shown as a percentage of the
base condition of 62.78 t/h air and 27.57 t/h coal. These surveys can be divided into two
series. Series 1 was composed of surveys 2, 3, 4 and 6 and aimed to reveal the influence of
air flow rate. Series 2 comprised of surveys 1 and 5, aiming to explore the effect of capacity
of grinding section. Survey 1 was carried out with coal A while coal B was used for the rest 5
surveys. The Hardgrove Grindability Index of coal A and coal B are 92 and 80 respectively.
The fresh coal flow rate was kept constant as far as possible for the first 5 surveys and
reduced greatly in survey 6 to ensure the steady state of furnace performance. The surveys
were done with a wide span of air flow rate between 72 and 100 percent of the base condition.
A constant roller load pressure of 13 MPa was employed in all surveys except survey 5, which
is a comparative trial for normal roller load of survey 4. During each test the mill outlet
temperature was kept at about 90
o
C and the ratio of air to coal were limited in the range from
2 to 2.35. All the surveys were in the normal plant operation range regulated by the Furnace
Operation Manual of Xutang Power Plant and the steadiness of operations was proved by the
operational data download from the control room.

Table 2.3: Operational conditions for sampling surveys

Flow Rate Survey 1 Survey 2 Survey 3 Survey 4 Survey 5 Survey 6
Coal, % 91 100 95 97 97 72
Air, % 94 100 95 85 85 70
Roller Load, MPa 13 13 13 13 11 13

The material streams surveyed in this study included fresh coal feed, mill reject and all the
feed, overflow and underflow of separator and elutriator.

The mill external streams, namely fresh coal feed, mill reject and pulverized fuel, were
sampled by well-developed conventional facilities adopted by power plants. Fresh coal feed
was taken as it fell from the belt of conveyer into the mill using a ladle driven manually on
guide rolls. The full length of the falling material stream was cut in a single pass. The mill
reject was taken directly from the pyrite chute beneath the mill at the end of each sampling
period, with the channel to the windbox closed. However, only a small amount of mill reject
(less than 1 kg/h) was discharge to the pyrite chute in each survey. Pulverized fuel was
collected with a standard static pressure balance iso-kinetic sampling system, which
consisted of a static pressure balance probe, a manometer, a two-stage dust collecting
cyclones and a negative pressure unit. The sampling ports located in the long straight
section of the pulverized fuel pipes and the sampling points on each traverse were
determined by equal ring area method, according to AS Standard 4323.2-1995.

Three sampling ports on the mill shell were drilled to access mill internal recirculation streams.
Sampling port A was used to traverse the feed of the separator, which is located in the straight
section below the separator inlet vane. The upward samples passing through the inlet of the
tapered channel between separator shell and separator inverted cone was deemed as the
feed of the elutriator, which was traversed through sampling port B on the bottom of the
separator shell. A tailor-made enlarged static pressure iso-kinetic sampling system was
employed in these two sampling ports. The reject of the elutriator was collected in sampling
port B as well, with the sampling probe upside down. The separator reject was taken by
double pipes (refer to Figs. 2.7 and 2.8) which cut through the bottom of separator shell
(Sampling port C) and inserted into the inverted cone of the separator. The double pipes
consist of two pipes of different diameter; both of them had been split in half along axis at the
front. Several plates were welded inside the front of the inner pipe which was covered by the
outer pipe against contamination and loss of material before and after sampling. The
channel of the double pipes is a pipe connected sampling port C and a hole on the separator
inverted cone.

2.3.3. Strong Support from Three Plants and BPEG
This project has attracted positive attention from grinding plants and mill manufacturers, and
has obtained strong support from Xutang Power, YLEC Power, JO Cement and BPEG. Table
2.4 lists the collaborative research partners with CUMT working for the APP project.

Table 2.4: CUMT collaborative research partners working for the APP Project

Name Mill Location Description
Jiangsu Xutang Power
Co.,Ltd.
ZGM-95 Xuzhou,
Jiangsu
Large scale coal fired power plant
attached to China Datang Corporation
Yulin Energy &
Chemistry Co., Ltd.
ZQM-178 Yulin,
Shanxi
Large scale coal chemical plant
attached to Yanzhou Coal Mining
Company Limited, having the biggest
coal chemical unit and self-provided
power plant
Jiangnan-Onoda
Cement Co.,Ltd.
CKP-170, LM-43.40,
LM-23.21
Nanjing,
Jiangsu
Its parent firm Taiheiyo Cement
developed CKP mill together with
Kawasaki Heavy Industries., Ltd;
Exporting more than 70% products to
US
Beijing Power
Equipment Group
Mill manufacturer Beijing The biggest vertical spindle mill
manufacturer in China with the No.1
sales volume in the world


BPEG provided 15 modification accessories of the ZGM mill, including one separator reject
sampling channel made of the same wearable material as the mill body and the skeleton
drawing and design parameters of the mill. Furthermore, BPEG produced three special
sampling tools for pneumatically transported material in the mill, pulverized fuel and separator
reject. BPEG also trained two CUMT students in sampling techniques in Beijing.

JO Cement took on the expense of CKP mill feeder modification, supplied 500 water-proof
sample packages and provided in-kind meals for the sampling team. Additionally, JO
Cement employers contributed nearly 20 man-days for the sampling work.

YLEC Power provided sufficient contribution on the pulverized fuel sampling ports
modification and paid a portion of sample package and transport expense. YLEC Power
also took on a portion of equipment alteration expenses, package and transport costs.

CUMT has signed collaborative research agreements with Xutang Power, YLEC Power JO
Cement and BPEG respectively.

2.4. LABORATORY TESTS
There are nine students working on the laborotary tests of the samples collected from YLEC
Power and JO Cement. Two sets of standard sieves are prepared for each plants samples
to avoid inaccuracy. Up to now, size analysis on 59 samples has been done and 45 coal
properties tests have been completed. Following are some of the completed test results.

2.4.1. Size Analysis of CKP Mill Surveys
The size analysis of the air dried samples was conducted by combining manual screening
down to 4 mm, mechanical and hand sieving for the portion between 4 and 0.045 mm, and
laser sizing below 0.045 mm.

A refined sieving method was developed to determine the size distribution of cement clinker
for which a standard sieving method had not been found in the literature. The sieving
procedure comprises a sieving time of ten minutes split into two equal lots. A procedure of
cleaning sieves and an adequate hand sieving below 500 m was adopted between the two
lots of sieving time. Comparison between normal sieving procedure (5 minutes shaking
sieve) and the refined sieving procedure on CKP feed and CKP output is shown in Fig. 2.17,
which indicates that the amount of additional material recovered in the minus 45 m fraction .
Finally, both the clinker and coal samples were sieved in the refined sieving procedure.
Example of the size distribution curves of the samples from CKP mill are shown in Fig. 2.18.

CKP
Feed
CKP
Output
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Particle Size, mm
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

U
n
d
e
r
s
i
z
e
,

%
5+5 Minutes
+Hand Sieving
5 Minutes
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Particle Size, mm
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

U
n
d
e
r
s
i
z
e
,

%
Feed
Output
Circulation
Actual Feed

Fig. 2.17: Comprison between
normal and refined sieving procedures
Fig. 2.18: Example of size
distribution curves of the samples
from CKP mill

Fig. 2.18 shows that the amount of -1 mm fraction of CKP mill circulation is much higher than
that of CKP mill ground product (output), while the +1 mm fraction of the size distribution
curve overlaps with the feed. This finding was contrary to the expectation that the two
streams of sample should be similar, since the CKP mill circulation stream was split from the
CKP mill ground product. After investigation of the grinding circuit, it was found that negative
air pressure in the CKP mill circulation pipe was deemed the reason for transferring more
fines into the circulating stream.

2.4.2. Size Analysis and Coal Properties Analysis of ZQM Mill Feed
The repeatability of the ZQM mill feed from the five surveys was very good, as shown in Fig.
2.19. The coal properties also show high stability among the five surveys, with deviations in
moisture content and fixed carbon being less than 2%, deviations in ash and volatile around
1%, and that in total sulphur about 0.2%, as shown in Fig. 2.20.

1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Particle Size,mm
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

U
n
d
e
r
s
i
z
e
,

%
Survey 1
Survey 2
Survey 3
Survey 4
Survey 5

Fig. 2.19: Size distributions of ZQM mill feed

0.10
1.00
10.00
100.00
Survey 1 Survey 2 Survey 3 Survey 4 Survey 5
C
o
n
t
e
n
t
s

%
Moisture Ash Fixed Carbon Volatile Total Sulfur

Fig. 2.20: Coal properties of ZQM mill feed

2.4.3. Size Analysis and Coal Properties Analysis of Xutang ZGM Mill
The results obtained from survey 2 are presented for demonstration. The repeatability of the
sampling was proved to be good. The size distributions of the internal and external samples
are shown in Fig. 2.21. There is no size distribution data for Mill Reject and Elutriator reject.
The reason of the lack of the former one was that the flow rate of Mill Reject was found to be
nearly zero in all the surveys and the size distribution of elutriator reject was found to be

inconsistent with other streams in mass balance due to the error of sampling. The calculated
size distributions from a mass balance are given in Fig. 21 as well.

Fig. 2.21: Size distribution of the internal and external stream samples

As shown in Fig. 2.21, the overflows of each classification zone (Sep.Feed in Elutriator and
PF in Separator) have the finest size distribution while the underflows (Elu.Rj in Elutriator and
Sep.Rj in Separator) are the coarsest streams both in the elutriator or separator. This
phenomenon is in accordance with the general principles of classification, indicating the
reasonability of the sampling surveys. By comparing the sample size distributions around
the separator and elutriator, it can be concluded that the role of the elutriator is to bring some
large particles back to the grinding section while the separator is used to separate and sort the
final fine products.

The top size of mill inside samples is 2.8 mm, which is also the top size of grinding section
product. The portion of large particles of mill inside samples, i.e., coarser than 180 m, was
found to be directly proportional to the air flow rate to the pulveriser. The fineness index R
75

(% retained on 75 m) of pulverized fuel is in the range between 16.43% and 22.93% with the
top size of 180 m.

2.5. CIRCULATION OF MILL INTERNAL STREAMS
2.5.1. Mass Balance and Classification Efficiency Curve
The widely-used mineral processing software, JKMultiBal V1.0, developed at JKMRC for the
mass balance of comminution and flotation and other areas was adopted to calculate the flow
rate of mill inside streams with the size analysis results. The size distribution data was also
adjusted by the software to improve the accuracy of sampling results.

Through mass balance processing, a rational picture across the circuit of the ZGM mill was
obtained. Fig. 2.22 shows such a picture for Survey 1 as an example.

Separator
Elutriator
GrindingTable
FreshFeed
(23.71)
MillReject
(<0.001)
Elutriator
Reject(64.66)
Elutriator
Feed(274.91)
Pulverised
Fuel(23.71)
Separator
Reject(186.54)
Separator
Feed(210.25)

Fig. 2.22: Profile of internal streams of ZGM mill (dry coal t/h) in Xutang Survey 1

Fig. 2.22 gives an example of how the coal particles circulate in the ZGM mill. The flow rates
of streams returning to the grinding table from the elutriator and separator for regrinding are
several times the fresh feed. This means the recirculation streams dominated the total flow
rate fed to the grinding section of the ZGM mill. Determination of the relationship between
recirculation load and the operation factors is an essential step to minimize unnecessary
regrinding and air pressure loss.

2.5.1.1. Mass Balance and Classification Efficiency Curve in Separator
The mass balance of the separator was calculated according to a special routine. Because
180 m is the top size of pulverized fuel in all the six surveys, the probability to flow into the
separator reject stream of particles larger than this size in separator feed would be sure to be
one. In other words, it is virtually equivalent to no classification taking place on those
particles coarser than 180 m. Therefore, the mass split in the separator was calculated with
only the size distributions of -180 m particles of each stream, by regarding the portion of -180
m particles as one hundred percent. When the mass split for -180 m particles was
determined, the total flow rate of separator reject was obtained through dividing mass flow
rate of -180 m particles by its proportion in the whole separator reject. Then the size
distribution of +180 m of separator feed was re-proportioned by equalizing the flow rate of
each size fraction of separator feed to separator reject.

A well known classification efficiency model derived by Whiten (1966) was found to be
suitable to simulate the separator. The model is given as below:

( )
( ) ( )
oa
exp
E C
exp x exp
1
2
o
o o
(
= (
+
(

(2.1)

where E
oa
is classification efficiency based on overflow, defined as the ratio of pulverized fuel
flow rate to the separator feed at size d; C is the classification efficiency of the infinitesimal
size and o is a sharpness parameter. X is the reduced size d/d
50c
, while d
50c
is the size at
which the correct classification efficiency is 50%.

The corrected classification efficiency, E
oc
, can be calculated from E
oa
using Kelsalls formula
(1953). After correction, the classification efficiency curve of separator is determined merely
by the cut size when the parameter is kept constant.

oa
oc
E
E
C
=
(2.2)

The classification efficiency values of each size fraction were fitted well by Eq.2 with a
constant value for the sharpness parameter (=0.59).


2.5.1.2. Mass Balance and Classification Efficiency Curve in Elutriator
The size distribution of the sample was found to be inconsistent with the elutriator feed and its
overflow (ie. separator feed), in the mass balance calculation. This is caused by the
difference between the directions of elutriator reject and the air flow which carried them, which
conflicted with the premise of the principle of iso-kinetic sampling. Austin et al (1982)
pointed out that the probability of fine particles reaching the separator would approach one
since all the fine particles will be carried by upwards air flow without falling back into the
grinding table in elutriator. As a result, a Rosin-Rammler classification efficiency model (Eq.
3) derived by Reid (1971) and Plitt (1971) was found to be suitable here because E
oc

approaches 1 when the particle size approaches 0 in this model.

( )
m
oc c
E exp ln x d
50
2 /
(
=
(

(2.3)

where m is a scale parameter describing the sharpness of classification, other symbols having
the same meanings as above.

The mass split of elutriator was obtained by fitting Eq.3 as well as the size distribution of the
elutriation reject.

2.5.2. Influence of Operation Parameters on Recirculation and Classification
The profile of mill internal recirculation streams was determined by mass balance calculation,
with the supplement of classification efficiency model fitting in the elutriator where the size
distribution of reject was not available. The classification efficiency model parameters of
separator and elutriator were fitted for all the surveys. The two most influential factors of the
two classification zones between different surveys were the air flow rate and feed flow rate of
each classification zones. The influence of these two factors on the recirculation and
classification are discussed in this section.

2.5.2.1. Recirculation and Classification in Separator
The relation between separator feed flow rate and air flow rate was shown in Fig. 2.23. In
the surveys of series 1, the separator feed flow rate increased with air flow rate dramatically.
The effects of roller load and coal type were revealed in the series 2 surveys, suggesting that
decreased grinding capacity resulted from lower roller load which led to the increased
separator flow rate in survey 5 compared to survey 4, while the higher HGI of coal A caused a
much lower separator flow rate than survey 2 at a similar air flow rate and fresh coal flow rate.

The recirculation ratio of the separator is split into two parts according to the top size of
pulverized fuel, defined as the ratios of flow rate of +180 m portion of separator feed to
pulverized fuel and that of the -180 m portion of separator feed to pulverized fuel, as shown

in Figs. 2.24 and 2.25. It can be seen that the minimum recirculation ratio for -180 m
portion was reached in survey 4 for the surveys of series 1, while the surveys of series 2
indicate that the recirculation ratio for -180 m portion declined with improved grinding
capacity.

Fig. 2.23: Relation between separator flow rate and air flow rate



Fig. 2.24: Recirculation ratio in separator (-180 m)

Fig. 2.25: Ratio of +180 m recirc.load/full size recirc.load


The recirculation ratio of +180 m portion was found to be directly proportional to the air
flowrate. This is reasonable because the flow rate of the +180 m portion increased with
increasing air flow rate. As a result, the minimum total recirculation ratio can be achieved at
an air flow rate a little lower than the optimum air flow rate for the -180 m portion, as the
increase of the -180 m particles recirculation ratio will be compensated by the decrease of
the recirculation ratio for +180 m particles. As to classification efficiency model parameters,
Fig. 2.26 indicates that the classification efficiency of the infinitesimal size, C, is nearly directly
proportional to air flow rate except in survey 5. The separator flow rate of survey 5 was more
than survey 4 by 31%, being 239 t/h and 183 t/h respectively. This fact reveals that the
classification of the separator was worsened by the increase of coal particles concentration
when the air flow rate was kept constant. The parameter C is a result of both air flow rate
and concentration of coal particles. However, the scatter of survey 1 is not significant.

Fig. 2.26: Classification efficiency curve parameters C (1-Bypass)

At the same time, the parameter d
50c
remained almost unchanged at around 28 m, despite
the slight fluctuation, reflecting the stability of the classification function of separator (Fig.
2.27).



Fig. 2.27: Classification efficiency curve parameters - Cut size

2.5.2.2. Recirculation and Classification in Elutriator
The elutriator feed showed a similar relationship between its flow rate and air flow rate with
separator feed (Fig. 2.28), indicating that the total feed to the grinding section increases with
air flow rate and decreases with grinding capacity since the flow rate of mill reject is negligible.
Higher sharpness parameter M (Eq. 3) represents a better classification effect. The
sharpness of the efficiency curve was inversely proportional to air flow rate except in survey 5,
indicating that a good performance of the elutriator would be achieved only on the condition
that both air flow rate and particle concentration are low (Fig. 2.29). Moreover, the cut size of
efficiency curve in the elutriator increases with air flow rate while high particle concentration
results in a lower cut size at the same air flow rate (Fig. 2.30). Low cut size is beneficial to
classification because even the lowest cut size is apparently higher than the top size of
pulverized fuel. However, when the lowest cut size interacts with the second lowest
sharpness, a dramatically high recirculation rate was brought about in survey 5.



Fig. 2.28: Relationship between elutriator feed flow rate and air flow rate

Fig. 2.29: Mill body efficiency curve parameters - Sharpness


Fig. 2.30: Mill body efficiency curve parameters - Cut size

2.5.2.3. Overall Evaluation of Recirculation and Classification of ZGM mill
In summary, the two interacting parameters, classification efficiency and grinding capacity,
contribute to the recirculation ratio of the ZGM mill. The classification efficiency was affected
by both the air flow rate and feed flow rate of the classification zones, while the grinding
capacity was dominated by roller load and coal grindability.

The ideal classification of the ZGM mill is that large particles return to the grinding section as
much as possible and all the qualified fine particles are diverted into pulverized fuel pipes
without being rejected into the grinding section. In the elutriator, in association with the
increased air flow rate the classification efficiency declined as well as the mass split of large
particles. Consequently, the +180 m portion of separator feed increased and more air
pressure loss resulted. However, to minimize the recirculation ratio of the -180 m portion in
separator, there is an optimum air flow rate to reach. For this reason, the synthetic effect of
separator and elutriator must be taken into account to minimise the total recirculation ratio of
the ZGM mill.


Fig. 2.31: Recirculation ratio of ZGM mill

As shown in Fig. 2.31, the recirculation ratios of surveys with different operation parameters
and coal qualities ranged from about 800% to 1450%. The enormous difference of
recirculation ratio among the surveys indicates the necessity and potential to run coal grinding
mill in a more optimized way.

2.6. CONCLUSION
Plant surveys on five vertical spindle mills at various operational conditions were conducted at
three sites. Data were collected for VSM milling analysis as part of the case study, and used
for model development and power station simulation.

The mill internal sampling reveals that the total circulating load ranges between 800% and
1450%, in which the air separator reject accounted for 60% to 80%. It was found that the air
flow rate is a dominant operational parameter controlling the circulating load and the grinding
performance.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions made by the other CUMT team members:
Baofeng Wen, Zhihai Tan, Weining Xie, Renchao Wu, Guoping Zhou, Xiaodong Yu, Haibin Li,
Ke Wang, Zaisheng Zhu, Cuiyu, Zhang, Daiyong Duan and Cuiling Ye. The data mass
balance was performed by one of the authors at the JKMRC. Support from Xutang Power
Company Ltd; Yulin Energy and Chemical Company Ltd; Jiangnan-Onoda Cement
Company and Beijing Power Equipment Group is acknowledged. This project received
funding from the Australian Government as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean
Development and Climate.

REFERENCES
AS 4323.2-1995, 1995. Stationary source emissions. Method 2: Determination of total
particulate matter-Isokinetic manual sampling-Gravimetric method.
Austin, L G, Luckie, P T and Shoji, K, 1982. An analysis of ball-and-race milling Part II. The
Babcock E 1.7 Mill, Powder Technology, 33(1):113-125.
Kelsall, D.F., 1953. A further study of the hydraulic cyclone. Chem Eng Sci, 1953, 2,
254-272.
zer, C., Shi, F. and Whiten, W., 2009. Improving the efficiency of fine coal grinding circuits
Tarong power station site work. ACARP C15079 Final Report. Submitted to ACARP.
Plitt, L.R., 1971. The analysis of solid-solid separation in classifiers. Can Min Metall Bulletin,
April, 42-47 (CIM).
Reid, K.J., 1971. Derivation of an equation for classifier-reduced performance curves. Can
Metall Quart, 10, (3), 253-254.
Whiten, W.J., 1966. Lecture notes for winter school on mineral processing. Dept Min &
Met Eng, University of Queensland, Aug.

69

Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) and China University of Mining and Technology
Chapter 3 Modelling of Vertical Spindle Mills

Toni Kojovic, Matthew Brennan and Frank Shi
(JKMRC, The University of Queensland)

3.1. INTRODUCTION
Before being burned in power stations or used as a supplementary PCI fuel in blast furnaces,
coal must be finely ground. Coal pulverisation is an energy intensive process. However,
little work has been done to optimise the grinding process in order to decrease energy use,
decrease equipment maintenance or increase performance (which is achieved through
utilisation of coal with the optimum size distribution). In some cases, the absence of circuit
optimisation studies has resulted in certain coal types not being used as they are not
cost-effective in the standard grinding circuit.

The major difficulty in optimisation of coal pulverisers is the lack of reliable mechanistic
models describing particle motion inside a fully enclosed grinding unit and air classification
unit. Literature shows that many attempts were made in the past to model coal pulverisers
using data collected from external coal stream samples (eg. pulveriser feed, product, reject) to
develop empirical equations. As such models do not describe the mechanisms of particle
breakage, transportation and classification inside the pulveriser, their success in optimisation
of the pulveriser operation was limited.

In 2006, JKMRC commenced an ACARP-funded project with Tarong Energy to investigate the
feasibility of characterising and simulating coal fine grinding circuits. The modelling and
simulation become an important scope of work in the current APP project. The JKMRC at
the University of Queensland is an acknowledged world leader in the development and
application of simulation technology for comminution and flotation circuits. In the 1980s,
JKMRC developed the JKSimMet comminution simulation package for the minerals industry.
This software platform enables models of processing equipment to be integrated with models
of the materials at various points in a circuit in order to simulate, predict and optimise the
performance of different comminution and classification circuits. The JKSimMet package is
widely used in the minerals industry.

A distinguishing feature of the JKMRC modelling technique is the independent modelling of
the machine-dependant parameters and coal-dependant parameters. This means that once
the models are calibrated for a specific circuit, the circuit operating parameters can be
optimised for different feed properties and blend ratios.

