Title: Characterisation and beneficiation of Indian coking coal washery fines

Authors: M.S. Jena; A. Priyadarsini; P. Dash; J.K. Mohanty

Addresses: Department of Mineral Processing, CSIR – Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha – 751 013, India ' Department of Mineral Processing, CSIR – Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha – 751 013, India ' Department of Physics, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha – 751 004, India ' Department of Mineral Processing, CSIR – Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha – 751 013, India

Abstract: Demand of coking coal is very high in Indian steel sector. But unfortunately, the reserve is meagre. Hence, beneficiation of coking coal fines is most essential. The present study reports the beneficiation of fines generated at a coking coal washery in Eastern India. The fines contain 32.8% ash, 17.9% volatile matter and 49.6% fixed carbon. Characterisation study reveals that quartz is the major gangue mineral followed by illite and hematite. ΣREE content of the sample is around 200 ppm. By conventional cell flotation, it is possible to get a clean coal with 14.0% ash with 71.6% yield and 89.5% combustible recovery. Further, the ash is reduced to 12.5% at 72.4% yield by column flotation. The tailing containing more REE and radioactive elements may be considered as an alternative REE source. Release analysis was carried out to evaluate the performance of cell and column flotation. [Received: April 4, 2014; Accepted: November 7, 2014]

Keywords: coking coal fines; characterisation; rare earth elements; REE; cell flotation; column flotation; release analysis; India; coking coal washery; quartz; illite; hematite; clean coal; ash; tailings.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2015.072085

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2015 Vol.10 No.4, pp.384 - 402

Received: 08 Apr 2014
Accepted: 07 Nov 2014
Published online: 30 Sep 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article