Engineering development of advanced physical fine coal cleaning for premium fuel applications: Subtask 3.3 - dewatering studies

If successful, the novel Hydrophobic Dewatering (HD) process being developed in this project will be capable of efficiently removing moisture from fine coal without the expense and other related drawbacks associated with mechanical dewatering or thermal drying. In the HD process, a hydrophobic substance is added to a coal-water slurry to displace water from the surface of coal, while the spent hydrophobic substance is recovered for recycling. For this process to have commercialization potential, the amount of butane lost during the process must be small. Earlier testing revealed the ability of the hydrophobic dewatering process to reduce the moisture content of fine coal to a very low amount as well as the determination of potential butane losses by the adsorption of butane onto the coal surface. Work performed in this quarter showed that the state of oxidation affects the amount of butane adsorbed onto the surface of the coal and also affects the final moisture content. the remaining work will involve a preliminary flowsheet of a continuous bench-scale unit and a review of the economics of the system. 1 tab