The objective of the APP modelling task is to develop models of various vertical spindle mills
and air classifiers, and incorporate these models in an MDK (Model Development Kit) version
software for power station grinding circuit simulation and optimisation. These models will
Modelling of Vertical Spindle Mills 70

allow the performance of different millclassifier systems for different coal feeds to be
predicted.

An extensive site campaign was conducted in Australian and Chinese power stations by the
teams of JKMRC and CUMT (China University of Mining and Technology), using a new
sampling technique to collect both mill internal and external samples for case studies (Ozer, et
al, 2009). These data were used to develop the ball-race mill (E-Mill) model, roller-race mill
(MPS) model and roller-race mill without air classifier (CKP mill) model. This chapter
presents these model structures, mechanisms and their MDK platform in Excel spreadsheets
for simulation.

3.2. MODEL STRUCTURE
3.2.1. Three types of pulveriser
Three different vertical spindle pulveriser designs were investigated and modelled in this study.
All are called Vertical Spindle Mills (VSM) due to their drive shaft orientation.

The B&W10E10 pulveriser is a common design and is the pulveriser used in the 350 MW
units at Tarong power station, which is located near Yarraman in Queensland. A schematic
of this pulveriser design is shown in Figure 3.1. The pulveriser is air-swept in which the coal
is fed onto a rotating table through a central pipe. The coal is thrown outward by rotation into
the grinding race. Seated in the race are 10 x |700 mm steel balls which are held in the race
by an upper stationary spider. The balls rotate with the table and pulverise the bed of coal
that forms in the race, which is controlled partly by a hydraulic system that adjusts the grinding
pressure exerted by the spider through the balls on the table.

Fig. 3.1: Schematic of ball-race mill (Fern, 1982) used by Tarong power station
PF pipes

Coal feed pipe

Classifier

Elutriator

Balls

PA inlet

Race

The MPS pulveriser is a roller-race mill. The MPS mills employed by Xutang power station in
China were manufactured by Beijing Power Equipment Group (BPEG), and are referred to as
the ZGM-95 mill (Fig. 3.2). It also consists of a grinding element and a static air classifier.
MPS mill uses three rollers to replace 10 balls in the E-mill. The internal structure of the
MPS mill is different to the E-mill due to the different mechanism used to control the three
rollers. In general, three rollers take less space than the 10 balls/Upper spider arrangement
inside the mill chamber.

Fig. 3.2: ZGM-95 pulveriser used by Xutang power station

The CKP-180 mills used in the Jinagnan-Onoda cement plant were manufactured by
Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan. This is a roller-race mill without an internal air classifier
(Fig. 3.3). The ground product is discharged by gravity and lifted by a mechanical elevator to
send the ground product to a downstream dry ball mill to produce final product. Part of the
CKP mill ground product is circulated back to the CKP mill to control the grinding product
fineness and to maintain smoothness of the rollers rotation.

PF pipes

Coal feed pipe

Classifier

Elutriator

Rollers

PA inlet

Race


Fig. 3.3: Photograph of CKP-180 mill used by the Jiangnan-Onoda cement plant

3.2.2. Basic model structure
The ball-race and roller-race pulverisers operate on similar principles where the grinding is
carried out on a grinding table. The main difference is that the ball-race design (Fig. 3.1)
uses steel balls to grind whilst the roller-race design uses rollers (Fig. 3.2). This does not
affect the structure of the models but the different pulveriser designs require slightly different
grinding calculations which are discussed in more detail below.

Both the ball-race and roller-race designs are arranged so that primary air enters the
pulveriser through jets arranged circumferentially outside the grinding table and where the
ground coal is pushed radially outward into the primary air flow, which entrains the coal.
Both pulverisers have two stages of classification in which oversize coal is fed back onto the
grinding table and the final pulverised fuel is below the required size (70% < 75 m).



Fig. 3.4: Schematic of elutriation zone and the main classification zone in the E-mill
(Tarong Energy Technical Services, 2006)

The first stage of classification is a simple elutriator which effects a crude classification of
large coal based on the larger material having a terminal velocity which exceeds the upward
air velocity at his point in the device (Fig. 3.4). The second stage of classification is a true
gas cyclone which operates with inlet vanes and relies on the swirl to further classify the coal.
Thus these pulverisers are in effect a grinding-classification circuit and the model structure
(which effectively is the circuit flow sheet) is shown in Fig. 3.5 below.

Mill Elutriator Bypass Classifier
Rawcoal
Pulverised
Coal
Reject
Recycle
Primaryair

Fig. 3.5: Proposed JKMRC VSM model structure for B&W E10 and MPS pulverisers

All coal streams (blue) will be assumed to have a mass flow rate (M
c
- nominally in t/h), a
mass fraction distribution in bins by size d
i
and density distribution by size
d
. All air streams
will be assumed to have an air flow mass rate (M
a
nominally in kg.s
-1
) and air temperature (T
a

- degree Celsius) and an air pressure (P
a
- kPa). The modelling generally uses SI units.
However the derived SI unit of mm will be used for particle size d.

Mass balance results suggest the survey data quality is good and suitable for model
development. The internal flow rates were less certain which was taken into account during
the calibration process.

3.3. MODELLING OF COMMINUTION
The comminution modelling within the APP project focused on the development of models for
the breakage element in the E-Mill (ball-race), MPS and CKP mills (roller-race). The
algorithm structure for modelling comminution is presented in Fig. 3.6. There are three basic
components involved in the comminution modelling structure, viz.
- Modelling of mill power draw;
- Modelling of mill specific energy; and
- Modelling of particle breakage.

CoalBreakage
Characteristics
T10EcsRelation
T10TnMap
MachineOperating
Conditions
No.balls,dimensions,
forceoneachball,
rotationspeed, friction
PowerDraw
SpecificEnergybySize
AirOperating
Conditions
Flowrate,temp
andpressure
CoalFeed
ToTable
(TPH,Size)
GrindingTable
Product
(TPH,Size)

Fig. 3.6: Proposed model algorithm structure for comminution


3.3.1. Modelling of mill power draw
The mill power draw, P
m
, is modelled from physical principles:

P
m
= torque x angular velocity

Torque is calculated as

t = F Rn (3.1)

and angular velocity is

2 t
e =
rpm
60
(3.2)

where P
m
is the power draw (kW), t is torque (N.m), F is force acting on each ball/roller (N),
is friction coefficient, R is radius of rotation (m), n is number of balls/rollers, e is angular
velocity (radian/s), and rpm is grinding table (race) rotation speed.

Experiments were conducted using an HGI mill installed with a torque meter on mill drive shaft
to record torques during tests (refer to Chapter 4). Factors investigated included particle size,
mass, material filling level, type of coal and rotational speed. The experimental data suggest
that among the five factors investigated, the filling level is one of the major factors affecting
torque reading, followed by particle size. These findings agree with Austin et al (1981), as
shown in Fig. 3.7.



Fig. 3.7: Effect of sample volume and particle size on torque in a Hardgrove mill
(after Austin, et al, 1981)

As the filling level increases, torque increases rapidly, and then reaches a level where the
torque slowly increases as the filling further increases. This torque level is determined by the
particle size, with coarser coal particles associated with higher torque. For coarse coal
particles (>6.7 mm, ratio of coal size to ball > 0.26) at high filling, the torque reading increased
dramatically, and size reduction ceased. This observation tallied with power station VSM
operation. When harder coal was ground at normal operation settings, the mill power draw
increased rapidly then reached a trigger point to trip the grinding circuit. This may be
explained by the fact that for hard coal, the grinding table filling increases due to the increased
circulating load. The higher filling leads to higher power draw until the mill is tripped.

Since in the laboratory HGI milling tests, the force F, rotational radius R and number of balls n
in Eq. 3.1 are all constant, the torque variation merely reflects the change in frictional
coefficient. Based on the survey data collected from the E-mill operated at Tarong power
station, a model for frictional coefficient was developed. This model takes the following form:

3
1
2
1

( | |

=
` ( |
\ .
)
C
net
GTF
C - * Fine
C
- exp (3.3)

where
net
is the predicted friction coefficient of 10 balls on coal bed, GTF is grinding table

feed in t/h, Fine is % passing 75 m in the GTF. Both GTF and Fine are from the mass
balanced mill internal sampling data. C
1
, C
2
and C
3
are parameters fitted to six Tarong
survey data: C
1
= 0.1337; C
2
= 848.6 and C
3
= 0.4509. GTF/C
2
is the race filling fraction.
The total friction coefficient equals non-load friction plus balls on coal bed friction. When
GTF = 0, the model indicates
net
= 0, so that
total
=
non-load
.

The survey data exhibit a scattered trend of mill power with GTF (Fig. 3.18), but they do show
that increasing GTF leads to higher power. The survey data also show that increasing
%passing 75 micron in the GTF leads to higher power as well. This is opposite to the trend
observed in the laboratory scale HGI tests. This is perhaps due to the difference between
batch grinding in the HGI tests and the continuous operation. In continuous operation, fine
mineral matter is accumulated in the circulating load, and becomes part of the GTF. The
mineral matter is more abrasive, and has a higher friction coefficient.

Fig. 3.8: Tarong E-Mill net power draw in relation to the grinding table feed rate

The model fits the Tarong survey data reasonably well. Fig. 3.9 displays the calculated mill
power based on Eqs. 3.1-3.3 in comparison with the measured power during the Tarong
surveys.

100
120
140
160
180
200
100 150 200 250
Grindingtablefeed(tph)
M
i
l
l
n
e
t
p
o
w
e
r
d
r
a
w
(
k
W
)


Fig. 3.9: Comparison of the calculated mill power draw by friction coefficient model
with the measured ones from Tarong ball-race mill.

A similar model form was employed for the MPS and CKP mills, with the three model
parameters calibrated with plant survey data respectively.

3.3.2. Modelling of mill specific energy
The E-Mill and MPS mills were both modelled assuming that specific breakage varied with
size, a trend observed in the survey data. Considering the specific energy Ecs applied to
material on grinding table, one would expect that small particles will be compressed in the bed
due to balls and their movement. The contact area and size of particles should control the
intensity of breakage of fine particles trapped in the bed. The stress on coarse particles
would be lower but there would be a finite Ecs limit that any particle might be subjected to.
To represent this mechanism the following breakage model form was proposed:

Ecs Area/Volume

Ecs 1/x

A simple expression was proposed as follows
= +
o c
b
Ecs Ecs
x
(3.4)
where x is the average coal particle size (mm) and Ecs
o
is effective Ecs applied to coal on
grinding table (kWh/t) and could be calculated using the expression:
100
150
200
250
300
100 150 200 250 300
CalculatedPower(kW)
M
e
a
s
u
r
e
d
p
o
w
e
r
(
k
W
)

=
net
o
P
Ecs
k GTF
(3.5)

Where P
net
= net power drawn by mill (kW) = gross power no-load power
GTF= feed rate of coal to grinding table (t/h)
k = inefficiency calibration constant, fitted to survey data
b, c = constants, fitted to the survey data (b=0.133, c=1.016)

The k constant in Eq. 3.5 represents an inefficiency factor. It was found to be linearly related
to M
a
, suggesting that the specific energy decreases with increasing air rate due to the higher
recycle loads. The constant n was found to be very close to 1, which supports the
assumption the Ecs is inversely related to size. The form of the Ecs model is illustrated in
Fig. 3.10, showing the significant increase in Ecs as particle size is reduced. The Ecs
o
value
for this particular survey condition was 0.275 kWh/t (P
net
=174 kW, GTF=245 t/h, k=2.58)

Fig. 3.10: Proposed specific energy (Ecs) vs size relation used in grinding model

3.3.3. Modelling of particle breakage
The coal breakage characteristics used in the comminution modelling algorithm represent two
main inputs:
- Measured in-situ coal strength parameters, that describe the grinding resistance to
specific energy as would be measured in the JKMRC Drop Weight test (Napier-Munn
et al., 1996). These parameters include the potential for size dependency, which is
typically coal specific.
- Appearance function for coal breakage, which has been shown to be applicable at
both very low and high specific energies.

The grinding table breakage process uses a model developed at the JKMRC, which describes
the breakage index t
10
(%) in relation to the coal properties, particle size and net cumulative
energy, as follows (Shi and Kojovic, 2007):

( ) { }
(
=

mat cs min
t M exp f xk E E
10
1 (3.6)

where
t
10
= cumulative percentage of broken particles smaller than one tenth of the geometric
mean size of the feed particle (%)
M = maximum possible value of t
10
in impact breakage (%)
f
mat
= material property (kgJ
-1
m
-1
), which is represented by an equation with ore specific
parameters p and q to describe the effect of size. When q=1, the f
mat
is constant
across all sizes
x = the initial particle size (m)
k = the successive number of impacts with the single impact energy E
cs
(-)
E
cs
= impact mass specific breakage energy (Jkg
-1
)
E
min
= threshold or minimum breakage energy (Jkg
-1
). E
min
was assumed to be 0 as the
value is typically much smaller than the applied breakage energies

The JKMRC has shown that the t
10
parameter is uniquely related to other points on the
product size distribution curve, t
2
, t
4
, t
25
, t
50
and t
75
for a given ore type (Napier-Munn et al.,
1996). Hence knowing the curves for a particular material (derived from an enhanced HGI
test, refer to Chapter 4) and t
10
(calculated from the Ecs and coal parameters M, p and q), the
full product size distribution can then be reconstructed.

3.4. MODELLING OF CLASSIFICATION
The classification models all calculate a partition function, which determines the mass flow
rate of coal m
da
associated with a particular size bin d that stays entrained in the primary air
stream. ie:

da df
m = E(i) m (3.7)

where m
df
is the coal mass flow rate of size bin d in t.hr
-1
in the feed to the classification stage
and is calculated from the mass fraction of the feed coal, x
df
, that is in the bin d and the total
feed coal flow rate M
cf
.

df df cf
m = x M (3.8)

E(i) is the partition function calculated by the model.

Both classification stages return oversize material to the grinding table and the mass flow rate
of coal in bin i that is returned to the grinding table is:

=
dr da df
m m m (3.9)

There are two partition functions. The first partition function describes the classification
behaviour of the elutriator. The second partition function describes the classification
behaviour of the gas cyclone. A bypass function was introduced in the second partition
function because the survey data collected by zer et al (2010) for the Tarong B&W E10
pulverisers indicated that a proportion of the coal feed into the gas cyclone was simply
rejected and returned to the grinding table without classification.

3.4.1. Elutriator models
zer et al (2010) conducted extensive survey work on one of the B&W E10 pulverisers at
Tarong power station. Classification in the elutriator was modelled by zer et al (2010) using
a Rosin-Rammler efficiency curve:

o
| |
| |
|
=
|
|
\ .
\ .
d
e u
d
E ( d ) R exp .
d
50
100 0 693 (3.10)

Equation 3.10 has been implemented with a bounds check to ensure that E
e
returns a value
which is less than or equal to one. The parameters R
u
, d
50
and o in Eq. 3.10 were fitted to
the pulveriser survey data for each survey by zer et al (2010) and then correlated as a
function of primary air mass flow rate.

A limitation of the zer fitted model is that it only calculates the partition function parameters
as a function of primary air mass flow rate. It is desirable in the APP project to develop a
model which would include other parameters such as particle density p
d
, particle size d,
primary air temperature T
a
, pressure P
a
and pulveriser dimensions.


Fig. 3.11: Contours of vertical air velocity in elutriator from CFD modelling

A simple study of the B&W 10E10 elutriator using Computational Fluid Dynamics (Figure 3.11)
indicates that the minimum velocity of the primary air stream occurs in the annular space just
below the entrance to the main classifier and that the spread of the jet in the main elutriator
section is relatively small. The terminal velocity of` coal particles using the average velocity
across this annulus implies a particle size which is reasonably close to the fitted d
50
.
Therefore it is proposed to calculate a "cut" velocity u
50
(m.s
-1
) for the elutriator as:

( )
t
50
a
a
2 2
mt c
e
4C M
u =
D - D
(3.11)

where u
50
is assumed to be the terminal velocity of particles with diameter d
50
and o is the
density of the air. It should be noted that equation 3.11 has an adjustable constant, C
e
.
This set to 0.69 and gives the same value of d
50
as the fitted model at a PA mass flow rate of
18.7 kg.s
-1
. The d
50
of the elutriator (in mm) is calculated using the drag law correlation
developed by zer and Whiten (2008):
Elevation of minimum
air stream velocity


=
2
u s a
a
g ( )
B

=
u
u
D
50
*
{ }
*
0.5
2
( *) 0.5 ( ) ( *) 0.25 ( ) ( )
(
( = + + + + +

ln d a c ln u b e a c ln u b e
=
a
a
d
d
B
50
* 1
1000
(3.12)

where the constants are (zer and Whiten, 2008):

Parameter Value
a 0.4519
b 0.8894
c 2.7830
e -5.4804
f 5.3460
C
e
0.69

The particle diameter d is in mm. If d is measured in m then the constant in the denominator
of Eq. 3.12 for d
50
is 1 (not 1000).

Equation 3.12 requires the air density
a
and viscosity
a
. The air will follow the ideal gas
equation of state. For a given air temperature (Celsius) and air pressure (kPa) the density of
the air (in kg.m
-3
)

will be:

=
+
a
a
a
P
x x
T
250
1.4128
273 101.3
(3.13)

Data for the molecular viscosity of air (in kg.m
-1
.s
-1
) is given in Holman (1992) and this data
has been fitted to a temperature function (where T
a
is in Celsius):

= +
a a a
x x T x T
5 8 11 2
1.599 10 5.1 10 ( 250) 2.86 10 ( 250) (3.14)
The other two parameters (R
u
and o) in the elutriator model (Eq. 3.10) were fitted to the
survey data, then regressed with operational conditions as described in Section 5.


3.4.2. Gas cyclone classification model
Svarovsky (1981) reviews a number of models which predict the partition curve for gas
cyclones from the dimensions of the cyclone. These models were investigated as well as
other models reported in the literature. Of these the model by Sproull (1970) was found to fit
the measured partition curve of the gas cyclone in the B&W E10 pulveriser well.

Sproull 's (1970) gas cyclone model is based on parallels between cyclone collection and
collection in an electrostatic precipitator. It calculates a partition function for the cyclone as:

| |
=
|
\ .
c d
a
a
c
w A
E d exp
M
( ) (3.15)

where w
d
is the migration velocity of a particle of size d to the wall of the cyclone:

=
n
c
t d d
d
a
d u
w
x D
2
6
18 10
(3.16)

The size exponent n normally takes a value 2. It has been assumed too that the particle
diameter d is in mm in the Sproull equation for w
d
. A
c
is the interior collecting surface of the
cyclone and can be calculated from the cyclone dimensions:

( )
1
2
2
2
( )
2 2
t
t
(
| |
(
= + + + +
|
(
\ .

c u
c c c c u c a
D D
A D H D D H H (3.17)

where u
t
is a characteristic tangential air velocity and here this is assumed to be of the order
of the inlet gas velocity to the gas cyclone u
a
:

=
a
t
a i i
M
u
H D
(3.18)

The gas cyclone uses a vane inlet arrangement and the effective inlet diameter D
i
is
calculated as:

t =
i c bl
D D a sin (3.19)

By combining Eqs. 3.15 - 3.19, the overall cyclone partition function can be expressed as:


a
n
a c d d d
c t b
a c
d p u A
E (d) G exp
M D
2
100
18
| |

= |
|

\ .
(3.20)

The bypass, G
b
, and size exponent, n, were parameters fitted to survey data.

3.5. VERTICAL SPINDLE MILL MODELS
3.5.1. Model algorithm
The unit models (comminution and classification) are incorporated in VSM models coded in
Fortran. The model algorithm is summarized in Figure 3.12.

The key machine inputs in the model are as follows:
- Ore parameters M, p and q (to define size effect)
- Force on each ball or roller (kN)
- Grinding table radius (m)
- Number of balls or rollers (#)
- Grinding table rotational speed (rpm)
- No-Load power (kW)
- Mill diameter and classifier diameter (m)
- Classifier underflow diameter (m), cylindrical height (m), inlet height (m), apex height
(m), inlet blade angle (deg)
- Primary air rate (kg/s), temperature (C) and pressure (kPa).

The key material inputs in the model include:
- Coal feed rate (t/h)
- Coal breakage parameters M, p and q (to define size effect)
- Coal breakage appearance matrix
- Feed size distribution
- Feed coal mean density (RD).

The main assumptions in the breakage algorithm are:
- Each particle in feed is broken once, at the same Ecs (energy per unit mass)
- For each coal particle broken, a size-specific breakage function is used
- The limit to coal strength decreasing with size is 500 mm (ie. particles over 500 mm
were assumed to break according to the 500 mm size-specific breakage function).
This is consistent with the Hoek and Brown (1980) relation.


The model starts to estimate the friction coefficient based on the feed coal on the grinding
table by Eq. 3.2, then calculates the net power draw by the net friction coefficient and the
operational conditions using Eq. 3.21.

( )
t
| |
=
|
\ .
net net b
rpm
P F R n
2
60
(3.21)

Specific energy is estimated from Eqs 3.4 and 3.5, which is then used to calculate t
10
values
for each size based on Eq. 3.6 and the breakage parameters M, p and q. The ground
product goes to the elutriator model for calculation of the reject that returns to the grinding
table, and the elutriator product that goes to the air classifier by using Eq. 3.10. The air
classifier separates the feed into fines as the PF product and coarse particles as the reject.
The coarse particles together with the bypass return to the grinding table, using Eq. 3.20.
These procedures are iterated until the calculated grinding table product reaches a steady
state condition.

The software output includes:
- Mill power consumption
- Mill internal circulating load
- Size distributions of the external streams (feed, mill reject and PF), and the internal
streams (grinding table product, elutriator reject, air classifier feed, and air classifier
reject).

The mills are notable for their high recycle loads (700-900% for E-Mill; 1200-1700% for MPS),
which means the classification behaviour of the mills is significant and must be integrated with
the grinding model to successfully simulate the entire process.


Coal Breakage
Parameters
Sieve Series used
in Simulation
Mill Operating Conditions
(feed rate, primary air rate,
temp/pressure, force on
balls)
Mill Design Information
New Feed Sizing
Data
Start Program
Input Data
Add New Feed,
Elutriator and Classifier
Reject Streams
Grinding Table
Feed
Apply Grinding
Model
Estimate
Friction Factor
Calculate Net
Power
Check if Calc.
Grind Table Product has
reached convergence
limit?
Apply Elutriator
Model
Grinding Table
Product
Elutriator
Product
Elutriator
Reject
Apply Classifier
Model
Ouput
Simulation Results
PF Product
Display Warning
Estimate
Ecso
Check if Calc.
Power > Trip
Set-point?
Classifier
Reject
YES
NO
YES
End Program

Fig. 3.12: Model algorithm for B&W E10 and MPS pulverisers

3.5.2. E-Mill (ball-race) model
The survey data were used to confirm the model concept and define the trends in parameters
with air rate, found to be the most significant measured controlling variable. This process

started by fitting the parameters (k in Eq. 3.5, o and R
u
in Eq. 3.10, and G
b
and n in Eq. 3.20)
to each survey independently, then moved to identify if any clear relationships exist between
the model parameters and machine operating conditions (air flow rate and grinding table feed
rate). As there was significant interaction between the grinding and classification
parameters, some of the parameters were either held constant at the average value in the
final calibration phase, or replaced by a linear sub-model if the trend was clear. This was the
case for the b and c constants in the Ecs expression (Eq. 3.4), and R
u
in the elutriator model
(Eq. 3.10). An example of the model parameter fitting results is summarized in Table 3.1.
The five empirical sub-model relations were found to be linear in form as shown in Fig. 3.13.

