Optimum separation route for semi bituminous coal using semi-pilot scale pneumatic stratification jig

Nowadays, dry beneficiation technologies with an air dense medium fluidized bed come into prominence in the field of coal preparation. In this study, the optimum conditions for different operational parameters such as discharge stargate rate, pulsation frequency, and superficial air velocity were investigated on separation of semi bituminous coal from Soma (Imbat) region using a semi pilot scale Allair jig unit. The experimental studies were carried out with two coal size fractions of -15+4 and -4+1 mm by applying rougher and scavenging stages. After the optimization of each parameter, the results for the rougher stages indicated that clean coal products could be obtained with 11.80% and 16.74% ash contents for -15+4 mm and -4+1 mm size ranges, respectively. In addition, discardable tailings with 65.44% and 60.95 % ash contents could be obtained as the result for the scavenging stages. Finally, the combination of these results for -15+1 mm size exhibited that 59.80% of the feed material with 37.70% ash content can be upgraded to clean coal products with low ash content as 19.80% while the remaining part was discarded as tailings with 68.60% ash content. These values suggested that optimizing the operational parameters of unit brings better results which are applicable in industrial application of dry processes compared to wet processes.