Applications of the Reflux

Classifier on SA coals

K.E Rakgase
g

Supervisors: Q.P.
Q P Campbell
M. Le Roux

COALTECH RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL COLLOQUIUM
31 August 2012
 Outline
•Background
•Objectives
•What is a reflux classifier?
•Experimental design
•Result set 1
•Result set 2
•Conclusions
•Future work
•Acknowledgements
 Background
Beneficiation

Crushing and screening Coarse coal - +8mm fraction – Drewboys

Tesca or Norwalt

Small coal -8+0.5 mm – DMS cylcone

D
Dynawhirlpool
hi l l

Solid liquid separation Fine coal -0.5 mm fraction – Spirals

Cyclones
 Background
•Applications of the RC
–Destoning
Destoning
–Pyrite removal
–Thickening
Thi k i
–Sizing
–Density fractionation
 Background
Density fractionation or sink-float analysis

‰Knowledge of the density distribution is critical in coal

processing for:

™Concentrating coal macerals based on their density

differences

™Design of coal processing plants, techno-economic

evaluations and reserve estimation

™Plant efficiency and day to day process control

 Background

Heavy liquids – TBE,

Bromoform

Liquid salts - ZnCl

Lab scale
DMS1
Fine particle
suspensions
i – Fe
F 3O4

Fluidization of solids
 Background
•Majority of these methods are problematic2
–Corrosive, toxic or very expensive
–High chemical reactivity – Ferric chloride
–Handling difficulties – sugars and starches
–Tendency to add ash to coal – phosphates
•Suardini
Suardini3 found possible reactions between salts and
coal mineral matter
•A rapid
rapid, non-toxic and inexpensive fractionation
procedure is a must!!
 Objectives
•Develop an alternative density fractionation
procedure
–Design, build and commission a laboratory scale reflux
classifier
–Use the RC to fractionate coal samples for the production
of washability data
–Compare
C RC
C results with standard ffloat-sink results
Reflux classifier

Inclined section 4
• Main separation zone
• Inclined plates – 20% solids
• Narrow
N plate
l t spacing
i
• Length to width ratio > 100

Fluidized bed section

• First stage
g separation
p
• Transport particles to next
section
• Coal
C l and d water
t ffeedd
• 50-60% solids
 Reflux classifier

•Separating
Separating mechanism
–Laminar flow pattern
–Density
Density medium effect
–Shear induced lift force model5
 Experimental design
•Design
D i off llab
b scale
l RC
–Incline angle
–Flow pattern

•RC testing
–Density fractionation using the RC
–Comparison of RC with ZnCl2 float-sink data
 Preliminary Work
T t Set
Test S t 1 – Incline
I li angle
l
•Settling tests using
silica
•-300+53
300 53 μm
Method
–Mixed and allowed to
settle
–Adjust tube to
different angles
–Used cylinder and
square tube
 Preliminary Work
R
Results
lt Set
S t 1 – Incline
I li angle
l
140

120

100
Distance, s (mm)

80

60 50°
40 60°
60
70°
20 80°
Vertical
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time t (sec)
Time,
 RC Design –Flow
Flow pattern
•Fluidization
Fluidization need good distribution
-The following distribution configurations where considered 6
 RC Design –Distributor
Distributor
Sinks recovery outlet

Plenum chamber with

Water Drain steel balls
 Reflux Classifier Rig
Overflow
launder

Screen filter

Feed port
Water
recycle

Fluidization water tank

 Coal used
Test Set 2
•Soutpansberg
p g coal Test Sample

(Phafuri)
•Vitrinite
Vitrinite rich (68%)
•Three size ranges
-850+600 μm
-600+500 μm
-850+500 μm
•Medium Rank B
•Ash (DB) 23%
 Float sink setup
Float-sink
Test Set 2
–Different ZnCl2 densities
–1.3; 1.4; 1.5; 1.6; 1.7 SG
p
–Samples from the different
float fractions were
collected, dried, milled and
ashed
h d
–Data was used to
d t
determined
i d washability
h bilit
curves and compared with
data obtained from the RC
fractionation
 Results
Set 2: -800+600
800+600 μm
100
90
80
70
s%

60
ve mass

50
40
sink float
30
mulativ

20 RC fractionation
10 data
Cum

0
0 5 10 15 20

Cumulative Ash %
 Results
Set 2: -600+500
600+500 μm
100
90
80
70
ss %

60
umulative mas

50
40 Sink float
30
RC fractionation
20 data
10
Cu

0
0 10 20

Cumulative Ash %
 Conclusions
•Maximum settling occurs between 60 and 80°
•Density fractionation was occurred with the RC
•Good agreement between the RC and float-sink
d t for
data f narrow size
i ranges
•Probable indication of wall effects
•Consider a larger particle to channel ratio
•Use a larger unit with more plates
 Future work
•Test
Test coal from other fields
•Build/obtain larger scale unit to study continuous
fractionation
•Test other commodities
–Mineral sands
–Iron ore
–Chromites
–Gold
–Separating coal fines tailings into a sulphide rich
and sulphide lean concentrates
 References
1.Keller,D.V.Jr.(1982).’The Otisca Process: An Anhydrous Heavy liquid separation
process for Cleaning of Coal,” in Physical Cleaning of coal (Liu,ed.),Marcel Dekker,
New York
York,pp.
pp 35-86
35 86

2.Durney et al., (1991). ‘Evaluation, Engineering, and Development of Advanced

cyclone
l processes, Proceedings
P di off the
th Tenth
T th annuall C
Coall P
Preparation,Utilisation,
ti Utili ti
and Environmental Control Contractors Conference,Pittsburg,PA,CO,pp2-21.

3.Suardini,P.J.(1995),’Improving
S ( ) Fine-Coal
C washability procedures', High Efficiency
ff
Coal Preparation(Kawatra, ed.)SMME,Littleton,CO.pp119-128

4.Galvin,
4 Galvin K.P.,
K P Doroodchi,
Doroodchi E.,
E Callen,
Callen A.M.,
A M Lambert,
Lambert N.,
N Pratten,
Pratten S
S.J.,
J 2002
2002.
Pilot plant trial of the Reflux Classifier. Miner. Eng. 15, 19– 25.

5.King,M.R
5 King M R and Leighton ,D.T.,1997.Measurement
D T 1997 Measurement of the inertial lift on a moving
sphere in contact with a plane in shear flow,Phys.Fluids 9 (5),1248-1255.

6.Pell M., 1990, Gas Fluidization. In: Handbook of Powder Technology, Elsevier.
 Acknowledgments

•Coaltech
Coaltech
•SAMMRI – DST
•Fossil fuel group at North-West University
•Ludowici
Ludowici MPE Africa
•Minerals and metals research, University of
Newcastle Australia
Newcastle,