Table 3.1: Summary of fitted model parameters for E-Mill (Tarong Survey 1)

Parameter Fitted Value SD CofV (%)
k 2.54 0.09 3.6
Elutriator o 0.70 0.04 5.4
Classifier G
b
0.73 0.02 3.3
Classifier n 2.13 0.02 0.9

k=0.1566*Ma 0.6702
R=0.719
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
10 15 20 25
k
Ma

Fig. 3.13 (a): Linear relation for grinding process parameter k as a function of primary
air mass flow rate M
a
, (B&W E10 pulveriser)


o=0.0451*Ma+1.6183
R=0.91
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
10 15 20 25
E
l
u
t
A
l
p
h
a
Ma

Ru=0.0134*Ma+0.9206
R=1.0
0.62
0.64
0.66
0.68
0.70
0.72
0.74
10 15 20 25
E
l
u
t
R
u
Ma

Fig. 3.13 (b): Linear relations for elutriator parameters, o and R
u
as a function of
primary air mass flow rate M
a
(B&W E10 pulveriser)

0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
10 15 20 25
C
l
a
s
s
i
f
i
e
r
G
b
Ma

n=0.0549*Ma+1.1222
R=0.95
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.4
10 15 20 25
C
l
a
s
s
i
f
i
e
r
n
Ma

Fig. 3.13 (c): Linear relations for classifier parameters, G
b
and n as a function of
primary air mass flow rate M
a
(B&W E10 pulveriser)

The linear sub-models were added to the model structure to complete the model. The final
simulation model reproduces the survey data well.

The model was validated using five surveys from the Tarong operation. The results for
Survey 1 are summarized in Table 3.2 and Figure 3.14.

y=0.0274x+0.2168
R
2
=0.9909

The results are encouraging and suggest that the integrated E-Mill process model is working
well, offering opportunity to evaluate options to improve the mill efficiency. The model
structure was tested using the data from the MPS mill survey data from the Xutang power
station. Details of this evaluation are presented in the next section.

Table 3.2: Comparison of model simulation vs survey for E-Mill (Survey 1)

Operating
Conditions
New
Feed
Gr. Tab.
Feed
Gr. Tab.
Prod
Elut.
Reject
Elut.
Prod
Class.
Reject
PF
Prod
Survey 29.1 263.5 263.5 89.0 176.2 145.4 29.1
Simulation 29.1 244.2 244.2 71.9 172.3 143.2 29.1

0
20
40
60
80
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
C
u
m
.

%

P
a
s
s
i
n
g
Particle Size (mm)
New feed
Table feed
GR.TB.FD
Class feed
EL.PROD
Meas Tab Prod
GR.TB.PR
PF MEAS
PF

Fig. 3.14: Comparison of survey and simulated stream size distributions for Tarong
E-Mill Survey 1 (points show raw data, lines represent model simulations)


3.5.3. MPS mill (roller-race) model
The most significant difference between the MPS and E-Mill designs is the grinding
mechanism. The MPS mill uses a three roller-race system instead of the 10 ball-race system
deployed in the E-Mill. The elutriator zone in the MPS mill also appears to be closer to the
air classifier entry area. The MPS mill model was evaluated using data from six surveys
conducted by CUMT from the Xutang power station (referring to Chapter 2). As with the
E-Mill data, the uncertainty in the internal flow rates was high which was taken into account
during the model evaluation.

The initial analysis showed that the E-Mill model structure did not accurately simulate the
Xutang survey data even when the key parameters were refitted. After significant
investigation of the data in each mill section, it seems that the problem was in the grinding
model. The elutriator and classifier data could be represented well with the existing model
forms, but the grinding section was not behaving like the E-Mill. The initial findings suggest
the grinding mechanism has an inherent classification much like a standard reciprocating
crusher. Fine material bypasses breakage and only particles coarser than ~0.4 mm appear
to be affected. The need to include this step in the breakage model may be related to the
increased probability of finer material not being affected by the three moving rollers. Hence it
was seen necessary to include an internal classification with the Ecs model. The changes
made to the original model structure to successfully model the MPS mill are summarized
below:

1. The MPS breakage model includes an internal classification which essentially allows
fines (< 400 microns) to bypass the breakage process. This model uses Whitens
efficiency curve which has three parameters (alpha, C and d50c), all modelled as
linear functions of air flow rate, Ma. The averages across the surveys were 7.5,
89.3% and 0.396 mm respectively.
alpha = 0.2147* M
a
+ 4.2282
C = -0.287* M
a
+ 93.661
d
50c
= 0.0211* M
a
+ 0.0707

2. The Ecs model form was unchanged (Ecs=Ecs
o
+b/x
c
). The Ecs
o
is calculated from
net power and grinding table feed rate, Ecs
o
=P
net
/(k*GTF). The k was found to have
a small linear dependence on air flow, spanning from 0.31 to 0.43. This meant Ecs
o

ranged from 1.8 to 3.2 kWh/t, notably higher than found in the E-Mill. The
parameters b and c were held constant at 0.257 and 1.0, similar to the E-Mill model.
k = -0.0237* M
a
+ 0.7178


3. The friction coefficient was modelled as per the E-Mill approach, using actual force
applied to the three rollers, simulated grinding table feed rate and measured net power.
The average friction coefficient in the MPS appears to be higher than E-Mill, around
0.14 vs 0.06.
C
1
= 0.1449; C
2
= 4718.7 and C
3
= 1.563 (fitted to MPS survey conditions)

4. The trigger point for the MPS mill power overload warning was set to 375 kW.
Compared to the E-Mill the MPS mill draws approximately 100 kW more power at
similar feed rates.

5. The elutriator model uses the same extended d
50
model, with a correction factor C
e

(Eq. 3.11) that was found to be strongly dependant on air flow, M
a
. A simple linear
model was derived for C
e
, with the factor ranging from 0.15 to 0.32. The R
u

parameter was held constant at a value of 1.0. The Rosin-Rammler o parameter also
was found to be related to air flow, and was modelled using a linear equation with M
a

(o ranged from 1.0 to 2.4).
R
u
=1.0
alpha = -0.27647*M
a
+ 5.7466
C
e
= 0.0324*M
a
- 0.2483

6. The classifier uses the same Sproull model (Eq. 3.20), combined with a variable
bypass G
b
parameter. G
b
was found to be non-linearly related to air flow. A simple
3
rd
order polynominal function was used to describe G
b
, but capped between 0.4 and
1.0. The exponent n on particle size was found to be similar across all six surveys
and was therefore set as a constant in the final model structure at a value of 1.52.
n = 1.52
G
b
= 0.0154* M
a
2
- 0.4042* M
a
+ 3.0494 [0.4 G
b
1.0]

The MPS model appears to be not as accurate as the E-Mill in terms of the internal flow rate
predictions, but the sizing data looks good, as shown in Table 2.3 and Fig. 3.15. Survey 4
was found to be the least well fitted, with the recycle flows being significantly higher than
measured. However, considering the uncertainties in the internal recycle flow rates, the
model appears to be acceptable and useful for the purpose of the APP project objectives.


Table 3.3: Comparison of model simulation vs survey for MPS Mill (Survey 5)

Operating
Conditions
New
Feed
Gr. Tab.
Feed
Gr. Tab.
Prod
Elut.
Reject
Elut.
Prod
Class.
Reject
PF
Prod
Survey 24.3 276.1 376.1 136.5 239.6 215.3 24.3
Simulation 24.3 380.3 380.3 100.8 279.9 255.6 24.3

0
20
40
60
80
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
C
u
m
.

%

P
a
s
s
i
n
g
Particle Size (mm)
New feed
Table feed
GR.TB.FD
Class feed
EL.PROD
Meas Tab Prod
GR.TB.PR
PF MEAS
PF

Fig. 3.15: Comparison of survey and simulated stream size distributions for Xutang
MPS Survey 5 (points show raw data, lines represent model simulations)

The MPS grinding model structure was tested using the data from the CKP mill survey data
from the Jiangnan-Onoda cement plant which also uses a three roller-race mill. Details of
this evaluation are presented in the next section.

3.5.4. CKP mill model
The CKP mill installed at the Jiangnan-Onoda cement plant uses a three roller-race grinding
system, like the MPS, but has no integrated classification system. Figure 3.16 shows the
simplified flowsheet which includes an external recirculation stream which varied from 1% to
27% of the new feed.


GrindingTable RawCoal
Smallfractionrecyclestotablefor
furthergrinding
Final
Product

Fig. 3.16: Schematic of CKP mill flowsheet; sampled streams shown in red

In the initial attempt to model the CKP mill, the MPS model was reduced to just the grinding
table plus splitter as per Figure 3.15. The updated model was unable to match the survey
data, suggesting a very different grinding behaviour to the MPS. This difference may also be
related to the nature of the feed material, with the CKP mill treating cement clinker. To
illustrate the inherent difference in breakage across the table, the feed and product streams
for the CKP and MPS mill are plotted in Figure 3.17. The CKP mill has a significant degree
of breakage and the survey data was unable to confirm the presence of internal classification
noted in the MPS mill grinding system. It seems the introduction of the integrated
classification as deployed in both the E-Mill and MPS, alters the grinding behaviour
significantly. This comparison also demonstrates that the open circuit CKP mill produces
more size reduction than the closed circuit MPS mill, though the MPS mill product is finer.

0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
C
u
m
P
a
s
s
i
n
g
ParticleSize(mm)
CKPGrfeed
CKPGrprod
MSPGRfeed
MSPGRProd

Fig. 3.17: Comparison of MPS and CKP mill grinding table feed and
product size distributions

The CKP mill algorithm was reduced to only two parts, 1) the Ecs model, and 2) a splitter with
a variable fraction recycled to the grinding table. The Ecs model form was unchanged from
the form used in the E-Mill and MPS, where Ecs=Ecs
o
+b/x
c
. The Ecs
o
is calculated from net
power and grinding table feed rate, Ecs
o
=P
net
/(k*GTF). The k was found to have no
dependence on the air flow, and could be made constant. The average value for k was
0.145.

The fitted parameters b and c were not well defined and no apparent trend with feed rate was
found. As such the parameters were averaged and held constant in the final model
calibration as follows:

b = -1.40 and c = 1.30

The friction coefficient was modelled as per the E-Mill approach (Eq. 3.3), using actual force
applied to the three rollers, simulated grinding table feed rate and measured net power. The
average friction coefficient in the CKP appears to be higher than the MPS, around 0.24 vs
0.14. This is believed to be due to the addition of a grinding table weir around the edge of
the table to increase the material retention time in the table. It may also be attributed to the
difference in feed material (cement clinker vs coal).

C
1
= 2.239; C
2
= 793.3 and C
3
= 0.017 (fitted to CKP survey conditions)

The trigger point for the CKP mill power overload warning was set to 700 kW. Compared to
the E-Mill and MPS, the CKP mill draws approximately twice the power.

The quality of the CKP model is summarized in Table 2.4 and Figure 3.18. Due to the
negative pressure at the splitter sampling point attributed to the downstream dry ball mill
operation, the size distributions of the grinding table product and the circulation stream were
found to be different, the circulation stream being much coarser than the final product.
Though the recirculating stream is not a significant flow, the discrepancy is clearly evident and
a closer fit may be achieved if the splitter is represented by a poor classifier.

Table 3.4: Comparison of model simulation vs survey for CKP mill (Survey 6)

Operating
Conditions
New
Feed
Gr. Tab.
Feed
Gr. Tab.
Prod
Recirc.
Stream
Final
Prod
Survey 80.0 88.0 88.0 8.0 80.0
Simulation 80.0 87.7 87.7 7.7 80.0


The results are still encouraging and suggest the CKP process model can be used in other
applications where the feed material characteristics are known and the machine design is
similar. This is demonstrated in Chapter 1.

0
20
40
60
80
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
C
u
m
.

%

P
a
s
s
i
n
g
Particle Size (mm)
New feed
Table feed
GR.TB.FD
Recirculation
REC.STR
Table Prod
GR.TB.PR
Final Product
PROD

Fig. 3.18: Comparison of survey and simulated stream size distributions for
Jiangnan-Onoda CKP Survey 6 (points show raw data, lines represent
model simulations)

3.6. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE VSM MODELS IN EXCEL VIA MDK PROTOCOL
Implementation of the simulation models in a Model Development Kit or MDK is an approach
used for model testing at the JKMRC. In summary the model is encoded as a dynamic link
library (DLL) which is then called by Visual Basic (VBA) in Microsoft Excel. The data are
passed to the model from an Excel Worksheet and the results passed back to Excel for
viewing an analysis. Each mill DLL is a simulation of the mill grinding and classification
circuit as shown in Fig. 3.12.

The MDK approach has the advantage over the more traditional approach of coding a
standalone computer program and where the data is passed through disk files, because the
parameters are set up on Excel worksheets and the results are automatically imported into the
same workbook. As Excel is commonly used for data analysis, graph plotting and
preparation of the model input data, this is of considerable convenience. The users dont
have to deal with the complex mathematical equations, simply input their operational data and
coal breakage properties, and the simulator will display the results. The approach has
advantages in mineral processing operations where each stream data typically involves a size
distribution, which is a relatively large amount of data but in a columnar format.


The MDK approach requires coding effort additional to the actual model code (usually Fortran
or C) because VBA code also needs to be written to extract and return the data. Hence the
MDK approach is best suited to models which are likely to be used frequently for a number of
different conditions. The MDK approach is also well suited to model users who are not
necessarily model developers or programmers.

The Interface Worksheet (Fig. 3.19) is the sheet that MDK users will mainly use. The MDK
convention is that model data and inputs are in yellow boxes, simulation results are in green
boxes and experimental results used for fitting and comparison are in white boxes. The top
left of the Interface Worksheet contains the air flow, coal flow and coal breakage parameters
of the coal type. To the right are model inputs in terms of mill diameter, mill speed and
operating conditions. The grey button to the right is activated to run the model.

The interface sheet also contains the survey (experimental) size distribution data for the
internal streams within the mill. Users can add their own data, or use the existing data as the
default reference to make a comparison with changes in coal properties or operational
conditions. To the right of this is a graph which shows the surveyed size distributions from
the columns to the left, plotted with the predicted size distributions which are obtained from
the "Model Output" Worksheet. To the right of this in green are key predicted total mass flow
rates as well as the predicted mill power.

Fig. 3.19: Excel mill simulator interface for E-Mill pulveriser

The Excel VSM simulator is a convenient tool for researchers, engineers, power station
managers and technicians to do simulation and plant optimisation. The Excel VSM simulator
can find many applications. The following three applications are typical:

1. Power station grinding circuit troubleshooting. When a fine coal grinding system
does not perform as expected, the simulator can, once the model has been calibrated
to the circuit normal operation and the coal breakage properties have been measured,
help to identify if the operation condition settings are correct, and how to improve the
circuit efficiency.

2. Power station fine coal grinding system optimisation. For a particular coal, the
simulator can indicate the maximum mill throughput before the mill power draw
exceeds the power limit to trip off the circuit. The simulator can also indicate the best
operation conditions for the mill to draw minimum power to achieve the desired PF
product (tonnage and quality).

3. Power station management. Plant managers can use the simulator to assist in
making decisions about how many mills are needed to be put into operation in order to
achieve the required PF tonnage and quality for the power generator. They can also
use the simulator to decide how various coals can be blended to achieve the desired
PF tonnage and quality within the mill power limit.

3.7. CONCLUSIONS
Three VSM models have been developed in the APP project to model and simulate the E-mill
and MPS mill operations in power stations. The E-mill and MPS mill models consist of a
comminution unit and two classification units in series to mimic the typical VSM operation.
The CKP model is a reduced MPS model without internal air classifier. The models have
been implemented in Microsoft Excel via the MDK protocol.

Three major distinguishable features are associated with these models:

1. The VSM models incorporate two separate sets of model parameters, ie, the
machine-dependant parameters and the coal-dependant breakage parameters that
are measured with an enhanced HGI mill. Once the mill is calibrated with the data
collected at the normal operational conditions, the models can do simulations on coal
property changes.

2. The model explicitly incorporates mill design data (mill diameter, grinding table
diameter, air cyclone geometry) and operational conditions (coal feed rate, air flow
rate, air temperature, air pressure, hydraulic pressure on spider, mill rotational speed),
and directly outputs the mill power draw and coal size distributions, which allows
simulations to be performed to optimise the mill design and operation.


3. The E-mill and MPS mill models were calibrated with survey data collected from both
external and internal samples. They have advantages over the traditional black box
modelling approach that is only calibrated with external samples. Since the
mechanisms of comminution and classifications are incorporated in the VSM models,
they provide a powerful tool for power station grinding circuit optimisation.

Future work includes validation of these models using independent power station survey data,
and implementation of the simulation results for power station grinding circuit optimisation.
This requires separate project funding to transfer the technology to power stations.

The Tarong power station grinding circuit survey data were collected by JKMRC PhD
candidate Mr Can zer and the JKMRC team in the ACARP C15079 Project, and the survey
data from Xutang power station, Yulin power station and Jiangnan Onoda cement plant were
collected by the CUMT team in the APP project. The support from the Tarong Energy,
Xutang Power Company Ltd, Yulin Energy and Chemical Company Ltd, Jiangnan-Onada
Cement Company, Beijing Power Equipment Group during the site work are gratefully
acknowledged.

REFERENCES
Austin, L.G., Shan, J., Wang, J., Gallagher, E., and Luckie, P.T., 1981. An analysis of
ball-and-race milling. Part I. The Hardgrove mill. Powder Technology, 29, 263-275.
Fern, J L, 1982. Compact pulveriser gives good grinding efficiency, Modern Power Systems,
2(7):33-37.
Hoek, E., and Brown, E.T., 1980. Underground excavations in rock. London: IMM.
Holman, J.P., 1992. Heat Transfer, 7th Edition, McGraw Hill, London.
Napier-Munn, T.J., Morrell, S., Morrison, R.D. and Kojovic, T., 1996. Mineral Comminution
Circuits: Their Design and Optimisation. JKMRC, University of Queensland, Brisbane,
413pp.
zer, C.E., Shi, F., Whiten, W. J., 2009. Improving the efficiency of fine coal grinding circuits
Tarong power station sitework. ACARP C15079 Final Report.
zer, C.E., Whiten, W. J., Shi, F., Dixon T., 2010. Investigation of the classification
operation in a coal pulverising vertical spindle pulveriser, XXV International Mineral
Processing Congress, Brisbane.
zer, C.E. and Whiten, W. J., 2008. A new equation for computation of the settling velocities
and diameters of spheres. JKMRC Student Conference, Queensland, Australia.

Rosin, P. and Rammler, E., 1933. The laws governing the fineness of powdered coal,
Journal of the Institute of Fuel, 7: 2936.
Shi, F and Kojovic, T, 2007. Validation of a model for impact breakage incorporating particle
size effect. Int. Journal of Mineral Processing, 82, 156-163.
Sproull, W. T., 1970. Air pollution and its control, Exposition Press, Jericho, N. Y.
Svarovsky, L., 1981. Solid gas separation, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1981.
Tarong Energy Pulveriser Documentation (confidential).

Nomenclature used in classification models
With the exception of the coal mass flow rates being expressed in t.hr
-1
and particle sizes in
mm, SI units are used elsewhere in the report (based on kg, m, C, s).
Model variables and parameters
a, b, c, e, f zer and Whiten (2008) drag model parameters
C
e
elutriator extended model constant
d particle diameter in size bin d - mm
d
50
cut size - mm
g gravitational acceleration - 9.81 m.s
-2
G
e
, G
b
, G
c
partition function defined as mass fraction to size d retained in air flow
M
d
mass flow if coal in size d - t.hr
-1

X
d
mass fraction of coal in size d
M
c
total coal mass flow rate - t.hr
-1

M
a
total primary air mass flow rate - kg.s
-1

R
u
elutriator parameter
U air velocity - m.s
-1

W
d
migration velocity of particles to wall in Sproull model - m.s
-1

o Efficiency dispersion parameter
P
a
air pressure - kPa
P
m
mill power draw - kW
a
,
d
air and coal particle at size d density kg.m
-3

a
air viscosity kg.m
-1
.s
-1

T
a
temperature - Celsius

Physical dimensions of elutriator and classifier
o
bl
classifier inlet blade angle
A
c
internal collecting surface of classifier - m
2

D
c
classifier diameter - m
D
mt
pulveriser body diameter just below classifier inlet -m
D
v
classifier vortex finder diameter -m
D
u
classifier underflow diameter- m
H
a
classifier height of apex - m
H
c
classifier height of cylindrical section - m
H
i
lassifier height of inlet - m
W
i
classifier equivalent inlet width based on inlet blade angle

102

Chapter 4: Coal Breakage Characterisation

Frank Shi
1
and Weiran Zuo
2

1. JKMRC, The University of Queensland
2. CUMT, while at the JKMRC as an Occupational Trainee

4.1. INTRODUCTION
The hardness of coal varies significantly with different deposits, seams, mineral compositions,
relative density (RD) components etc. It is well known that coal hardness affects grinding
efficiency and power consumption. Therefore measuring coal hardness is a standard
procedure for the coal industry. The traditional hardness index widely used by the industry is
called the Hardgrove Grindability Index (HGI). The HGI normally varies from 30 to over 100,
the higher value indicating less resistance to grinding, hence having higher mill throughput and
less grinding power consumption. A number of limitations associated with the HGI test have
been reported in the literature (Singer, 1981; ACARP, 1998), such as poor comparability
between different standards, lack of product size distribution information from the single HGI
value, etc. One particular limitation is its inability to be used in the mechanistic models of the
VSM (Vertical Spindle Mill) that have been developed in the APP project. The JKMRC VSM
models are based on a size reduction-energy mechanism (refer to Chapter 3), while the HGI
does not give any energy-size reduction relationship.

A number of options were therefore investigated to establish a suitable coal breakage
characterisation method for use with the model. A specific requirement in the selection
criterion was that the new breakage characteristic parameters can be used to infer the
traditional HGI value, since HGI has become the industrial standard index. Methods tested in
the APP project include the Drop Weight Test (DWT) on single particle and on a bed of
particles, the JK Rotary Breakage Tester (JKRBT), the Piston-Die compression test, and an
enhanced HGI tester with a torque recorder. After evaluation of the advantages and
disadvantages associated with the various methods, the enhanced HGI mill was selected for
coal breakage characterisation. One particular consideration of this choice is that the
enhanced HGI mill has a similar grinding mechanism to the industrial vertical spindle mill, and
hence the characterisation method can be closely related to the full scale machine.

This chapter describes coal breakage characterisation using the enhanced HGI mill, major
findings, breakage modelling outcomes, and the methodology to predict HGI from the
breakage model parameters.

