Production of a pellet fuel from Illinois coal mines. Quarterly report, 1 December 1994--28 February 1995

The goal of this research is to produce a pellet fuel from low-sulfur Illinois coal fines which could burn with emissions of less than 1.8 lbs SO{sub 2}/10{sup 6} Btu in stoker-fired boilers. The significance of 1.8 lbs SO{sub 2}/10{sup 6} Btu is that in the Chicago (9 counties) and St. Louis (2 counties) metropolitan areas, industrial users of coal currently must comply with this level of emissions. Stokers are an attractive market for pellets because pellets are well-suited for this application and because western coal is not a competitor in the stoker market. Compliance stoker fuels come from locations such as Kentucky and West Virginia and the price for fuels from these locations is high relative to the current price of Illinois coal. This market offers the most attractive near-term economic environment for commercialization of pelletization technology. For this effort, we will be investigating the use of fines from two Illinois mines which currently mine relatively low-sulfur reserves and that discard their fines fraction (minus 100 mesh). The research will involve investigation of multiple unit operations including column flotation, filtration and pellet production. The end result of the effort will allow for an evaluation of the commercial viability of the approach