Improvement of storage, handling, and transportability of fine coal. Quarterly technical progress report No. 7, July 1, 1995--September 30, 1995

The Mulled Coal process was developed as a means of overcoming the adverse handling characteristics of wet fine coal without thermal drying. The process involves the addition of a low cost harmless reagent to wet fine coal using off-the-shelf mixing equipment. Based on laboratory- and bench-scale testing, Mulled Coal can be stored, shipped, and burned without causing any of the plugging, pasting, carryback and freezing problems normally associated with wet coal. The objectives of this project are to demonstrate that: The Mulled Coal process, which has been proven to work on a wide range of wet fine coals at bench scale, will work equally well in a commercial coal preparation plant. The wet product from a fine coal cleaning circuit can be converted to a solid fuel form for ease of handling and cost savings in storage and rail car transportation. A wet fine coal product thus converted to a solid fuel form can be stored, shipped, and burned with conventional fuel handling, transportation, and combustion systems. The Mulled Coal circuit was installed in an empty bay at the Chetopa Preparation Plant. Equipment has been installed to divert a 2.7 tonnes/hr (3 tons/hr) slipstream of the froth concentrate to a dewatering centrifuge. The concentrated wet coal fines from the centrifuge dropped through a chute directly into a surge hopper and feed system for the Mulled Coal circuit. The Mulled Coal product was gravity discharged from the circuit to a truck or product discharge area from which it will be hauled to a stockpile located at the edge of the clean coal stockpile area. During the 3-month operating period, the facility produced 870 tonnes (966 tons) of the Muffed Coal for evaluation in various storage, handling, and transportation equipment and operations. Immediately following the production demonstration, the circuit was disassembled and the facility was decommissioned