Coal Breakage Characterisation 103

4.2. EXPERIMENT
A testing rig was manufactured in the JKMRC workshop. As shown in Fig. 4.1, the testing rig
consists of a drive system on top, a precision torquemeter connected with the drive shaft, a
shaft coupling mechanism, lead plates on top of the grinding element, and a standard HGI mill
grinding element comprising a grinding bowl and eight steel balls. A computer interface
system was set up to log the torque measurement data during the test.

Fig. 4.1: Enhanced HGI mill testing rig for coal breakage characterisation

The empty mill (without coal) was first calibrated. The empty mill torques were recorded at
various loading weights by adjusting the number of lead plates and at various rotational
speeds. It was found that the empty mill torque did not vary with loading weights (within the
experimental errors), but increased with mill rotational speed, similar to that published by
Austin et al (1981). The friction of the empty mill consists of two parts. The first one comes
from the vertical shaft due to bearing resistance, coupling mechanisms, etc, which is affected
by the rotational speed, but not the loading weight. The second source is from the horizontal
plane, due to the contact surface of the eight grinding balls with the grinding bowl. For normal
tests the friction between grinding balls and the race bowl may not exist due to the existence of
particles that form a bed between the balls and the bowl. Therefore the calibrated empty mill
torque due to shaft/bearings was subtracted from the grinding torques with coal samples, so
that the energy consumption during the characterisation tests is referred to as net energy.

Drive system
Shaft Coupling
Torque Measurement
Safety Door
Grinding Element
Lead Plates

During coal grinding, the torque varies with grinding time as displayed in Fig. 4.2. Within
about 20 seconds, the torque rises rapidly and reaches its peak, then gradually decreases until
about 300 seconds. After 300 seconds, the torque stabilises at a constant level. The
variation of torque with grinding time is believed to be due to the batch grinding mode. At the
beginning of grinding, particles are coarser, having a higher friction coefficient and drawing
more torque. As the grinding proceeds, particles become finer than the feed, and hence the
friction. At a certain particle size, the fineness of coal seems not to affect the friction, or the
size reduction process slows down, hence the mill draw constant torque. This is different
from continuous operation, in which feed continuously enters, and ground product
continuously leaves the race. At a steady state, the grinding table material reaches a stable
size distribution, and the mill draws constant power in a continuous operation.

Fig. 4.2: Example of the net torque in relation with grinding time

Experiments were performed using the enhanced HGI mill on four narrowly sized coal samples
(0.6-1.18 mm, 1.18-2.36 mm, 2.36-3.35 mm and 3.35-4.75 mm). Each size of coal sample
was subjected to four different grinding time (and hence four specific energy levels). A
standard 50 grams of sample was used in each test.

Another type of experiment was conducted on a particle density and size basis. The same
four sizes were first separated into four RD (Relative Density, ie, formally called SG: Specific
Gravity) groups: <1.4 RD, 1.4-1.6 RD, 1.6-1.8 RD and >1.8 RD. The <1.4 RD group is
mainly the liberated coal, the >1.8 RD is mineral matter, and the other two medium densities
are composites of coal and mineral matter. Each RD-size sample was subjected to four
grinding times, ie. a total of 64 tests for each coal sample collected during the site campaign
(as some density fractions did not have sufficient particles for testing, the actual sets of testing
were slightly less than 64). For each test, the same volume (60 ml) of particles was used.

The ground product was collected for standard sizing analysis.

4.3. DATA REDUCTION
The size distribution data were used to determine a fineness parameter, t
10
. The parameter
t
10
is defined as product cumulative percent passing 1/10
th
of the parent size. For example,
for 0.6-1.18 mm (geometrical mean size 0.84 mm) feed coal, t
10
= 20 means that there is 20%
coal smaller than 0.084 mm (1/10
th
of 0.84 mm) in the product. A larger t
10
value indicates a
finer product.

Specific energy was calculated from the mean torque and coal mass in each test using the
following equation:

2
3600
cs
N
E
m
t t
= (4.1)

where Ecs is specific energy (kWh/t), N is mill revolutions, t the measured net instantaneous
torque (Nm), m coal mass tested (kg), and the constant 3600 is used for energy conversion
from J/kg to kWh/t.

The fineness index t
10
, the specific energy E
cs
and particle size are used to fit parameters of a
breakage model (Shi and Kojovic, 2007). The model takes the following form:

( ) | | { }
min . 10
exp 1 E E k x f M t
cs mat
=
(4.2)

where M (%) represents the maximum t
10
for a material subject to breakage, E
cs
(J kg
-1
) the
mass-specific impact energy, E
min
(J kg
-1
) the threshold energy, f
mat
(kg J
-1
m
-1
) the material
breakage property, x (m) the initial particle size, and k the successive number of impacts with
the single impact energy.

The model parameters were fitted to the enhanced HGI mill testing data of various particle
sizes. The E
min
was set to zero during the model parameters fitting as it can be ignored
comparing with the applied specific energy. Figure 4.3 demonstrates that the model fits the
data well. Interestingly, this model was initially developed for the data collected from impact
breakage, and has been tested with hundreds sets of impact breakage data to prove its validity.
It is the first time the model has been applied to data in which the mechanism of breakage in
the test device has been grinding rather than impact. The model was employed in the
JKMRC VSM models to describe the coal breakage fineness index t
10
obtained from a given
specific energy and particle size in the mill (Chapter 3).



Fig. 4.3: The breakage model fitted to the enhanced HGI mill grinding data

4.4. MULTI-COMPONENT COAL BREAKAGE CHARACTERISATION
Experiments based on particle density and size were conducted in the enhanced HGI mill. A
total of 64 tests (4 RDs x 4 sizes x 4 energies) for each coal were undertaken to investigate in
detail how particle density and size affect grinding performance. Figure 4.4 demonstrates the
effect of particle size for various particle density groups, using an example of the Xutang coal
sample A collected from vertical spindle mill feed during the surveys.

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
f
mat
.x.k(E
cs
-E
min
)
2.80x2.36 mm 1.40x1.18 mm 0.71x0.6 mm
0.425x0.3 mm
Fit
t
1
0

%



Fig. 4.4: Particle size effect on breakage (Xutang coal A)

It is obvious that larger particles produce a higher t10 when subjected to the same specific
energy. This is similar to the trend observed in impact breakage. Taking the sample of
<1.4 RD (ie. liberated coal) as an example, at about 2 kWh/t specific energy, the 0.6-1.18 mm
material produced t10 = 22, while the t10 associated with 3.35-4.75 mm was 62, 40 units more
than the smallest size fraction tested. The size effect is more pronounced for low RD material.
At the same 2.0 kWh/t, the difference of t10 between the two sizes for the >1.8 RD material (ie.
mineral matters in this density group) was only 10 units.

Figure 4.5 demonstrates the effect of particle density on breakage for the four particle sizes of
the same Xutang coal. It is apparent that high density material appears harder to grind, and
low density material is easier to grind. This is as expected. The trend is much more
pronounced in the large particle size fraction. When the particle size decreases (eg. 0.6-1.18
mm), only a marginal difference due to particle density effect is observed.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
>1.8RD
0.61.18mm 1.18 2.36mm
2.363.35mm 3.35 4.75mm
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
<1.4RD
0.6 1.18mm 1.18 2.36mm
2.36 3.35mm 3.35 4.75mm
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
1.41.6RD
0.6 1.18mm 1.18 2.36mm
2.36 3.35mm 3.35 4.75mm
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
1.6 1.8RD
0.6 1.18mm 1.18 2.36mm
2.36 3.35mm 3.35 4.75mm


The other coal samples (Tarong in Australia and Yulin in China) exhibit a similar trend to the
Xutang coal.

A multi-component breakage model has been developed to describe the effects of particle size
and density. The model takes a similar form to Eq. 4.2 with modifications to incorporate
particle density. The multi-component breakage model fits the density by size data well for all
three coal samples collected during the power station site campaigns (Tarong coal in Australia,
Xutang coal and Yulin coal in China). Fig. 4.6 demonstrates that the model can reasonably
describe the multi-component breakage behaviour, despite the fact that the t
10
fineness index
varies widely as shown in Figs. 4.4 and 4.5. It is worth to note that only four model
parameters were employed in the multi-component breakage model to fit the 64 data points
together for each coal. This multi-component breakage model provides a powerful tool to
study the breakage trends of particles of various densities and sizes in relation to the applied
specific energy, and is ready to be incorporated in a multi-component coal grinding mill model.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
0.61.18mm
<1.4 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.8 >1.8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
1.182.36mm
<1.4 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.8 >1.8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
1
0
(
%
)

Ecs(kWh/t)
2.36 3.35mm
<1.4 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.8 >1.8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
t
t
1
0
(
%
)
Ecs(kWh/t)
3.354.75mm
<1.4 1.41.6 1.6 1.8 >1.8
Fig. 4.5: Particle density effect on breakage (Xutang coal A)


4.5. PREDICTION OF HGI VALUE FROM THE BREAKAGE MODEL
PARAMETERS
The Hardgrove Grindability Index (HGI) is widely accepted by the coal industry to assess coal
grindability, and is used in the specification of coal purchase and power station pulveriser
design. The HGI test was devised by Hardgrove (1932). The test yields the Hardgrove
Grindability Index (HGI) based on Rittingers law of comminution (Dutkiewicz et al, 1986).
The method is described in the international standard (ASTMD40902, 2002). The method
involves grinding 50 grams of air-dried (0.6-1.18 mm) test coal in a small ball-race pulveriser
(HGI mill). The apparatus is operated for 60 revolutions and the quantity of minus 75 m
material is subsequently measured by sieving. HGI is calculated using the following
equation:

HGI = a M
75
+b (4.3)

where M
75
is the mass of material passing a 75 m sieve, and a and b are machine constants
determined from the calibration tests using standard coal samples provided by the HGI mill
manufacturer.

Since HGI is so important to the coal industry, despite its limitations recognised in the literature,
attempts were made during the APP project to predict the HGI value from the JKMRC
breakage model. If successful, the new breakage model would provide a size
reductionenergy consumption relationship for VSM grinding mill modelling, and also give an
inferred HGI value from the breakage characteristic parameters to satisfy the coal industry
requirement. Predicting HGI values is not new. Some publications describe empirical
regression of HGI with coal properties, with limited success (Sengupta, 2002; Chelgani et al.
2008). What is new in this methodology, however, is to use one breakage characterisation
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d
t
1
0
(
%
)

Measuredt
10
(%)
Tarong
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d
t
1
0
(
%
)
Measuredt
10
(%)
Xutang
Fig. 4.6: A multi-component breakage model with 4 parameters fitted to 64 density
by size grinding data points using an enhanced HGI mill.

model to do two tasks (size reduction-energy relationship and HGI prediction) through a more
fundamental approach. The principle is described below.

In a standard HGI test, the geometrical mean size of the HGI feed is x=0.84 mm
( )
(0.6 1.18) x = \ . The model can predict t
10
(ie. cumulative percent passing 0.084 mm) from
a measured specific energy E
cs
at 60 mill revolutions. The predicted cumulative percent
passing 0.084 mm can be converted to cumulative percent passing 0.075 mm that is used in
the HGI determination by a regression equation, and hence the mass passing 0.075 mm (M
75

in Eq. 4.3). From M
75
, together with the two HGI mill calibration constants, the HGI value can
be obtained. The procedure is illustrated in Fig. 4.7.

Fig. 4.7: Procedures to predict HGI values from the breakage model parameters

As the last two steps are simple calculations based on the established calibrations, the key to
accurately predict the HGI value is in the prediction of t
10
for a 0.6-1.18 mm coal feed. The
major difficulty is to predict the specific energy for a given coal in a specified HGI testing
condition. Unlike an impact breakage test such as the JKRBT test in which the specific
energy is simply determined by impact velocity (Shi et al, 2009), the torque applied to a given
coal of various sizes and solids densities varies significantly, even at a standard HGI condition
of 60 revolutions.

The multi-component breakage characterisation data can help to establish the trend of the mill
torque in relation to other coal properties. In general, the instantaneous torque increases with
particle size and particle density, but does not vary significantly with mill speed and the number
of revolutions (within experimental error). When the instantaneous torques of a coal at the
same size and density were averaged for various mill speeds and various mill revolutions, the
standard deviations (SD) are very small comparing to their mean torque values. A ratio term
of SD to Mean torque was used for statistical analysis (CofV). The average CofV of the three
coals (Tarong, Xutang and Yulin), was 6.4%, which supports the assumption that the
instantaneous torque is dominated by particle size and particle density, but not mill speed and
mill revolution.


A regression equation was used to describe the instantaneous torque in relation to particle size
and density. The regression equation takes a power form:

x p c c
0
C x p t =
(4.4)

where t is instantaneous net torque (Nm) from the torquemeter measurement, x is particle size
(mm), is particle density, C
0
, C
x
and C
are parameters fitted to over 60 sets of data from the

multi-component breakage tests on the three coal samples.

To predict HGI, x is defined as a constant 0.84 mm (0.6-1.18 mm), is measured from a
float-sink test, and t is then given by Eq. 4.4. Specific energy E
cs
can be determined from t
using Eq. 4.1, with N=60 and m=0.05 kg in this case. The fineness index t
10
can be
calculated from E
cs
and the calibrated model parameters in Eq. 4.2. Fig. 4.8 displays the
predicted HGI against the measured one. Error bars indicate 10% experimental error
associated with the HGI tests. Majority of the predicted HGI values are within 10%
experimental errors, which confirms the feasibility of this approach.

Fig. 4.8: Comparison of the predicted HGI with the measured ones for various coal
samples, error bars indicating 10% experimental errors associated with HGI tests.

In summary, the new coal breakage characterisation method includes testing four narrow size
fractions of a coal sample in a ball-race mill with a precision torquemeter installed, and running
at three energy levels by adjusting grinding revolutions. It is not necessary to test all 4 sizes x
3 energies. Six to eight tests at a combination of the selected sizes and mill revolutions are
sufficient to determine the three model parameters in Eq. 4.2. The breakage model has been
incorporated in the vertical spindle mill model as presented in Chapter 3. The experimentally
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
100.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
M
e
a
s
u
r
e
d
H
G
I

PredictedHGI

determined coal breakage characteristic parameters can be used in the VSM model for power
station fine coal grinding circuit simulation and optimisation.

The breakage model together with the characteristic parameters can also be employed to
predict the HGI value for a given coal. To do so, solids density in the size 0.6-1.18 mm needs
to be determined, or inferred from other measurements. The prediction procedures have
been described in this report.

4.6. CONCLUSIONS
A novel breakage characterisation method for coal has been developed in the APP project. A
ball-race mill modified from the standard HGI mill with a precision torquemeter installed to
record torque readings during the experiments was employed for the breakage
characterisation. The characterisation experiment involves grinding a coal mixture of various
sizes and at various grinding times. The same procedures can be applied to size-by-density
coal samples for multi-component characterisation, or a blend of coal samples from various
components to study the interactions of the coal components.

A JKMRC breakage model that was developed for particle impact breakage characterisation
was successfully applied to the enhanced HGI mill grinding data for the first time. The model
has been incorporated in the VSM models for power station grinding circuit simulation and
optimisation.

The JKMRC breakage model was further developed to take into account the particle density
effect, as well as the particle size effect, for multi-component breakage characterisation. The
model employs four parameters to fit 64 experimental data, and the results are satisfactory.

A new methodology has been developed to predict the conventional HGI values from the
breakage model and its calibrated model parameters. The principle, procedures and
prediction results are presented in this report. The results show that this new method can
give a prediction with 10% precision, which is within the HGI experimental error range.

The importance of this work is that the developed breakage models can provide details of size
reduction in relation to applied energy that is required in the VSM models for power station
grinding circuit optimisation and energy benefits assessment. At the same time, the
breakage characterisation model can also predict HGI values with reasonable precision, which
satisfies the requirement of the coal industry.

Tarong Energy kindly provided the HGI mill and the torquemeter for the breakage
characterisation work. JKMRC pilot plant workshop and Mr Can Ozer in modifying the HGI
testing rig is acknowledged. Dr Stephen Larbi-Bram involvement in part of the breakage tests
is appreciated. The work received funding from ACARP C15079 Project and the Australian
Government as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.

REFERENCES

ACARP, 1998. The Hardgrove grindability index, The ACARP Report, Issue No. 5, February,
1998.
ASTMD40902 2002. Standard test method for grindability of coal by the
Hardgrovemachine method.
Austin, L.G., Shan, J., Wang, J., Gallagher, E., and Luckie, P.T., 1981. An analysis of
ball-and-race milling. Part I. The Hardgrove mill. Powder Technology, 29, 263-275.
Chelgani, S. C., Hower, J. C., Jorjani, E., Mesroghli, S. and Bagherieh, A. H., 2008.
Prediction of coal grindability based on petrography, proximate and ultimate analysis
using multiple regression and artificial neural network models. Fuel Processing
Technology, 89, 1320.
Dutkiewicz, R.K., Scieszka, S.F, and Von Fintel, R.H, 1986. A study of the energy size
reduction relationship in impact crushing of Coal. Powder Technology, 49: 83-86.
Hardgrove, R.M., 1932. Grindability of coal. Transactions of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, 54: 37-46.
Sengupta, A. N. 2002. An assessment of grindability index of coal. Fuel Processing
Technology, 76, 110.
Shi, F. and Kojovic, T., 2007. Validation of a model for impact breakage incorporating particle
size effect. Int J Miner Process, 82, 156-163.
Shi, F., Kojovic, T., Larbi-Bram, S. and Manlapig, E., 2009. Development of a rapid particle
breakage characterization device the JKRBT. Minerals Engineering, 22, 602-612.
Singer, J. G. 1981. Combustion fossil power systems, A reference book on fuel burning and
steam generation, Combustion Engineering, Inc.

114

Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) and China Univeristy of Mining and Technology (CUMT)

Chapter 5: Mineral Removal Using a Vibrating Fluidised
Bed Separator and a Triboelectrostatic Separator

Xinxi Zhang, Yaqun He, Jinsong Wang, Feng Deng, Sha Zhang

5.1. INTRODUCTION
The case study on grinding circuits in power stations in Australia and China found that a
significant amount of mineral matter accumulated inside the vertical spindle mills (VSM).
The accumulation of mineral matter in the mills caused high circulating load and reduced the
performance of grinding and classification operation of the VSM. In order to improve the
efficiency of the VSM in power stations, the APP research team has developed a new concept
to remove the mineral matter from the VSM ground product before entering the air classifier,
rather than the traditional approach to de-ashing and de-sulphuring after being ground into
pulverised fuel. Two pilot scale devices developed by CUMT, the vibrating fluidized bed
separator (VFS) and the triboelectrostatic separator (TES), were employed for the mineral
removal study. The ground coal samples for the study were collected from Tarong power
station in Australia and Xutang power station in China.

5.2. SAMPLE COLLECTION
The pilot scale VFS has a capacity about 1-2 t/h. For the experimental study more than one
ton of the ground coal sample was required. Since the vertical spindle mill is fully enclosed
with the air classifier, it is difficult to obtain an adequate amount of ground coal sample before
the classifier. A number of options were explored.

The first option was to extract a sample from the sampling port. A number of sampling ports
were cut into one of the vertical spindle mills operated at Tarong power station. These ports
were located at various positions from where various coal samples inside the mill could be
taken. The ground product sample can be taken from a sampling port next to the balls. The
initial investigation indicated that this sample could not be used to represent the ground
product of the mill, since coarse particles were missing from the extracted sample. In
addition, there was a safety issue involved in extracting a one ton sample using this method.
Therefore this option was rejected.

A new sampling procedure was developed to collect the ground product from the mill reject
gate (Fig. 5.1) by reducing the airflow rate to a safe operational limit. The reduced airflow
rate would not be strong enough to carry the ground product through the elutriation zone into
the air classifier as happens in normal operation. Instead, the majority of the ground product
dropped into the mill reject hoppers.
Mineral Removal Using a Vibrating Fluidised Bed Separator and a Triboelectrostatic Separator 115


Fig. 5.1: Mill reject gate used to collect the ground product after reducing
the airflow rate during the sampling campaign

This option was seen to be easier as it was possible to control the mill airflow to safe limits,
empty the reject hoppers and accumulate the sample for collection. The problem associated
with this method was how to control the airflow and the ratio of coal to airflow, since at the
reduced airflow rate, fines from the ground product were still blown into the air classifier. A
number of preliminary trials were conducted to investigate the optimum and safe conditions to
adjust the air and coal ratios fed to the mill so as to allow most of the ground product to fall
into the reject hoppers.

The trials aim was to investigate the length of time that the mill can be run safely at the lowest
possible air flow rates in relation to the proportion of fines that can be collected. The
important factors here were the safe level of air flow rate as too low level would result in
automatic shutting down of the mill by the plant control system. The continued operation of
the mill was needed to meet the plants demand and to take a good quality sample
representing typical operation.

The key was to manipulate the airflow to get the sample size distribution as close as possible
to that of the mill table discharge. Noting however that the mill is set to trip at a set of air to
solid ratios, a number of scenarios involving personnel from the control room were run and
samples were collected from the reject gates. The size distributions were compared with
those obtained from previous work on table discharge.

Under normal operation, the air flow to coal ratio is maintained at 2:1. Since it was intended
to collect a representative sample of mill ground product, the airflow was reduced while the
coal flow rate maintained to give an air flow (i.e. 13.3 kg/s) to coal (i.e. 9.2 kg/s) ratio of about
1.4:1. This allowed the ground material to remain within the mill reject hoppers. Once this
was achieved and some time was allowed to stabilize (ie. by maintaining the condition for


about 20 to 60 seconds) the bottom reject gates of the hopper were opened to discharge the
material onto the ground. They were collected and shovelled into drums. This was
repeated several times until about 1000 kg of sample was obtained. 5 x 200L drums were
filled and transported to the JKMRC pilot plant for preparation.

As fines were not collected completely at the reduced airflow rate, a drum of fine coal sample
collected on top of the spider was added to the samples collected from the reject gates. The
content of each drum was dumped onto the floor and manually mixed before rotary dividing
into five samples, each weighing approximately 200 kg. Each drum was then sub divided
into 10 to 15 kg bags and stored for the studies.

Particle size distribution of the sample was determined at the JKMRC using standard dry
screening procedures for coal from one of the sub-sample bags. Five drums of the sample
(about 1000 kg) were transported to CUMT in China for mineral removal experiments. When
the Australian coal sample was received by CUMT, the sample was dry screened into six size
fractions for mineral removal experiments. Comparison of the size distribution curves
determined by JKMRC and CUMT is displayed in Fig. 5.2. The comparison indicates that
the sizing results analysed by the two research organisations are consistent.

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
C
u
m
.
%
P
a
s
s
i
n
g
ParticleSize(mm)
JKMRC
CUMT

Fig. 5.2: Comparison of size distributions of the Tarong mill ground sample,
determined by JKMRC and CUMT respectively



The mill ground product sample from the Xutang power station was collected using a different
method. When the roller-race mill was stopped for maintenance, the sample remained on
the rollers track was collected, which was deemed to be the ground product. Unlike the
ball-race mill in which there is limited space between the balls, there is a sufficient amount of
sample in the space between the rollers. Samples of the ground products were collected
from two of the VSMs in the Xutang power station, Mill 62 and Mill 64, and the samples were
treated separately during the coal property measurement and the separation experiment.

5.3. THE MINERAL REMOVAL MACHINES AND THEIR TECHNICAL
PRINCIPLES
Two pilot scale machines developed by the CUMT were employed for the mineral removal
experiment, the vibrating fluidised bed separator (VFS) and the triboelectrostatic separator
(TES). A description of the devices and their technical principles are presented in this
section.

5.3.1. Vibrating fluidised bed separator
Principle of the VFS counter-flow separation is illustrated in Fig. 5.3. The raw coal is fed onto
the inclined vibrating screen from the centre of the screen panel. Airflow is introduced from
the bottom of the vibrating screen and blows upwards through the apertures of the screen.
The combination of screen vibration and airflow fluidises the coal feed material. The heavy
mineral particles (tailings) tend to sink to the bottom of the fluidized bed and in contact with
screen surface; the light coals float on top of the heavy mineral layer. With the action of
gravity, inertia force, air flow and continuous feeding, stratification takes place in the fluidised
bed. As a result, the light materials slide down to the clean coal discharge port. The heavy
materials are gradually separated from the coal, and under the action of back and forth
movement, the tailings will gradually climb to the heavy product discharge port in a
counter-flow motion against the feed flow direction. As there exists a clean coal separation
area and a tailing scavenging area during the process, the heavy minerals are effectively
separated from coal.


Fig. 5.3: The separation principle of the VFS counter-flow separator

The photograph of the pilot scale VFS installed at the CUMT pilot plant is presented in Fig. 5.4.
The photograph also shows an APP badge. The geometry of the VFS separator is L x W x H
= 2000x1500x400 mm, the capacity is about 1-2 t/h, and the feed particle size is 0-50 mm.
t ail in gs
f e ed
d ir e c t i on o f vi bra tio n
c lea n c o al
e xha u st
s up p l y air


Fig. 5.4: The pilot scale VFS separator with APP badge

5.3.2. Triboelectrostatic separator
Figure 5.5 demonstrates the principle of the TES beneficiation. The fine coal particles are
transported by airflow through the tribocharger in contact with the surface of the channel.
The organic (coal) and inorganic (mineral) particles are respectively charged positively and
negatively due to their intrinsic electrical properties. When these particles enter the
high-voltage electrostatic field, the motion of the positively-charged and negatively-charged
particles are affected by opposite electrostatic-field forces. As a result they are divided into
two flows and the minerals can be separated from coal.



Fig. 5.5: Diagram of TES separator

A photograph of the TES is presented in Fig. 5.6. The size of the TES separator is L x W x H
= 400x300x2500 mm, the capacity is about 80-100 kg/h, and the feed particle size fraction is
0-0.1 mm.
Air-solid flow
Triboelectrostatic charger
Jet
Negative pole Positive pole
Clean coal Tailings


Fig. 5.6: The pilot scale TES separation system with APP badge



5.4. COAL PROPERTIES OF THE VSM GROUND PRODUCTS
In order to optimise the mineral removal efficiency, the size distribution, ash content, sulphur
content, density composition and washability of the coal samples of the VSM ground products
collected from the Tarong and Xutang power stations were determined.

5.4.1. Tarong VSM ground product
The screening results of the Australian coal samples are shown in Table 5.1. Ash content
and sulphur content were measured on a size-by-size basis. Comparing them to the
database of Chinese coals, the Australian coal sample has high ash content and low sulphur
content. The >13 mm size fraction of the sample was crushed to mix with other size
fractions for the mineral separation experiments.

Table 5.1: Size distribution, ash and sulphur contents of the
Tarong ground coal sample

Size (mm) Weight (%) Ash Content (%) Sulphur Content (%)
>13 1.4 58.7 0.28
6~13 6.4 41.5 0.23
3~6 11.9 39.7 0.19
1~3 19.9 45.9 0.21
0.5~1 23.3 51.1 0.24
<0.5 37.1 49.5 0.25
Average 47.6 0.23

A float-sink test of the coal samples (-3 mm+0 mm, -13 mm+3 mm) was carried out. The
density composition of the coal samples (-3 mm+0 mm) is shown in Table 5.2 and Fig. 5.7.



Table 5.2: Float-sink test results of the Tarong ground coal sample (-3+0 mm)

Relative
Density

Weight
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
Content
(%)
Cumulative Content of 0.1
(g.cm
-3
) Cumulative float Cumulative sink
Weight
(%)
Ash
(%)
Weight
(%)
Ash
(%)
RD
Weight
(%)
<1.3
22.1 12.9 0.21 22.1 12.9 100.0 51.3 1.3 41.0
1.3~1.4
19.0 20.7 0.11 41.0 16.5 78.0 62.2 1.4 28.6
1.4~1.5
9.7 40.5 0.11 50.7 21.1 59.0 75.5 1.5 24.7
1.5~1.6
15.0 68.5 0.16 65.7 31.9 49.3 82.3 1.6 22.1
1.6~1.7
7.1 75.1 0.19 72.8 36.1 34.3 88.4 1.7 11.4
1.7~1.8
4.3 77.6 0.21 77.0 38.4 27.2 91.9 1.8 6.0
1.8~2.0
3.5 82.1 0.24 80.6 40.3 23.0 94.5 1.9 3.5
>2.0
19.4 96.8 0.77 100.0 51.3 19.4 96.8
Average 51.3 0.28

Fig. 5.7: Washability curve of the Tarong coal sample (-3+0 mm)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50 1.60 1.70 1.80 1.90 2.00 2.10 2.20
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
S
i
n
k
Y
i
e
l
d

(
%
)

Density (g.cm
-3
)
F
l
o
a
t

Y
i
e
l
d

(
%
)

Ash content (%)
Instantaneous Ash Cumulative Floats Cumulative Sinks
Relative Density 0.1 Relative Density


Table 5.2 indicates that when the separating density is set at lower than 1.7 RD, the
washability of the coal is poor; when set at 1.7 RD or above, the coal is easy to separate.
When the separating density is set at 1.60 RD, the theoretical yield of clear coal is 65.7%, and
the theoretical ash content of the clean coal is 31.9%. On the other hand, the theoretical
yield of tailing and ash content are 34.3% and 88.4% respectively at the same separating
density. Table 5.2 also shows that the sulphur content is high in the density fraction of -1.3
RD, because there is a part of organic sulphur which cannot be removed in physical
processing. However, the sulphur content is also high in the density fraction of +2.0 RD,
because of the fully liberated inorganic sulphur in this fraction.

The test result for the size fraction -13+3 mm is shown in Table 5.3 and Figure 5.8. It is
concluded from the results that the minerals are not fully liberated at the coarse size fraction.
When the separating densities are set at 1.6 RD or lower, the coal is classified as difficult to
separate. When the separating densities are set at 1.6 RD or above, the coal is regarded as
relatively easy to separate. When the separating density is set at 1.80 RD the theoretical
yield and ash content of the clean coal are 63.0% and 23.0% respectively, and the theoretical
yield and ash content of the tailings are 37.0% and 77.2% respectively.

Table 5.3: Float-sink test result of the Tarong ground coal sample (-13+3 mm)

Relative
Density
Weight
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
Content
(%)
Cumulative
Content of 0.1
(g.cm
-3
)
Cumulative float Cumulative sink
Weight
(%)
Ash
(%)
Weight
(%)
Ash
(%)
RD
Weight
(%)
<1.3
15.2 7.2 0.22 15.2 7.2 100.0 43.0 1.3 30.9
1.3~1.4
15.7 14.0 0.30 30.9 10.7 84.8 49.5 1.4 28.7
1.4~1.5
13.0 24.6 0.21 43.9 14.8 69.1 57.5 1.5 20.4
1.5~1.6
7.4 34.5 0.32 51.3 17.6 56.1 65.1 1.6 12.5
1.6~1.7
5.1 40.5 0.21 56.4 19.7 48.7 69.8 1.7 11.7
1.7~1.8
6.6 51.3 0.34 63.0 23.0 43.6 73.2 1.8 11.0
1.8~2.0
8.9 65.4 0.22 71.9 28.2 37.0 77.2 1.9 8.9
>2.0
28.1 80.9 0.30 100.0 43.0 28.1 80.9
Average 43.0 0.27



Fig. 5.8: Washability curve of the Tarong coal sample (-13+3 mm)

5.4.2. Xutang VSM ground product
Duplicate samples from Mill 64 were used for coal property measurement. This was to
estimate the measurement error associated with the result. The analysis result is shown in
Table 5.4. It can be seen that the coal samples have very high ash and sulphur contents.
The average ash content from the duplicate measurements was 72.31.0% for the +3 mm
size fraction, and 72.70.4% for the -3 mm fraction. The average sulphur contents were
26.91.5% and 7.20.6% for the +3 mm and -3 mm size fractions respectively. Comparing
with the ash content (35%) and sulphur content (1.96%) in the fresh feed (Coal B), this gives
evidence of mineral accumulation in the VSM operation, and emphasizes the need to remove
the mineral matter from the grinding circuit.

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50 1.60 1.70 1.80 1.90 2.00 2.10 2.20
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Density (g.cm
-3
)
Ash content (%)
Instantaneous Ash Cumulative Floats Cumulative Sinks
Relative Density 0.1 Relative Density
F
l
o
a
t

Y
i
e
l
d

(
%
)

S
i
n
k
Y
i
e
l
d

(
%
)



Table 5.4: Duplicate analysis of the Xutang ground product sample (Mill No.64)

Samples
Yield
(%)
Ash (%)
Average ash
(%)
Sulphur
Content (%)
Average Sulphur
Content (%)
73.1 28.67
No1 +3mm 10.7
73.0
73.1
27.50
28.09
73.2 7.70
No1 -3mm 89.3
72.6
72.9
6.84
7.27
71.0 25.46
No2 +3mm 12.7
71.9
71.5
25.95
25.70
72.2 6.51
No2 -3mm 87.4
72.9
72.6
7.74
7.13
Average 72.7 9.49

Size distribution curves of the ground products from the two mills are displayed in Fig. 5.9.
The float-sink test results for the two mills are given in Tables 5.5 and 5.6 respectively.

1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10
C
u
m
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

P
a
s
s
i
n
g

(
%
)
Size (mm)
62-Mill-1 64-Mill-3 64-Mill-8

Fig. 5.9: Size distribution of the ground products of the two mills in
Xutang power plant



The washability data in Table 5.5 demonstrates that when the separating densities are lower
than 1.8 RD, the ground product collected from mill No.64 is easy to separate. At separating
densities higher than 2.0 RD, however, the coal is difficult to separate. The theoretical yield
and ash of the clean coal are 24.8% and 46.2% respectively, and the theoretical yield and ash
of the tailings are 81.7% and 82.1% respectively.

Table 5.5: Float-sink test results of the Xutang ground coal sample (Mill No.62)

Cumulative
Content of 0.1
(g.cm
-3
)
Relative
Density

Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Relative
Density
Yield
(%)
<1.5 10.8 13.3 10.8 13.3 100.0 71.4 1.5 13.3
1.5~1.6 2.5 25.5 13.3 15.6 89.2 78.4 1.6 7.6
1.6~1.8 5.0 73.0 18.3 31.4 86.7 79.9 1.8 11.5
1.8~2.0 6.5 79.7 24.8 46.2 81.7 82.1 2.0 81.7
>2.0 75.2 88.4 100.0 71.4 75.2 79.7

The test result of the ground product collected from mill No.64 is shown in Table 5.6. When
the separating densities are lower than 1.8 RD, the coal is easy to separate, but difficult at a
density higher than 2.0 RD. The theoretical yield and ash of the clean coal are 24.1% and
40.0% respectively, and the theoretical yield and ash of the tailings are 79.3 % and 80.9%
respectively.

Table 5.6: Float-Sink test results of the Xutang ground coal sample (Mill No.64)

Cumulative
Content of 0.1
(g.cm
-3
)
Relative
Density
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Relative
Density
Yield
(%)
<1.5 16.4 33.4 16.4 33.4 100.0 71.1 1.5 16.4
1.5~1.6 1.7 25.4 18.1 32.6 83.6 78.5 1.6 18.1
1.6~1.8 2.7 42.1 20.7 33.8 82.0 79.6 1.8 4.4
1.8~2.0 3.3 78.7 24.1 40.0 79.3 80.9 2.0 79.3
>2.0 75.9 81.0 100.0 71.1 75.9 81.0



5.5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF MINERAL REMOVAL
5.5.1. The VFS treating Tarong mill ground product
A number of factors that influence the VFS performance were investigated.

5.5.1.1. Feed size effect
An experiment was conducted with narrowly sized feed and un-sized feed. For the narrowly
sized coal experiment, the ground coal sample received was screened into five size fractions:
6-13 mm, 3-6 mm, 1-3 mm, 0.5-1 mm and 0-0.5 mm. For the wide size experiments, the
VFS separator either treated un-sized coal feed (0-13 mm), or in two wide size fractions (3-13
mm and 0-3 mm). The results are presented in Table 5.7. The tests were conducted at a
vibrating frequency of the fluidized bed of 44 Hz, an air frequency of 38 Hz, and a feed rate of
300 kg/h.

Table 5.7: Feed size effect on VFS performance treating the
Tarong mill ground products

Coal
Sample
Product
Yield
%
Ash
Content (%)
Sulphur
Content (%)
Cleaned Coal 52.7 31.0 0.16
6-13 mm
Tailing 47.3 78.0 0.32
3-6 mm
Tailing 46.9 71.0 0.28
1-3 mm
Tailing 44.8 72.9 0.36
0.5-1 mm
Tailing 43.1 82.9 0.48
0-0.5 mm
Tailing 27.7 79.6 0.29
0-13 mm
Tailing 36.8 71.3 0.32
3-13 mm
Tailing 38.3 74.6 0.37
<3 mm
Tailing 41.9 76.6 0.48

It is shown that the separation performance of the ground coal with narrow size range was
good. The clean coal yield increased from 52.7% for 6-13 mm fraction to 72.3% for 0-0.5
mm fraction. This is expected as more liberated coal accumulated in the fine size fraction.


The ash content was 31.0% in the clean coal, and 78.0% in tailing in the 6-13 mm size fraction.
The ash content increased to 37.4% for clean coal and 79.6% for tailing in the 0-0.5 mm
fraction. The sulphur content was also found to be concentrated in the tailings. The ratio of
sulphur content in tailing to that in the clean coal was near 2:1. Considering the organic
sulphur cannot be removed from the cleaned coal and the inorganic sulphur mainly exists in
tailings, this suggests that the efficiency of inorganic sulphur removal by the VFS separator is
high.

The separation efficiency for wide size fractions of coal was promising. The separation
efficiency defined as percentage of the experimentally achieved clean coal yield with respect
to the theoretical yield was 88% for the size fraction 3-13 mm, and 89% for the size fraction
0-3 mm respectively. Considering there are some contents of the organic sulphur in the
cleaned coal that cannot be removed with a physical separation, the performance of the VFS
separator was effective. Despite the fact that the VFS achieved better separation efficiency
for the narrowly sized feed, the ability of VFS to treat un-sized or wide size fraction of feed is
important as this experiment confirmed that the VFS can be used in the VSM circuit to remove
mineral matter from the un-sized ground product.

5.5.1.2. Three-product VFS experiment
An experiment was conducted with 0-6 mm VSM ground product to test the VFS performance
with three products: the reject tailing, the composites and the clean PF fine coal. The
Tarong ground product size distribution curve (Fig. 5.2) shows that about 92% of the sample
was less than 6 mm and the majority of the ground product sample was used for the
experiment. The VFS vibrating frequency was set at 44 Hz. The VFS flow rate was
controlled by the frequency of the air blower, which varied between 32 Hz and 38 Hz. The
result is given in Table 5.8.

Table 5.8: Effect of flow rate on the three-product VFS performance treating the
Tarong mill ground product sample

Composites Tailings Fine coal
Frequency
of fan
(Hz)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
32
55.1 37.6 0.16 30.3 69.3 0.36 14.6 33.1 0.36
34
56.2 38.8 0.17 26.9 69.9 0.37 16.9 34.0 0.26
36
59.4 41.2 0.25 23.6 71.4 0.27 17.0 35.1 0.28
38
58.1 39.1 0.31 22.5 70.8 0.33 19.4 34.5 0.44
40
61.2 46.0 0.21 19.5 69.1 0.45 19.3 36.5 0.40


The experiment confirmed that there existed a significant difference in ash content in the three
products, with the tailing reject containing about 70% ash content, the PF fines containing
about half of the ash content compared with the tailing, and the ash content in the composites
being between the tailing and the PF fines. This is as expected. However, the experiment
also showed that the sulphur content in the PF fines and the tailing was similar, which is not
expected. The sulphur content in the composites decreased slightly compared with the
tailing. Apparently, there is a need to optimise the testing conditions for the three-product
operation, particularly the combination of VFS frequency and the air blower frequency to suit a
particular feed size.

For VFS modelling purposes, an experiment with the VFS at various tailing reject rates was
conducted for the 0-6 mm Tarong ground product. The results are summarised in Table 5.9.
The feed rate was controlled at 300 kg/h. It can be seen that the yields of the tailing vary
from 8.3% to 45.4%, with the associated ash content decreasing from 82.3% to 61.0% as the
tailing yield increases. In all the four testing conditions, the clean coal product contained less
ash and sulphur contents comparing to the tailing, which demonstrates the mineral removal
effects.

Table 5.9: The results of separation with different yields of the cleaned coal for the
Tarong mill ground product sample

Cleaned coal Tailings Group Vibrating
frequency
of bed
(Hz)
Vibrating
frequency
of air fan
(Hz)
Yield (%) Ash (%) S (%) Yield (%) Ash (%) S (%)
1 40 32 91.7 44.9 0.33 8.3 82.3 0.55
2 40 29 86.0 41.8 0.31 14.0 81.8 0.48
3 40 26 83.9 41.3 0.29 16.1 79.6 0.49
4 50 26 54.7 36.4 0.18 45.4 61.0 0.45

In order to inspect the separation precision, float-sink tests on the clean coal and the tailings
were carried out for the four groups. Tables 5.10 to 5.13 present the results. It can be seen
that when the yield of tailings is about 8-15%, the tailings contain about 92-97% of particles
with densities higher than 1.8 RD, which means the tailings are "very pure" and the loss of
combustible materials in tailings is low. In practice the yield of tailings can be adjusted
according to the properties of the ground product to reject pure minerals and keep as much
combustible material as possible. Figure 5.10 shows the distribution coefficients of different
density fractions from the first group to the fourth group. It can be seen that the second and
the third group tests may have the best separation efficiency, taking into consideration of the
tailing reject rate and the combustible loss.


Table 5.10: Float-sink test result of the first group VFS testing products
for the Tarong sample

Clean coal Tailings
Cumulative float Cumulative float
Relative Density Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
-1.4 35.4 12.1 35.4 12.1 0.2 24.8 0.2 24.8
1.4-1.5 12.4 23.3 47.7 15.0 0.8 37.0 1.0 34.5
1.5-1.6 3.3 35.0 51.1 16.3 0.1 46.7 1.2 35.7
1.6-1.7 7.1 47.4 58.2 20.1 0.5 54.6 1.6 41.0
1.7-1.8 4.8 59.5 63.0 23.1 1.4 61.6 3.0 50.8
+1.8 37.0 82.2 100.0 45.0 97.0 83.4 100.0 82.4

Table 5.11: Float-sink test result of the second group for the Tarong sample

Clean coal Tailings
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
-1.4 42.1 11.5 42.1 11.5 1.7 24.8 1.7 24.8
1.4-1.5 13.0 28.3 55.1 15.5 1.3 37.0 3.0 30.1
1.5-1.6 7.6 44.3 62.7 19.0 0.8 46.7 3.8 33.7
1.6-1.7 1.7 54.3 64.4 19.9 1.5 54.6 5.3 39.6
1.7-1.8 3.6 59.2 67.9 21.9 2.0 61.6 7.2 45.6
+1.8 32.1 84.7 100.0 42.1 92.8 85.0 100.0 82.1

Table 5.12: Float-sink test result of the third group for the Tarong sample

Clean coal Tailings
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
-1.4 31.9 9.7 31.9 9.7 1.2 18.7 1.2 18.7
1.4-1.5 22.7 27.5 54.6 17.1 2.2 29.5 3.4 25.7
1.5-1.6 5.4 41.1 60.0 19.2 0.8 42.2 4.3 29.0
1.6-1.7 5.2 57.4 65.1 22.2 1.7 49.7 6.0 34.8
1.7-1.8 4.2 59.2 69.3 24.5 2.4 56.9 8.3 41.1
+1.8 30.7 78.5 100.0 41.1 91.7 83.2 100.0 79.7



Table 5.13: Float-sink test result of the fourth group for the Tarong sample

Clean coal Tailings
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
Yield (%) Ash (%)
-1.4 42.6 9.7 42.6 9.7 21.7 16.9 21.7 16.9
1.4-1.5 9.1 24.6 51.6 12.3 5.8 37.7 27.5 21.3
1.5-1.6 3.7 33.0 55.3 13.7 4.2 48.5 31.6 24.9
1.6-1.7 5.3 43.4 60.6 16.3 4.3 52.8 35.9 28.2
1.7-1.8 4.4 52.3 65.0 18.7 3.8 67.2 39.7 32.0
+1.8 35.0 85.0 100.0 41.9 60.3 85.2 100.0 64.0

Fig. 5.10: The distribution coefficients curves from the first to the fourth groups of
VFS tests for the Tarong sample

5.5.2. The VFS treating Xutang mill ground product
The ground product samples from Xutang mills No.62 and 64 were tested with the VFS
system. Table 5.14 shows the VFS testing results for the size range 0-6 mm. During the
VFS tests with the Xutang mill No. 64 the frequency of the air blower was set too low, resulted
in very high reject rates (over 72%), which is not practical and would not be accepted by


power stations as the combustible loss was too high. The VFS test results for the Xutang mill
No. 64 ground product is therefore excluded in the report.

Table 5.14: Effect of flow rate on the three-product VFS performance treating the
Xutang mill No. 62 ground product sample

As the air blower frequency increased from 32 Hz to 38 Hz, the yield of the tailings decreased
from 46.6% to 17.8%, with over 74% ash content and over 28% sulphur content associated.
The tailings were distinguished from the PF fines and the composites, in which the sulphur
contents were significantly lower. This indicates that the VFS can be used to reject the
mineral matter, particularly the pyrite minerals from the Xutang ground product. However,
the ash content in the composites was rather high. This was due to the fact that the ground
product collected from the Xutang mills was rich of minerals. The VFS can be further
optimised in operational conditions to achieve better results for this type of feed material.

In order to assess the repeatability of the experiment, three duplicate VFS tests were carried
out. Table 5.15 shows that the standard deviations associated with the VFS are very small,
indicating that the VFS testing results are reliable and repeatable.

Table 5.15: Result of duplicate VFS tests

Composites Tailings Fine coal
Frequency
of fan
(Hz)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
32
46.7 61.1 7.48 46.6 74.4 28.20 6.7 47.5 2.00
34
66.4 74.4 9.60 21.8 75.4 33.00 11.9 48.2 3.06
36
70.3 75.6 4.57 20.9 78.3 34.50 8.9 55.3 3.47
38
70.9 74.7 7.96 17.8 76.1 31.80 11.3 55.6 4.03
Clean coal Tailings Fine coal
No.
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
Yield
(%)
Ash
(%)
Sulphur
(%)
1
19.4 52.0 1.70 77.7 79.5 8.41 2.9 48.2 1.91
2
18.9 53.0 1.82 78.1 77.3 8.22 3.1 42.5 1.82
3
19.1 52.1 1.79 77.9 78.6 8.95 2.9 40.1 1.88
Mean
19.2 52.4 1.77 77.9 78.5 8.53 3.0 43.6 1.87
S.D.
0.28 0.59 0.06 0.19 1.11 0.38 0.09 4.16 0.05


5.5.3. The TES treating Tarong mill ground product
The Triboelectrostatic separator (TES ) was used to treat the composites product from the
VFS separator to further clean the ground coal. The composites product of the VFS
separator was ground to the size range of <74 m to feed into the TES separator. The result
is reported in Table 5.16. The test was conducted at 40 KV voltage, 60m
3
/h air-flow rate,
and 100 kg/h feed rate.

Table 5.16: Result of the TES separation for the VFS composites product
from the Tarong sample

Product
Yield
(%)
Ash
Content (%)
Sulphur content
(%)
Tailing 65.4 44.7 0.23

It can be seen from the experimental results that the effect of desulphurization and de-ashing
on the VFS composite coal with the TES separation is obvious. However, there is the
disadvantage of low yield of the clean coal and high yield of the tailing. As the tailing still
contains a significant amount of coal (about 55%), it is not practical to directly reject the tailing.

The TES was also used to treat the PF fines from the VFS using the same testing conditions
as for the VFS composite product (Table 5.17). The separation efficiency was improved, but
the same problem of low yield of clean coal existed.

Table 5.17: Result of the TES separation for the VFS PF fines product from
the Tarong sample

Production Yield (%) Ash content (%) Sulphur content (%)
Clean coal 19.4 24.9 0.40
Tailings 80.6 59.4 1.2

5.5.4. The TES treating Xutang mill ground product
The TES was employed to treat the VFS PF fines for the Xutang ground product using the
same testing conditions as for the VFS composite product (Table 5.18). The sample from the
VFS dust collector contained more than 70% passing 0.075 mm, which meets the PF
requirement. The TES treating the Xutang PF fines resulted in 32% yield of tailing, improved
from the Tarong sample, but was still associated with too much combustible loss.


Table 5.18: Result of the TES separation for the VFS PF fines product from
the Xutang sample

Product Yield (%) Ash content (%) Sulphur content (%)
Clean coal 68.5 40.3 1.85
Tailings 31.5 68.0 3.93

5.6. CONCLUSION
Experiments of mineral removal were conducted using a VFS separator and a TES separator
to treat the ground coal samples collected from two vertical spindle mill operations at the
Tarong power station in Australia and in Xutang power station in China. Analysis of the
samples showed that the Tarong ground coals contained much higher ash content (47.6%)
and sulphur content (0.23%) than the fresh feed (28% ash and 0.07% sulphur respectively),
and the Xutang ground product had 72.7% ash and 9.49% sulphur content in comparison with
35% ash and 1.96% sulphur in the fresh feed B sample. This confirmed the accumulation of
heavy mineral matter inside the mill, and emphasized the need for mineral removal from the
grinding circuit in order to improve the VSM grinding efficiency.

The VFS experiment indicated that the device can effectively separate the mill ground product
into three products: The tailing contained about 75% ash content, which can be rejected
from the VSM; The fines product contained over 70% passing 75 m and with significantly
lower ash content and sulphur content, which can be sent to the boiler as the PF product for
combustion; and the composites contained a reduced amount of ash content and sulphur
content, which can be returned to the mill as circulating load for re-grinding. The
experimental work also provided separation efficiency data at various reject rates and the
float-sink testing data on the separated products, which can be used for VFS modelling.

The use of the TES separator to treat the VFS fines or the composites can further reduce the
contents of ash and sulphur, but the yield of tailing that contained a large amount of
combustibles is too high to be rejected.

Benefits of removal of mineral matter in the grinding circuit are obvious. For the fine coal
grinding operation, an energy saving, increased mill capacity, and reduced wear in the system
are expected. For the combustion operation, on the other hand, a cleaner coal with lower
ash, lower sulphur and higher caloric value will improve combustion efficiency and reduce air
pollution.

This project received funding from the Australian Government as part of the Asia-Pacific

136

Chapter 6: Optimisation of Coal Grinding for Coal-Water
Slurry Preparation

Frank Shi
1
, Guoguang Wu
2
, Zengjie Yun
2
,
Stephen Larbi-Bram
1
, Yuliang Zhang
2
, Jingfeng He
2
, Yaqun He
2

1. JKMRC, The University of Queensland
2. China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT)

6.1. INTRODUCTION
Coal-Water Slurry (CWS) technology was developed during the oil crisis of the 1970s as a
novel and clean fluid fuel to substitute petroleum, and is widely used in IGCC processes (refer
to the Appendix). It is prepared with 62%-70% fine coal, 29%-37% water and about 1%
additive by a specific process. CWS has the characteristics of excellent fluidity and stability,
high efficiency in combustion, and low pollution. The United States, Japan, Russia, Italy,
Sweden and many other countries have dedicated significant resources in research and
commercialisation of novel coal slurry fuel technology. The achievements have nowadays
reached a stage of industrial demonstration and commercial applications.

The technology of CWS was developed and applied systematically in China in the early 1980s.
The technology is now becoming mature, and is gradually entering commercial applications.
It can be utilized in industrial boilers, power generation boilers and commercial kiln-gas
gasifiers in substitution of oil and gas fuels. It can also be used as a raw material in Texico
and the tetra-nozzle-pair-mounted gasifiers to produce syngas, which can be converted to
obtain various chemical materials. In recent research, however, some problems have been
shown to still exist in CWS applications, which include using low metamorphic grade coals,
making better and cheaper additives, solving the problem of desulphurization for CWS
preparation, and so on.

To prepare good quality CWS, the coal needs to be ground to a fine size, with two or more
peaks on the percent retained particle size distribution curves. In the current procedures, the
coal is ground in a ball mill or rod mill for various grinding times. The ground products at
different grinding times are combined in proportions to make up the twin peaks. One of the
limitations in the existing grinding process is that excessively long grinding time is needed to
produce the required particle size distribution, in some cases up to 10 hours of batch ball or
rod milling. The long period grinding process consumes large amounts of energy in CWS
preparation.

Optimisation of Coal Grinding for Coal-Water Slurry Preparation 137

Investigation using different grinding techniques for CWS preparation was undertaken at the
JKMRC with a major objective to reduce energy consumption in the process. A rod mill and
an IsaMill that is currently operated in the mineral industry were employed for the
investigation.

6.2. FEATURES OF COAL-WATER SLURRY
6.2.1. CWS properties
As a uniform and suspending liquid, CWS should have desirable specific properties such as
the slurryability, rheological property and stability, in addition to its original coal properties
(calorific value, ash fusion, sulphur content etc.). The slurryability of coal is a major property
of CWS, which describes the solids concentration that a CWS can achieve from the solid coal.
The slurryability is controlled by the coal size distribution generated from coal crushing and
grinding, the general adaptability of the additive, and the coal metamorphic grade, etc.

CWS is a non-Newtonian fluid, and its viscosity varies with temperature and shearing rate.
The better quality of CWS should exhibit a shear thinning rheological property (ie.
pseudoplastic flow). With such pseudoplastic flow behaviour, the CWS presents a higher
viscosity in a static state for easy storage and preventing precipitation. In a dynamic state,
on the other hand, the CWS presents a lower viscosity for easy pumping and combusting.

The stability of CWS indicates an ability of particles resisting precipitation. CWS is a
suspension of the dispersing particles, and the particles will be settled by gravity. When the
particles settle at a slow speed in suspension, loose floccs will be formed, which is known as
soft settling. It can be dispersed to the original state by mechanical agitation. In contrast,
hard settling means the solid accumulation of particles is formed at the bottom of the
container, which is difficult to disperse in the ordinary course of events.

6.2.2. Factors affecting the properties of CWS
6.2.2.1. Coal nature
Generally speaking, the lower slurryability of the CWS is associated with coals of lower rank,
higher coal porosity, larger specific surface area, higher inherent moisture, greater O/C ratio
(oxygen to coal) in the coal, more hydrophilic functional groups, smaller value of HGI, and
more high valence soluble metal ions.

With increase of coal rank, the slurryability of CWS is gradually improved. However, when
the coal rank reaches a certain degree, such as lean coal, especially anthracite, the coal
molecules are arranged regularly, the internal cracks and the inherent moisture increase, and
all of these reduce the slurryability of CWS. Under the same conditions for CWS preparation,
the higher rank coals achieve better stability because the hydrophobicity of the coal surface is
improved and the hydrophobic coal particles are easy to suspend.


6.2.2.2. The inherent moisture of coal
The inherent moisture of coal is distributed in the pores of the coal, and the molecules of
water are strongly attached to the polar functional groups in the coal. Under the same weight
concentration of CWS, the high internal moisture will inevitably reduce the amount of water as
flow medium, and increase the apparent viscosity of the CWS. So, it is hard to prepare a
high concentration slurry. The inherent moisture of coal in general is measured by an air
drying method.

6.2.2.3. Porosity and specific surface area
The specific surface area of coal will become larger if the porosity is high. Under wet
conditions, the enriched porosity is the important reason resulting in the high content of
inherent moisture in coal. At the same time, the high specific surface area leads to high
consumption of additive. In addition, a lot of air is stored in the enriched pores, so that after
the CWS is prepared, water in the slurry will slowly infiltrate into the pores. This
phenomenon is known as bulging, and drying will appear, which will increase the aging
rate of the CWS, and lead to more difficulties to prepare, store and transport the CWS.

6.2.2.4. Polar oxygen-containing functional groups
When a coal contains more polar oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface, it
exhibits stronger hydrophilicity, and has more internal moisture. The internal moisture can
form a water film on the coal surface, decreasing the amount of free water. . Therefore, the
stability of CWS is good, but the slurryability is poor. The polar functional groups can also
cause the surfactant to be anti-adsorbed on the coal surface. If there are too many polar
functional groups, hydrophilic groups will adsorb on the coal surface, while lipophilic groups
direct into the water. Here, the effect of the additive is weak, and the consumption of the
additive is increased.

6.2.2.5. Surface potential of coal
The zeta potential on the coal particle surface reflects the strength of the hydrophilicity of the
coal. The apparent viscosity, rheological property and stability of the slurry are influenced
directly by the strength of hydrophilicity of the coal surface. A high value of zeta potential is
beneficial for the stability of CWS, and to the rheological property. The surface potential of
coal is mainly influenced by the hydroxyL and carboxyl groups on the coal surface, which
increases with an increase in coal rank.

6.2.2.6. Particle size gradation
The particle size distribution of CWS is a major factor affecting the rheological property and
the stability of the CWS. Particle size of coal in CWS is not only required to meet a certain
fineness (particle size usually should be less than 300 m and the content of -75 m should
be more than 75%), but also a good particle size distribution will allow particles of various
sizes to fill the voids between the particles as much as possible, thereby reducing the water
consumption, and maximising the concentration of CWS. To enhance the solids

concentration of CWS, a double-peak gradation technology of the size distribution is used.
The voids among the coarse particles can be filled with the fine particles, effectively
increasing the packing efficiency of pulverized coal, and reducing the viscosity and improving
the fluidity of the prepared CWS.

6.2.2.7. Other factors
There are some other factors which influence the CWS preparation, such as the grindability
index of the coal, minerals in coal, ash content of coal, coal macerals, additives, pulping
temperature, the pH of the slurry and so on.

6.3. OPTIMISATION OF COAL GRINDING FOR COAL-WATER SLURRY
PREPARATION
Three coal samples were tested with the JKMRC grinding equipment and the CUMT
traditional grinding method in parallel, and the ground products were used to make CWS for
comparison.

6.3.1. Sample collection
Three raw coal samples were collected, one from Tarong power station in Australia, and two
from China. The Chinese coal samples were collected from Shenhua Energy Group and
Yanzhou Mining Group Ltd respectively. All the three raw coals were classified as low rank
coals. The Shenhua coal is a weakly coking coal, and was believed to be the type of coal
that is hard to make CWS. The Yanzhou coal is a 1/3 coking coal, and was assumed to
belong to the type with which it is easy to make CWS.

The Tarong coal sample was collected by the JKMRC. About 300 kg sample with a top size
of 50 mm was fully mixed and rotary divided. One third of the sample was sent to CUMT for
grinding and CWS preparation, and the rest was ground at the JKMRC with a different
grinding approach. Samples of the ground products in slurry form were sent to the CUMT to
make CWS for comparison.

The Chinese coals were collected by the CUMT. A similar sample split method was adopted.
CUMT kept one part of the samples to use the traditional grinding method for CWS
preparation. Another part of the two coal samples, about 100 kg each, were sent to the
JKMRC for grinding. Samples of the ground products in slurry form were sent back to CUMT
to make CWS for comparison.

6.3.2. Grinding procedures
The received samples were stage crushed to minus 3.5 mm using a lab scale jaw crusher.
The JKMRC used a rod mill as the first stage of grinding and a lab scale IsaMill for secondary
grinding. Rod milling is known to have a benefit of minimum over-grinding, and will produce

the first peak at the coarse end of the particle size distribution. IsaMilling is a new grinding
technology, well known for its high efficiency in fine and ultra-fine grinding (Pease et al, 2006;
Shi et al, 2009). Figure 6.1 shows the rod mill and IsaMill used for optimisation of CWS
grinding at the JKMRC.

Rod mill IsaMill

Fig. 6.1: The mills used for optimisation of CWS grinding at JKMRC

The IsaMill employs a product separator that retains the media while allowing fine product to
exit the mill. Any coarse media or ore particles which enter the product separator region are
centrifuged towards the shell. The rotor acts like a centrifugal pump, pumping liquid back to
the feed end of the mill. This compresses the media between the discs, creating eight
consecutive grinding zones which minimises short circuiting. In addition, the very high power
intensity means residence time typically averages about 90 seconds. This reduces the
over-grinding of fines. The combined effect of minimal short circuiting and minimal
over-grinding means the mill grinds efficiently and produces a sharp size distribution in open
circuit (Pease et al, 2006).

The test rig of the laboratory scale M4 IsaMill was developed by Xstrata Technology and
installed at JKMRC pilot plant for the present study. Approximately 15 kg of each ore sample
was processed in the IsaMill at a slurry density of around 30% solids by weight. The mill was
run at a selected speed between 1400 1600 rpm, depending on the hardness of the
samples. The grinding chamber volume is 4 litres. Ceramic grinding media from 2.5 mm to
5 mm were tested in the IsaMill tests. The media charge volume varied between 2.1 litres
and 2.5 litres (5.3 6 kg). There are two agitated tanks as can be seen in Fig. 6.1, one for
feed and the other for product. When the first pass is completed, the feed pump suction valve
can be changed, so the full product tank becomes the feed tank for the next pass test. For
each pass, a sample was taken for size analysis and density measurement. Power
consumption of each pass was recorded by an integrated digital power meter. The slurry
temperature of each pass was also recorded. In the laboratory scale 4-litre M4 IsaMill tests,

only one pass of the IsaMill product was used in most cases, and this process took about 90
seconds grinding time for an F
80
of 500 m to a product less than 100 m. The product
sizing was conducted by wet screening on a 38 m aperture sieve first. The oversize
material was dried in an oven at a temperature of 70
o
C followed by the standard dry
screening analysis. The undersize material was analysed by a laser sizer.

The IsaMilling product will provide the second peak at the fine end of the size distribution
curve. By combining the products of the rod mill and the IsaMill in different proportions, the
requirement of twin peaks on the product size distribution curve can be met.

In comparison, the CUMT used a traditional grinding method for CWS preparation. The
samples were divided into seven parts, each subjected to different grinding times. A
laboratory scale rod mill (XMB-70 model) was used. Seven grinding periods were applied:
20 min, 30 min, 40 min, 60 min, 90 min, 120 min, and 150 min. A relationship between the
grinding time and the particle size distribution was established. The ground products were
then combined in proportions to make up the coal samples for CWS preparation.

6.3.3. Grinding optimisation
6.3.3.1. Criteria for grinding optimisation
In addition to the particle size requirement for CWS, a particular requirement for good quality
CWS is that the CWS should have as high density as possible at a nominal apparent viscosity
of 1000 mPa.s measured at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
. This requirement was set as the key
criterion for grinding optimisation.

To determine the criterion, a number of slurry viscosity measurements at a series of slurry
densities were performed for each sample at the JKMRC. A response curve between the
apparent viscosity at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
and the slurry density was established. From the
response curve, the corresponding slurry density at a nominal apparent viscosity of 1000
mPa.s can be determined.

6.3.3.2. Viscosity measurement
Viscosities of coal slurries at different densities were measured with a Mettler-180 viscometer
at JKMRC. The Mettler-180 is a rotational type viscometer with the cup stationary and
bobbin rotating. Density of the ground products was adjusted by adding water or decanting
water. For the highest density, the slurry sample was left in an oven with a controlled
temperature at 70
o
C until it was nearly dry, then water gently added to obtain the desired high
density.

For each density slurry, viscosities were measured at various shear rates, and repeated twice
or thrice. As the coal slurry is non-Newtonian, a standard procedure to determine the
non-Newtonian shear rates was adopted (Shi, 1995). The shear stress was plotted against
the shear rate and the apparent viscosity at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
was determined. Fig. 6.2

displays a typical flow curve of the ground coal slurry. This exhibits pseudoplastic flow with
high yield stress, which is desirable for the CWS. At a shear rate of 1 s
-1
that is close to the
static state, the apparent viscosity is 14.4 Pa.s, which provides very high resistance against
particle settlement. On the other hand, at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
which is similar to a pipe
transport condition, the apparent viscosity decreases to 1.1 Pa.s, 14 times lower than in the
static state, which offers a good fluidity for the CWS.

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0 100 200 300 400
S
h
e
a
r

S
t
r
e
s
s

(
P
a
)
Shear rate (S
-1
)

Fig. 6.2: Example of a typical rheological flow curve of a CWS sample
measured by Metter-180 Viscometer

The apparent viscosities at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
were plotted vs slurry density to establish a
response curve. Figure 6.3 is an example. At a nominal apparent viscosity of 1000 mPa.s (1
Pa.s = 1000 mPa.s), the response curve gives a corresponding slurry density of 61.5% solids by
weight.

0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
40 45 50 55 60 65
A
p
p
a
r
e
n
t

v
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y

(
m
P
a
.
s
)
Slurry concentration (solids %)
Nominalviscosityat1000 mPa.s
61.5%

Fig. 6.3: Apparent viscosity at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
in relation to slurry density

6.3.4. Optimisation of grinding conditions
The initial trial using the lab scale IsaMill installed at JKMRC was promising. Figure 6.4
shows that the first pass product from the IsaMill generated a similar size distribution on the
cumulative percent passing basis to the CWS reference given by the CUMT. However, if
plotted on the percent retained basis, the IsaMill product exhibited only a single peak, rather
than the required twin peaks as given in the CWS reference. The trial indicated that the
IsaMill can produce the fine end product, but needs to have another peak at the coarse end
generated by another grinding process.

0
20
40
60
80
100
1 10 100 1000
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

u
n
d
e
r
s
i
z
e

(
%
)
Particle size (m)
IsaMill Pass 1
CWS ref erence

0
5
10
15
20
0 100 200 300
%

R
e
t
a
i
n
e
d
Particle size (m)
IsaMill Pass 1
CWS Ref erence

Fig. 6.4: Size distribution curves (Left cumulative passing; Right - % retained,
both by weight) from the initial trial using the IsaMill

A rod mill was employed in the first stage grinding. Part of the rod mill product was ground in
the IsaMill. The two mill products were mixed in various proportions. Size distributions and
viscosity-density response curves of the mixtures were measured. Based on the data of size
distribution and the maximum slurry density at 1000 mPa.s, grinding operating conditions
were optimised. Table 6.1 lists the grinding conditions of the samples sent to CUMT for CWS
preparation, Fig. 6.5 shows the size distributions and viscosity-density response curves for
the Tarong samples, and Fig. 6.6 displays the size distribution curves of the Shenhua and
Yanzhou coal samples.


Table 6.1: Grinding conditions of the samples ground at the JKMRC and sent to
CUMT for CWS preparation

Code Coal source Grinding route Description
T-1 Tarong raw
coal
R90 Rod mill grinding for 90 minutes
T-2 Tarong raw
coal
50R60+50R60
to IsaMill P1
50% rod mill ground for 60 min + 50% rod mill product
ground by IsaMill, Pass 1
T-3 Tarong raw
coal
50R90+50R60
to IsaMill P1
50% rod mill ground for 90 min + 50% rod mill 60 min
product ground by IsaMill, Pass 1
S-1 Shenhua
Weakly coking
70R90+30R90
to IsaMill P2
S-2 Shenhua
Weakly coking
50R90+50R90
to IsaMill P3
S-3 Shenhua
Weakly coking
30R90+70R90
to IsaMill P2
S-4 Shenhua
Weakly coking
20R90+80R90
to IsaMill P3
Y-1 Yanzhou1/3
coking
50R90+50R90
to IsaMill P1
Y-2 Yanzhou1/3
coking
50R60+50R60
to IsaMill P1

0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
0 100 200 300 400
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

R
e
t
a
i
n
e
d
Particle Size (m)
T1 T2 T3

0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
40 45 50 55 60 65
V
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y

(
m
P
a
.
s
)
Solids %
T1 T2 T3

Fig. 6.5: The size distribution curves and the viscosity-solids concentration (both by
weight) response curves for the Tarong raw coal sample ground at the JKMRC


0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
%
R
e
t
a
i
n
e
d
ParticleSize(microns)
Shenhuacoal
S1 S2 S3 S4

0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
%
R
e
t
a
i
n
e
d
ParticleSize(microns)
Yanzhou1/3cokingcoal
Y1 Y2

Fig. 6.6: The size distribution curves (by weight) of the Shenhua and Yanzhou coal
samples ground at JKMRC using the rod mill-IsaMill circuit

6.4. RAW COAL PROPERTY MEASUREMENT
6.4.1. Proximate analysis
The three coal samples from Tarong, Shenhua and Yanzhou were ground to below 0.2 mm.
The proximate analysis of the three coals was performed by CUMT. The grindability (HGI)
analysis was also conducted. The result is shown in Table 6.2, in which M
ad
is free (air dried)
moisture content (%), A
ad
is ash content on air dried basis (%), V
ad
is volatile content on air
dried basis (%) and FC
ad
is the fixed carbon content on air dried basis (%). The first three
parameters were directly measured, and the last one (the fixed carbon content on air dried

basis) was calculated by 100 )
ad ad ad ad
FC M A V ( . The analysis result shows that the Tarong
coal contains a significantly higher content of ash compared with the Shenhua and Yanzhou
coals.

Table 6.2: Proximate analysis and grindability test of the three coal samples

Proximate Analysiswt%
Coal Sample
M
ad
A
ad
V
ad
FC
ad

HGI
Tarong coal 2.79 30.64 40.01 59.99 51.22
Shenhua coal 7.85 8.92 36.21 63.79 56.87
Yanzhou coal 2.94 9.09 35.18 64.82 60.82

6.4.2. Ultimate analysis of the raw coals
In the ultimate analysis, the five major element contents of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen and total sulphur were measured by CUMT. The result is shown in Table 6.3.

Table 6.3: Ultimate analysis of the three coal samples

Ultimate Analysiswt%
Coal Sample
C
ad
H
ad
O
ad
N
ad
S
tad

Tarong coal 77.6 5.68 14.73 1.55 0.31
Shenhua coal 80.27 5.42 13.22 0.84 0.23
Yanzhou coal 83.03 5.31 9.89 1.13 0.58

6.4.3. The infrared spectrum analysis of the raw coals
In the sample preparation process 100 mg of potassium bromide and 1 mg of coal sample
(105~110
o
C dry, particle size < 45 m, the ratio of sample to the carrying mass is 1:100) were
put into an agate mortar. The mixed powders were ground sufficiently and compressed into
0.1~1.0 mm thick transparent slice by a tablet machine. The slice was fixed with a sample
frame, and put into the infrared spectrometer's sample chamber to test. The infrared
spectrum of the sample was recorded. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrograms
of the two coals are shown in Fig 6.7 as an example.


Fig. 6.7: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrogram of the Tarong coal
and Shenhua coal samples

The oscillations of functional groups are divided into three regions in the FTIR spectrum of the
two coals: the X-H stretching oscillation region, the Double bond stretching oscillation region
and the Single bond oscillation region.

It was found from the Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy graphs that the intensity of the
absorption peaks of the Tarong coal and the Yanzhou coal was higher than those of the
Shenhua coal. This may be one of the reasons that it was found difficult to use the Shenhua
coal to make a high quality CWS. With increasing coal rank, the content of the C-H in
saturated hydrocarbon decreases gradually.

The spectra indicate the aromatic framework oscillation of the three coals. The stretching
oscillation of the Yanzhou 1/3 coking coal is the strongest, and it is weaker for the Tarong coal.

In the FTIR spectrum of the three coals, the wave numbers of C-H bending oscillation are
1425 cm
-1
, 1436 cm
-1
, and 1438 cm
-1
respectively. In the region of wave number from 1100
cm
-1
to 1330 cm
-1
, with the raising of coal rank, the C-O absorption peak intensity of phenol,
alcohol and ether decreases.
6.4.4. Zeta-potential of the coal samples
In order to study the effect of surface potential on coal water slurry, the Zeta-potentials of the
three samples were measured. Coal powder was put into deionized water solutions at
different pH values and dispersed for 5 min with an ultrasonic dispersion device. Then a
micro-electrophoresis apparatus (model JS94G) was used to test the zeta potential. A
PHS-2 pH meter was used to determine the pH. The isoelectric points of the three coal
samples are shown in Table 6.4.
Wave number (cm
-1
)

Table 6.4: Isoelectric point of the three coal samples

Coal sample Tarong coal Shenhua coal Yanzhou coal
Isoelectric point (pH) 5.12 3.21 5.20

From Table 6.4, the isoelectric point of the Shenhua coal is the lowest. The Tarong coal and
the Yanzhou coal are much higher than the Shenhua coal. It is clear that the value of the
isoelectric points increases with the increase of coal rank. There are more negative charged
oxygen-containing functional groups such as hydroxyl and carboxyl. Therefore, more H
+

should be needed to neutralize the negative charges in order to make potentials zero on the
surface of the coals.

Zeta potential on the coal particle surface reflects the strength of the hydrophilicity of the coal
after modification. And the apparent viscosity, rheological property and stability of the slurry
are influenced directly by the strength of the hydrophilicity of the coal surface. A high value
of zeta potential is beneficial to the stability of CWS, or it is beneficial to the rheological
properties.

6.5. COMPARISON OF CWS QUALITY
6.5.1. Size distribution
The particle size distribution of coal is one of the key parameters for CWS preparation. Most
of the CWS were prepared with coal samples with the double-peak or multi-peak gradation.
Considering the combustion efficiency of the CWS, the maximum size of coal samples for
CWS preparation should be less than 300 m, and the content of particles less than 74 m
should not be less than 75%. The size distributions of the received coal samples were
measured with a laser sizer (Model LS100Q) at the CUMT. Table 6.5 lists the volume
percent passing figures at a number of size knots. The top half of samples were ground at
the CUMT by the traditional rod mill followed by two products at various grinding times
blended in a 50-50 proportion. The bottom half were ground by the JKMRC using the rod
mill-IsaMill technology. The grinding route associated with the sample codes of the JKMRC
samples can be found in Table 6.1.

From Table 6.5, it was concluded that the coal samples of Yanzhou 30+120 min and 30+150
min, the Tarong 20+120 min and 20+150 min were suitable for CWS preparation. The coal
samples of Shenhua 20+120 min and 20+150 min, the Yanzhou 20+120min and 20+150 min
were double-peaked, but the volume fraction is slightly less than 75%. The JKMRC ground
coal samples all contained more than 75% passing 74 m by volume, except Tarong T-1.
Note that the Tarong T-1 sample was prepared with rod mill grinding alone without IsaMill for
comparison (Table 6.1). For the research purpose, they were all used for the CWS
preparation.


Table 6.5: Size distributions (% passing by volume) of the samples
used for CWS preparation

The gradation coal
samples
<5 m <10 m <20 m <30 m <50 m <74 m <100 m
Tarong 20+120 min 13.3 29.4 51.7 63.9 75.2 83.2 90.9
Tarong 20+150 min 16.4 31.9 52.3 63.2 74.1 81.9 90.2
Shenhua 20+120 min 8.08 23.6 44.2 56 66.1 71.7 77.5
Shenhua 20+150 min 9.06 25.0 45.7 56.8 66.8 72.4 78.7
Yanzhou 20+120 min 8.95 21.5 40.1 52.7 64.0 69.3 75.5
Yanzhou 20+150 min 10.0 24.3 44.1 56.2 66.2 71.7 76.9
Yanzhou 30+120 min 9.43 22.9 43.1 57.1 70.9 79.6 89.1
Yanzhou 30+150 min 10.8 25.1 45.7 58.5 70.8 79.3 88.4
Tarong T-1 8.94 19.4 33.5 43.7 60.3 71.7 84.9
Tarong T-2 8.79 19.7 35.3 47.4 66.2 79.0 91.3
Tarong T-3 8.99 20.0 36.0 49.6 69.7 84.6 96.0
Shenhua S-1 8.07 22.1 41.5 55.2 72.7 82.7 92.5
Shenhua S-2 9.04 25.4 46.9 62.6 80.1 88.4 95.9
Shenhua S-3 10.1 28.1 52.5 69.2 85.5 91.5 96.9
Shenhua S-4 10.9 29.8 55.5 72.6 88.4 93.6 98.4
Yanzhou Y-1 8.15 20.8 39.4 53.1 71.7 82.9 93.2
Yanzhou Y-2 9.63 23.3 42.2 57.0 77.8 89.7 98.1

In the CWS preparation procedure, Naphthalene sulphuric acid-formaldehyde condensate
was used as a dispersant (the weight of the dispersant was set as 1% of the dry coal). More
technical details on the CWS preparation and test methods can be found in Zhang (1996).

6.5.2. Solids concentration
The slurryability of CWS was determined by the prevailing slurry concentration at a nominal
apparent viscosity of 1000 mPa.s measured at a shear rate of 100 s
-1
and at a temperature of
25
o
C. A higher solids concentration indicates better slurryability, which is one of the key
criteria of CWS quality. Table 6.6 summarises the solids concentration data.

The measurement data showed that the slurry concentrations of the Shenhua coal samples
prepared by both grinding techniques were significantly lower than those of the other two coal
samples, indicating that the Shenhua coal is not suitable to make CWS. The Tarong coal
and the Yanzhou coal showed very high solids concentration, indicating these two coals are
good for CWS. Compared with the two grinding routes, the Tarong coal ground by the rod
mill-IsaMill method exhibited a slightly higher solids concentration than the ones ground by
the traditional rod mill method. For the Yanzhou coal, the trend was reversed.


Table 6.6: Solids concentration at a nominal apparent viscosity 1000 mPa.s
measured at a shear rate of 100 s
-1

Grinding method The gradation coal samples Solids % by weight
Tarong 20+120 min 67.93
Tarong 20+150 min 69.28
Shenhua 20+120 min 57.93
Shenhua 20+150 min 58.27
Yanzhou 20+120 min 69.75
CUMT
Tarong T-1 70.97
Tarong T-2 70.11
Tarong T-3 69.88
Shenhua S-1 56.36
Shenhua S-2 56.83
Shenhua S-3 55.16
Shenhua S-4 56.01
Yanzhou Y-1 66.95
JKMRC
Yanzhou Y-2 67.39

6.5.3. CWS fluidity and stability
6.5.3.1. The Tarong coal
For the two Tarong samples ground by the traditional rod mill method at the CUMT, the fluidity
of the CWS was good. They all displayed uninterrupted flow. The slurry concentration of
the sample with 20+150 min grinding was 69.28%, which is remarkably high. The stability of
the CWS prepared with 20+150 min grinding was very good. A little water was separated
from the samples, but they were all soft settling.

For the three Tarong samples ground by the rod mill-IsaMill method at the JKMRC, the fluidity
of the CWS prepared from T-1 and T-2 were not satisfied. They exhibited interrupted flow.
The fluidity of T-3 was good with uninterrupted flow. The solids concentrations of the CWS
prepared from the three samples were very high (70.97%, 70.11% and 69.88% respectively).
The samples were found to exhibit a little separation or no separation, and they appeared
soft settling.

In summary, for the Tarong coal with the traditional rod mill grinding process, the fluidity of the
CWS was good, but the slurry concentration of the CWS was not as high as that using the rod
mill-IsaMill technique. Figure 6.8 displays the viscosity-solids concentration response
curves for the best conditions of each grinding route. The rod mill-IsaMill route achieved a

slightly higher solids concentration. However, the advantage of using the rod mill/IsaMill is
the potential energy saving, since the traditional rod mill took 170 minutes grinding, while the
rod mill-IsaMill used less than 95 minutes grinding to achieve a similar quality of CWS.

The comparison indicated that the Tarong coal is easy to convert to CWS, with the rod
mill-IsaMill technique achieved a slightly better CWS quality, but less energy consumption in
the grinding process.

0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
66 67 68 69 70 71 72
A
p
p
a
r
e
n
t
v
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y
a
t
1
0
0
1
(
m
P
a
.
s
)
Solids%
CUMT JKMRC
Nominalviscosity
69.9% 69.3%

Fig. 6.8: Viscosity-solids concentration response of the Tarong coal ground by rod
mill-IsaMill in comparison with the traditional rod mill approach.

6.5.3.2. The Shenhua coal
The qualities of CWS using the Shenhua coal prepared by the two grinding methods were not
good. The solids concentrations were significantly lower than the other two coals. The
fluidity was poor, being completely immobile. In terms of stability, all of the CWS appeared
hard settling at higher solids concentrations. Pronounced water separation in all the
Shenhua CWS was observed. The experimental results suggest that the Shenhua coal is a
difficult coal with which to make a good quality CWS, no matter what grinding methods are
used within the testing range. This is due to the coal intrinsic properties such as low intensity
of the absorption peaks in the X-H stretching oscillation region in the FTIR spectrum (Fig. 6.7),
and the low isoelectric point (Table 6.4).

6.5.3.3. The Yanzhou coal
The qualities of the CWS of the Yanzhou coal prepared by both grinding routes were good.
The samples prepared by the traditional grinding route had very high solids concentrations.
The fluidity was good under a range of the four densities. In terms of stability, the Yanzhou
coal was not as good as the Tarong coal. More water separations were observed, but they
appeared soft settling. For the CWS prepared by the rod mill-IsaMill method, the pulping

results of the CWS were satisfactory. The slurry concentrations of the CWS prepared from
the two samples were high, but not as high as the Tarong sample prepared by the same
grinding method, and were lower than the same coal prepared with the traditional grinding
method. In terms of fluidity, the two samples were good, showing uninterrupted flow. The
stability of the Yanzhou samples was similar to that prepared with the traditional grinding
method; water separation occurred with hard setting appearing in Yanzhou Y-1 sample, and
soft setting in Yanzhou Y-2.

The comparison indicated that the Yanzhou coal is suitable to make high quality CWS, with
the traditional grinding method produced a slightly better result. This emphasizes the need
to optimise the new grinding method. It is suspected that in the rod mill-IsaMill grinding route,
the Yanzhou samples were not graded properly for this type of coal, with less coarse particles
in the CWS samples than in the traditionally ground samples (Fig. 6.9). The slurry with finer
particles will have a higher viscosity, ie. lower solids concentration at the nominal apparent
viscosity of 1000 mPa.s. The lower solids concentration would reduce the stability of the
CWS. As the sample transportation from Australia to China took a long time, there was no
second chance to optimise the rod mill-IsaMill grinding process within the APP Project
scheduled time period.

0
20
40
60
80
100
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
C
u
m
.

P
a
s
s
i
n
g

(
%
)
Particle Size (m)
CUMT 30+150 min JKMRC Y-2

Fig. 6.9: Comparison of size distributions of the Yanzhou coal prepared by the
traditional grinding vs the rod mill-IsaMill method

6.6. CONCLUSION
Coal water slurry technology is widely used in the IGCC process, in coal gasification and
many other applications, which represents the future of coal utilisation. To improve the
energy efficiency in the coal grinding process for CWS preparation, a new grinding technique
using an IsaMill that is operated in the mineral industry was evaluated. Three coal samples
collected from Australian and Chinese coal mines were tested. The coal samples were split

into two parts, one subjected to the traditional grinding method using a rod mill at the CUMT,
and the other ground using a rod mill-IsaMill circuit at the JKMRC. The size distribution and
slurry density-viscosity response curves were measured and used as the criteria to optimise
the grinding processes. The CWS samples were prepared by CUMT and their slurrryability,
fluidity and stability were determined. The results indicated that the new grinding technique
can produce similar quality of CWS as the traditional grinding method for the Tarong coal from
Australia and the Yanzhou coal from China, but with a significantly shorter grinding time and
thus a reduced energy consumption. The Shenhua coal is not suitable to make CWS due to
its intrinsic properties.

This project received funding from the Australian government as part of the Asia-Pacific

REFERENCES
Pease, J., Anderson, G., Curry, D., Kazakoff, F., Musa, F., Shi, F. and Rule, C., 2006.
Autogenous and inert milling at fine sizes the IsaMill. SAG 2006 Conference, UBC/CIM,
Vancouver, Canada.
Shi, F., 1995. Slurry rheology and its effects on grinding. Ph.D. thesis, University of
Queensland, Australia.
Shi, F., Morrison, R., Cervellin, A., Burns, F. and Musa, F., 2009. Comparison of energy
efficiency between ball mills and stirred mills in coarse grinding. Minerals Engineering,
22, 673-680.
Zhang, R Z., 1996. Technique of preparing water coal slurry. Beijing: Science Press, 1996.
(In Chinese).

APPENDIX
REVIEW OF IGCC TECHNOLOGY
Guoguang Wu, Zengjie Yun, Yuliang Zhang, Haifeng Wang

A6.1. INTRODUCTION TO IGCC TECHNOLOGY
The IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) technology is used to gasify coal, biomass,
petroleum coke, heavy oil and other carbon-containing fuels to make the syngas, and then the
cleaned syngas is used for gas-steam combined cycle power generation. This technology
combines coal gasification, gas purification, air separation and gas turbine combined-cycle to
achieve efficient and cleaning utilization of coal resources. The technique provides a
fundamental solution to inefficient coal-fired power generation and the serious pollution existing in
conventional plants. It is recognized as the cleanest coal-fired power generation technology in
the world.

A6.1.1. The development of IGCC in the world
The U.S. Cool Water IGCC power plant was the first IGCC demonstration power plant that
was truly successful in the world. It was successfully proved to be feasible in May 1984. The
plant uses Texaco entrained flow gasification technology, feeding on coal-water slurry, with a
total run time of 25,000 hours, achieving net power generated of 93 MW and a power supply
efficiency of 31.2%. The successful operation of the plant is currently known as the cleanest
coal-fired power plant at that time which completely solved the serious emissions problem
existing in conventional coal-fired power plants.

In the 1990s, IGCC began to enter the commercial demonstration phase. Five 200 ~ 300
MW class coal-fired IGCC demonstration power plants were built for the purpose of power
generation, ie. the Tampa, Wabash River Power Station in the United States, Buggenum
Power Plant in Netherlands, Puertollano in Span and Nakoso Station in Japan. The power
efficiency of these plants had been increased to 42% ~ 43%, and the specific investment had
been reduced to $1500 ~ 200 USD/kW, through continuous debugging and technological
improvements. Nowadays, IGCC is moving from a commercial demonstration to a
commercial application phase. There are about 50 power stations which are under
construction or planned construction in the world recently, with total installed capacity of
25,000 MW. Compared with conventional pulverized coal power plants, IGCC power plants
have the advantage of higher power generation efficiency and lower emissions, so that great
attention has been paid in the United States and western countries. In 2008, the U.S. EPRI
proposed a demonstration idea of IGCC + CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestion, referred

to as CCS), which respectively supports three stages of IGCC demonstration with 10% ~ 20%,
50% ~ 70% and 80% ~ 90 % of the carbon dioxide removal.
With the development and progress of coal gasification and gas turbine technology, IGCC will
be progress toward higher capacity, higher efficiency, lower emission power generation, and
the processing capacity of gasification will be up to 2500 ~ 3000 t/d. With a large capacity
combined cycle gas turbine of G or H type, the generation power can be up to 400 ~ 600 MW
in capacity, and the combined-cycle efficiency is more than 55%.

A6.1.2. The development of IGCC in China
From the early 1990s, the National Science and Technology Department, State Power
Corporation and other Departments have organized the national technical resources to carry
out a thorough feasibility study about the development of IGCC technology for power
generation in China. During the Eighth Five-Year Plan, Xi'an Thermal Power Research
Institute and the North China Electric Power Design Institute completed the pre-feasibility
research on the IGCC demonstration plant. In the Ninth Five-Year Plan, Xi'an Thermal
Power Research Institute had presided over the key technology research about the IGCC
process, coal gasification, gas purification, gas turbines and waste heat recovery systems.
IGCC designing integration and dynamic characteristics, pressurized gasification
technology for dry pulverized coal, multi-injector coal water slurry pressurized gasification
technology, and high-temperature gas purification technology were included in the national
The Tenth Five-Year Plan and supported by THE national 863 Program

.

In recent years, related projects to IGCC and multiple co-production have been launched in
China. Texaco gasification, Shell gasification and some other gasification technologies have
been introduced to make ammonia, methanol, acetic acid, etc. from coal and heavy oil.
During the implementation of these projects, a lot of experiences in design, manufacture and
operation have been achieved, and these have laid a solid foundation for IGCC and multiple
co-production with gasification as a key technique.

In 2005, the demonstration system of clean coal-derived methanol and efficient power
generation combination developed by Yanzhou Mining Group Co. Ltd and Institute of
Engineering Thermophysics Academia Sinica was operated in Tengzhou, Shandong. About
1.58 billion RMB has been invested in the project, which applied two sets of
tetra-nozzle-pair-mounted coal water slurry gasifiers, with the capacity of processing 1150 t/d
of coal, producing 2.410
5
tons/year of methanol and 2.0 10
5
tons/year of acetic acid,
together with 80 MW of power generation. This was the first demonstration plant of IGCC
and multiple co-production project in China. The second period plan of producing 3.0 10
5

tons/year acetic acid and 1.0 10
5
tons/year ethyl acetate has been completed, and the third
period plan of producing 3.5 10
5
tons/year methanol and 4.0 10
5
tons/year acetic acid is
under construction. The development of the technology and the experience obtained from
the project is a foundation for the research and demonstration of coal gasification and multiple
co-production during The Eleventh Five-Year Plan, and it will become an important
reference for the development of making methanol and dimethyle ether from coal in China.

The Green Coal IGCC demonstration project of HuaNeng began to be constructed in Tianjin
on July 6, 2009. This project is the national 863 Major Program of The Eleventh Five-Year
Plan and is a dependant program on the Green Coal Power demonstration project in the
first phase of the plan. It was officially approved in May 2009, located in Lingang industrial
zone of Binhai New Area in Tianjin. The first IGCC units have a capacity of 2.5 10
5
kw
power generation in China, using the two-stage dry coal feeding gasifier developed by
HuaNeng Group and Xi'an Thermal Power Research Institute with its own intellectual property,
and is able to deal with 2000 tons coal per day. The first generation unit is scheduled for
completion in 2011. After the Green Coal IGCC demonstration project of HuaNeng is
completed, the power generation efficiency will be up to 48%, with desulphurization efficiency
of more than 99% and a lower discharge of nitrogen oxides. At the same time, the indicator
of pollutants discharged will be at a lower level than that of gas turbine generator sets.

IGCC and multiple co-production technology, which is based on IGCC power generation and
combines coal hydrogen, fuel cell power generation, liquid fuel production, CO
2
capturing and
storage technology, is the future developing direction in China. It will reach the goal of
achieving higher economic efficiency and lower emissions of environmental pollutants by
making an optimal coupling between coal gasification and by-product making and will be of
benefit to CO
2
capture. This is so far the only economical coal technology known to control
the emissions of carbon dioxide.

A6.2. COAL GASIFICATION TECHNOLOGY OF IGCC
A6.2.1. Texaco coal water slurry gasification technology
Texaco coal water slurry pressurized gasification technology based on heavy oil partial
oxidation and gasification process was developed successfully by Texaco in the United States
in the early 1950s. This gasifier applies the technology of wet feeding and liquid slagging.
The pressure of the device is in the range of 2.5 ~ 6.5 MPa and operating temperature is
between l300 and 1400 . The gas contains fairly low methane (content of CH
4
0.1%)
without tar, so it makes little impact on the environment and is easy for gas purification. The
technology is characterized by the wide adaptability of different coals, the simple structure
and the control system of the gasifier, lower price and operating costs. Because it has a high
gasification pressure, it is easy to be connected with the subsequent high-pressure chemical
process.

The first set of Texaco coal water slurry pressurized gasification units was introduced in the
Lunan Chemical Fertilizer Plant of Yankuang Group in 1989 in China. At present, there are
more than 10 domestic companies, for example, Shanxi Weihe Chemical Fertilizer Plant using
Texaco coal gasification technology to produce ammonia, methanol and other chemical
products. Due to adopting pressurized gasification and the simple structure, the capacity of
a single gasifer is high. The largest amount of coal feeding of a domestic gasifer recently is
1000 t/d. Comparatively, the worlds largest gasifer for methanol product has a capacity of
coal feeding 2000 t/d, and a methanol output of 2010
4
~ 3010
4
t/a per unit.

A6.2.2. Shell pulverized coal gasification technology
The Shell pulverized coal gasification process (SCGP), which is carried out with pressurized
gasification at high temperature, is one of the most advanced coal gasification process of FG
in the world. Pressurized pulverized coal, oxygen and steam enter the gasifier together and
complete a series of physical and chemical processes in a very short time, including heating,
volatile removal, pyrolysis, combustion and conversion.

The Shell pulverized coal gasification technology is characterized by dry pulverized coal
feeding, high gasification temperature (1400 ~ 1700 ), wide coal adaptability, a
transformation rate of the carbon more than 99%, and the effective gas (CO+H2) of the
syngas from the gasifier more than 90%. The amount of coal processed by a single gasifier
is up to 2000 t/d.The transformation efficiency of heat is so high that about 83% of the heat in
the coal transforms into syngas, and about 15% of the heat is recycled as high or medium
pressure steam. The total thermal efficiency of the technology is about 98%.

As to Shell coal gasification technology, about 16 domestic enterprises have signed
cooperative agreements with Shell at present in China, besides a set of industrial applications
abroad. The investment in Shell technology is larger than any other coal gasification in
China. For instance, if we build an ammonia making system applying Shell technology, with
a capacity of 2010
4
t/a, it needs about 0.35 ~ 0.4 billion RMB invested, in which the air
separation system costs about 100 million RMB. However, The Shell coal gasification
technology has some shortcomings, the technology in China has no real industrial application
so far and consumes huge sums of money every time when it runs.

A6.2.3. The Tetra-nozzele-pair-mounted coal water slurry gasification technology
Gasification having domestic self-owned intellectual property was jointly explored by East
China University of Science and Technology, Lunan Chemical Fertilizer Plant of Yanzhou
Mining Group Co.Ltd, Tianchen Chemical Engineering Corporation and other departments.
The first set of demonstration units of the technology were put into formal operation in Lunan
Chemical Fertilizer Plant of Yankuang Group in October 2005. The device was designed
with two gasifiers, having a coal capacity of 1000 t/d. The annual output of methanol is
2410
4
t, with a co-production of power generation project. At present, the device has been
running regularly for more than four years as a relatively new coal gasification technology.

The technology incorporates entrained flow bed pressurized gasification technology with wet
feeding and liquid slagging. The coal gasification system consists mainly of a coal water
slurry preparation plant, a tetra-nozzle-pair-mounted gasification device, the gas
pre-purification equipment, slag-contained water treatment equipment, air separation plant
and other components. The pressure of gasification is 3.0~6.5 MPa and operating
temperature is l200 ~ l300 .


At present, besides Lunan Chemical Fertilizer Plant of Yanzhou Mining Group Co. Ltd using
the technology to produce methanol, the second set of coal gasifiers, which is now running
regularly, was built by the Hualu Hengsheng Group Company in 2004. The coal feed rate is
650 t/d, and the operating pressure is 6.5 MPa. At the same time, many domestic
enterprises have adopted or simulated tetra-nozzle pair-mounted coal water slurry
gasification technology to build coal chemical equipment or IGCC devices. The proposed
projects of the device include a synthetic ammonia project of Linggu Group in Jiangsu
Province with an output of 4010
4
t/a, an alcohol ammonia project of Fenghuang Fertilizer
Company of Limited in Tengzhou having a production of 6010
4
t/a and an acetic acid project
of Zhenjiang Suopu Group producing 6010
4
t/a. This shows that implementation of the
technology is proceeding quickly and the prospects are good.

A6.3 HIGH-TEMPERATURE GAS DESULPHURIZATION TECHNOLOGY IN IGCC
Crude gas produced by coal gasification always contains H
2
S, COS, HCN, and NO
x

substances. When these materials enter the gas turbine at a high temperature, they will
corrode the blades and reduce the life of the gas turbine. Gas emissions will also pollute the
environment. So it is completely necessary to remove H
2
S, COS and NO
x
in the crude coal
gas. Therefore, the technology of high-temperature desulphurization is used to remove
sulphur in crude gas in IGCC.

The high-temperature gas desulphurization method is different from the general method of
desulphurization. With this technology hot coal gas enters the desulphurization reactor, so
the gas cooling process is omitted. The used solid desulphurizer can be regenerated and
recycled by an air-oxidation method. In the process SO
2
will be produced, which can be
used for the production of sulphuric acid and can reduce the costs so as to make a balance in
the high-temperature desulphurization. The high-temperature desulphurization technology
has advantages over low temperature desulphurization as follows:

(1) Recycle 15% ~ 20% sensible heat of the high-temperature gas and improve power
generation efficiency by 2%.
(2) Do not need to remove the water and CO from the hot gas as in the wet process,
and drive the gas turbine directly for increased power output .
(3) Omitting heat exchange equipment, reducing investment, simplifying the system,
and cutting down generation cost.


(4) A higher flexibility in sulphur recovery, either in producing sulphur or sulphate
according to the market demands.
(5) Impurities such as tar in the gas will not block the system during condensing.
160

Chapter 7: Potential Benefits of Mineral Removal from
Power Station Grinding Systems

Yaqun He, Chenlong Duan, Haifeng Wang, Nianxin Zhou, Hua Wei

7.1. CURRENT SITUATION OF COAL UTILIZATION AND ENVIRONMENT
PROBLEM
7.1.1. Utilization status of coal
Coal, as an important fossil fuel, still plays an irreplaceable role in the energy structure of the
contemporary world. In the top 20 countries in the energy consumption, coal consumption
was the largest in the composition of energy consumption in five of them, and six counties
took second place in coal consumption. In 2007, South Africa, China, Poland, India,
Australia, and the United States had 72.1%, 65.6%, 68.1%, 40.8%, 44.1% and 23.7% coal
consumptions in their energy structures, respectively. With energy utilization increasing in
developing countries, world coal consumption increased by 50%. According to the
statistics, the projected proportion of coal consumption in primary energy will exceed that for
oil (26.9%) and increase to 28.1% by 2020. Coal will become the largest source of energy
again. By that time, two-thirds of coal will be consumed by non-OECD countries
(Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)). And now the coal consumption
proportion of the OECD, and non-OECD countries is 50% each. From this situation, we can
foresee that the worlds energy consumption will mainly rely on fossil fuels for the next 50
years. Therefore, it is necessary to control the environmental pollution by developing a
low-carbon economy. Figure 7.1 shows the proportion of coal, oil, gas and other resources
in primary energy in 2007 in the seven Asia Pacific countries.

Potential Benefits of Mineral Removal from Power Station Grinding Systems 161


Fig. 7.1: The Proportion of Primary Energy sources in 2007

The Asia-Pacific region is becoming the most economically active region in the world. China
and India are the largest coal-consuming countries in the world, as shown in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1: Coal consumption in various areas of the world (1999-2009)

Items
1999
x10
6
Standard
oil
2005
x10
6

Standard
oil
2007
x10
6

Standard
oil
2005-2007
average
annual
growth,%
2009
x10
6
Stand
ard oil
2007-2009
average
annual
growth,%
China
1
660.1 1107.2 1321.1 9.23 1545.0 8.14
India 135.8 184.4 210.3 6.79 245.8 8.11
Korea 38.2 54.8 59.7 4.38 68.6 7.20
Japan 91.5 121.3 125.3 1.64 108.8 -6.82
Australia 46.2 54.9 55.8 0.8 52.5 -3.00
Asia Pacific
2
1045.8 1644.0 1903.2 7.59 2151.6 6.33
World 2248.9 2904.0 3184.1 4.71 3278.3 1.47
OECD 1072.6 1167.8 1187.2 0.83 1036.3 -6.57
Former Soviet
union
161.3 161.1 166.4 1.63 153.3 -4.02
Emerging
economies
3

1015.1 1575.1 1830.5 7.80 2088.7 6.82

Notes:
1: Including Hon Kong, Macao, except Taiwan,
2: Asia and Australia except Middle East and CIS,
3: Regions except the Commonwealth of Independent States and CIS.

7.1.2. Status of the international and domestic electricity industry
The proportion of coal as the primary energy source in China increased from 22% in 1999 to
29.2% in 2008. At the same time, world coal consumption increased from 4.298 billion tons
in 2000 to 5.497 billion tons standard coal in 2008, a net increase of 1.2 billion tons, which
represents a 29.9% increase in eight years. Among this, coal consumption from Asia was
about 1 billion tons, the most contribution being from coal burning power plants. In the next
two decades, electricity consumption still needs to increase about 5.5%-6% per annum.
China will become the largest generator and consumer of electricity. Its installed power and
generating capacity in 2001-2009 are shown in Table 7.2.

Table 7.2: Installed Capacity and Power Generation in China (2001-2009)

Years
Total installed
capacity (MW)
Total power
generation
capacity (x10
12
kWh)
Coal-fired
installed power
capacity (MW)
Coal-fired
power
generation
(x10
12
kWh)
Coal-fired
power
proportion in
capacity (%)
Coal-fired
power
proportion
in
generation
(%)
2001 338490 1.4839 253010 1.2045 74.75 81.17
2002 356570 1.6542 265550 1.3522 74.47 81.74
2003 391410 1.9052 289770 1.5790 74.03 82.88
2004 442390 2.1944 329480 1.8104 74.48 82.50
2005 517190 2.4747 384130 2.0180 74.27 81.55
2006 622000 2.8344 484050 2.3573 77.82 83.17
2007 713290 3.2559 554420 2.6980 77.73 82.86
2008 792530 3.4046 601320 2.7857 75.87 81.82
2009 874070 3.6506 652050 2.9814 74.60 81.67

Figure 7.2 shows the electric power sources of the seven countries involved in the APP
Program.



Fig. 7.2: The distribution of the electric power sources in the seven APP countries

After decades of development, China's power industry has achieved increases in generation
efficiency. The net coal consumption rate and the average power consumption rate of the
national coal-fired power plants have decreased in varying degrees. The average coal
consumption of the national thermal power unit decreased from 471 g/kWh in 1990 to 349
g/kWh in 2008, while the international advanced level of coal consumption rate is 316g/kWh,
as shown in Figure 7.3.

Fig. 7.3: The average coal consumption of China compared with the international
advanced level (coded as AWS)

7.1.3. The environmental influences produced by the power plants
Compared with the industrially developed countries, not only do limitations in energy structure,
technology level and energy consumption exist in China, but also there is a large gap in
ecological conservation and environment protection due to coal-firing. As China uses
thermal power as the main energy source, the environmental problem caused by the
discharge of power plant pollutants has become increasingly severe. However, the pollution
control is inadequate and SO
2
, fly ash and NO
2
are the main pollutants for air pollution.
This is closely related to the energy consumption structure. In the process of coal burning,
lots of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ash with toxic or harmful substances are
discharged. This inflicts serious damage on the ecological environment, endangers human
health and leads to great economic losses. The ratio of the energy consumption and the
discharge of pollutants by the electricity industry compared to the whole country in 2006 is
shown in Table 7.3.

Table 7.3: The discharge of pollutants from the electricity industry in China in 2006

Discharge sources
Proportion of the electricity industry
compared to the whole country (%)
Discharge of sulphur dioxide 54
Water for thermal power 40
The discharge of Ash 20
Ash slag 70

Acid rain happens frequently in many regions throughout China, and leads to great economic
losses due to SO
2
emissions. The economic losses from the damage of the environment
and human health caused by the acid rain and pollution are nearly 100 billion Yuan (16.7
billion AUD) per year. During the burning process, harmful elements including Hg, As, Pb
are discharged into the atmosphere with the fly ash and steam. These hazardous elements
have a serious impact on air quality, human health and the environment. So disease which
is caused by atmospheric pollution from coal burning leads to huge losses in the economy
and a burden of disease in China every year. A report pointed out that the proportion of the
discharge of fly ash, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide by coal-fired power
plants in the whole country is 70%, 85%, 67% and 80% respectively. It is proved that the
people who are far away from the pollution sources will still be influenced by the environment
pollution. So the environmental pollution caused in the process of coal-fired power plants
should be treated seriously.


7.2. CYCLING RATIO OF THE CLASSIFIER AND THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ZGM
MILL
7.2.1. The operational status of the ZGM mill
The MPS (ZGM) mill is categorized as a vertical spindle mill. There are three grinding roller
wheel assemblies in the mill grinding section, which are mounted on a loading frame via a
pivot point. The grinding force for coal pulverization is applied by the loading frame. This
frame is connected by vertical tension rods to three hydraulic cylinders secured to the mill
foundation.

Depending on the required coal fineness, there are two types of classifiers that may be
selected for an MPS mill. The SLS dynamic classifier, which consists of a stationary angled
inlet vane assembly surrounding a rotating vane or cage, is capable of producing micron fine
pulverized coal with a narrow particle size distribution. For the applications where a micron
fine pulverized coal is not necessary, the SLK static classifier, which consists of a cone
equipped with adjustable vanes, is an option at a lower cost since it contains no moving parts.
With an adequate mill grinding capacity, the MPS mill equipped with SLK static classifier is
capable of producing a coal fineness up to 99.5% or higher passing 300 m and 80% or
higher passing 74 m, while the SLS dynamic classifier produces coal fineness levels of
100% passing 150 m and 95% passing 74 m, or better.

7.2.2. The calculation of the circulation in the pulverizer
A ZGM95 mill with own intellectual property installed at Xutang Power Station was selected as
the experimental platform. This mill is similar to the MPS mill with an SLK static classifier.
During the grinding process the materials may not be ground to the desired fitness with one or
two passes, and the coarse particles will return to the grinding plate for further comminution.
As the regrinding materials have the properties of larger size, higher density and with mineral
matter, they will stay in the mill until they are ground fine enough to exit from the pulverized
fuel pipe.

Based on the experiment results of the samples collected from Xutang Power Station, the
mass balance results indicated that the circulating load of the mill varied from 800-1450% in
the six plant surveys (refer to Chapter 2). The materials which return to the grinding table for
regrinding have high density, associated with large amount of pyrite and other mineral
impurities. They are hard to break and more abrasive, but contain a low content of
combustibles. Minerals in the circulating load cause problems in machine wear, grinding and
classification efficiency decrease, and energy waste.

7.2.3. The influence of circulation on energy conservation
If the pyrite, quartz and other minerals in the classifier reject can be removed by separation
procedures, the grinding and classification efficiency will be improved, and energy saving and

emissions reduction can be realized. The vibrating counter-flow fluidized bed separator
(VFS) and the pilot scale triboelectrostatic separator (TES) were used to conduct the
experiments. The samples collected from the classifier reject were used as the feed material
of the VFS. After the separation, three products, namely composite coal, tailing and fine coal
can be collected. The fine coal obtained from the VFS was fed to the TES to produce
concentrates and tailings. The separation results for the Xutang sample are shown in Table
7.4.

Table 7.4: The experiment results of the VFS and TES separation

Vibrating counter-flow fluidized bed
separator
Triboelectrostatic
separator
Sample Code
Classifier
reject
composites Tailing Fine coal Clean coal Tailing
% 100 70.25 20.9 8.85 6.06 2.79
Ash content (%) 74.34 75,57 78.29 55.31 40.31 67.95
Sulphur content (%) 13.23 4.57 34.5 3.47 1.85 3.93

Note: The sulphur content may also present in the ash content, making the sum of ash
content and sulphur content greater than 100%

From Table 7.4 the ash and sulphur contents of the classifier reject are high because of
minerals accumulation. The samples were taken on the mill plate when the mill was stopped.
The sample was separated by the VFS and the TES efficiently. The combined tailing
discharged from the VFS and TES was 23.69% of the feed. The sulphur content in the VFS
tailing enriched by 257% compared with the feed. Because of enrichment of the minerals in
the tailing, the ash and sulphur contents of the clean coal were lower than the feed of the
separation system. It means that the coal quality was improved. The composite coal can
be sent as circulating load for regrind.

In summary, the separation system offers a lot of advantages as follows:

1. Removal of the coarser, denser, harder minerals from the grinding circuit by the
separation system will reduce wear, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas
emissions, and increase mill throughput.

2. Combustion of poor quality coal will result in the delaying of the ignition temperature,
unsteadiness of combustion, low economic running of the burner and poor safety and
reliable operation of the heating surface transformation of the burner. It will also
affect the control efficiency of reducing the NO
X
products from the perspective of
combustion. The quality of the pulverized fuel, which is generated by the grinding of
the coal with mineral removed, will obviously be improved, the contents of sulphur,

arsenic and other mineral matters will be decreased, but the uniformity of the PF size
distribution will be improved.

3. The reduced wear will reduce the maintenance of the milling equipment and extend
the running period of the pulverizers.

7.3. THE INFLUENCE OF THE THERMAL GENERATION ON ENVIRONMENT
7.3.1. The environment influence and the control status of SO
2
emission
The coal-fired process has large quantities of emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides,
dust and other toxic substances. According to the statistics, pollution from coal burning in
China causes a serious greenhouse effect and acid rain. Harmful elements in the coal such
as Hg, Cd and Pb are discharged into the atmosphere with the steam and fly ash during the
coal combustion and they cause adverse effects on ambient air and human health.
Therefore, the loss of health and the cost to the economy are large.

The desulphurization of power plant was enforced in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of China,
and accordingly, China must meet a 10 per cent reduction in emissions of sulphur dioxide
between 2006 and 2010. Total emission of sulphur dioxide must be less than 22.944 million
tons. Of this, the power industry contributes 9.517 million tons. The distribution of the
existing desulphurization unit capacity in the major power groups between 2006 and 2010 in
China is shown in Table 7.5.

Table 7.5: The distribution of the existing desulphurization unit capacity
in the major power groups between 2006 and 2010 in China

The power company
The unit capacity of the
desulphurization
(million kilowatts)
The percentage of the total
desulphurization unit
capacity%
The State Grid Corporation 73.7 5.4
China Huaneng Group 176.2 12.9
China Datang Corporation 181.2 13.3
China Huadian Corporation 93.4 6.8
China Guodian Corporation 135.6 9.9
China Power Investment
Corporation
103.3 7.6
Regional Electricity Company 602.6 44.1

From the above data, the desulphurization capacity is inadequate to meet the
desulphurization requirement. Power plants in China will face problems of technology, cost
and secondary pollution. The Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor

Chen Qingru, proposed a concept of building power plants on the sites of the large-scale
coal mines, using high efficiency separation system to discharge the minerals in the coal feed
before combustion to achieve energy-saving and emission reduction. The vibrating
counter-flow fluidized bed separatorVFSand the triboelectrostatic separator (TES) were
designed for this purpose. From the results of the separation system, it has obvious
advantages of controlling environmental pollution and improving grinding efficiency.

7.3.2. The analysis of emission-reduction of the pyrite
The cost of gas desulphurization in power plants is very significant. It was estimated that the
total cost of desulphurization devices in operation would be 130,800,000 Yuan RMB in 20
years. This gives an average cost of desulphurization 17.20 Yuan RMB per MWH, or 2.99
Yuan RMB per kilogram SO
2
. The higher the sulphur content in the coal, the higher the cost
of the desulphurization. When the content of sulphur is above 1.0%, the average of cost is
22.16 Yuan per MWH, and when the content of sulphur is below 1.0%, the average of cost is
only 16.06 Yuan per MWH. The difference of the cost of two cases is up to 1.4 times. If the
content of sulphur in coal is above 1% before separation, and it can be reduced to below 1%
after separation, the power plants in China can save over 10 billion Yuan RMB in
desulphurization every year. The detailed data are shown in Table 7.6.

Table 7.6: The annual economic benefits created by sulphur content reduced to 1%

Years
Electricity generation
by coal (*10
8
MWh)
Treatment Cost (*10
8
,Sulphur>1%,)
Treatment Cost (*10
8
,Sulphur<1%)
Economic Benefit
(Billion )
2005 20.18 447.19 324.09 12.31
2006 23.57 522.38 378.58 14.38
2007 26.98 597.88 433.30 16.46
2008 27.86 617.31 447.38 16.70
2009 29.81 660.68 478.81 18.19

7.3.3. Environmental impact caused by other hazardous substances
Hg exists in the majority of coals in the form of sulphuration mercury, organic mercury
compounds, elemental mercury and others. They are contained in materials with high
density, combining with pyrite, sphalerite and selenium compounds. Arsenic is very similar
to Hg, which also exists as the sulfide. But the different ranks of coal have different contents
of Hg and As. Table 7.7 shows the average mercury and arsenic contents in Chinese coal,
USA coal, and Australian coal. Table 7.8 shows the Hg and As contents in the different ranks
of coal in China.

Table 7.7: Comparison of mercury and arsenic content in Chinese,
USA, and Australian coal, and world average

Table 7.8: Distribution of As, Hg concentrations in Chinese coals (ug/g)

Coal rank Arithmetic mean, As Coal rank Arithmetic mean, Hg
Lignite 11.62 Stone coal 0.17
Gas coal 7.94 Lignite 0.09
Fat coal 6.44 Bituminous coal 0.3
Coke coal 4.16 Coke 0.84
Anthracitic coal 5.48 Anthracite 0.54

The highly toxic substances lead to human central nervous system damage and chronic
poisoning, resulting in long-term harm. The largest challenge of controlling Hg pollution is
associated with the power plants in China. According to an assessment report of the Hg
source in 2002, the coal-fired power plants exceeded a contribution of 55.7%. At present,
coal-fired mercury emissions to the atmosphere of the world are more than 2000 tons annually.
It has been the main source of the Hg in the atmosphere. The coal contains Hg, As and
other heavy metals inevitably, and the lower is the coal rank, the higher is the As content.
Pyrite is the common carrier for Hg and As in coal, so the removal of pyrite helps to control the
pollution from coal combustion, which contains Hg, As and Pb. If the separation technology
is applied to separate the high density part of Hg and As, the Hg and As content which enters
the boiler combustion can be controlled, and the content of hazardous and noxious
substances which enters into the atmosphere can be reduced. Besides, it also relieves the
damage to human health and the pressure on the environmental. Tests were conducted,
aiming to obtain the contents of Hg, As and Pb of the feed and tailing of the separation system.
The results are shown in Table 7.9. It can be seen that the contents of the Hg, As and Pb in
the materials are not high, but the concentration trends of the Pb and Fe in tailing are still
apparent.

Content China USA Australia World
Arithmetic mean value of Hg (g/g) 0.158 0.17 0.106 0.012
Arithmetic mean value of As (g/g) 6.4 24 2 5
Arithmetic mean value of Hg in fly ash(g/g) 1.06 0.36 0.2

Table 7.9: The Content of Hg, As and Pb in the feed and tailings of
the separation system

Feed materials Tailing
Arithmetic mean value of Hg (g/g) >=0.59 >0.59
Arithmetic mean value of As (g/g) 3 3
Arithmetic mean value of Pb (g/g) 2 3
The content of Fe (%) 15.0 25.1

7.4. CONCLUSIONS
The current emission problems in existing coal fired power station operations have been
summarized. The application of two mineral removal devices, the vibrating fluidized bed
separator and the triboelectrostatic separator, in the power station coal grinding circuit was
evaluated, and their potential benefits in terms of economy and environment were assessed.
It is concluded that the new technology can achieve energy saving and emissions reduction.

Final Report On Mill Modelling

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EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS IN

COAL FIRED UTILITIES

Modelling of Vertical Spindle Mills 78

Modelling of Vertical Spindle Mills 79

Fig. 4.4: Particle size effect on breakage (Xutang coal A)

are parameters fitted to over 60 sets of data from the

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