Enhancement of dewatering performance of vitrinite-rich and inertinite-rich coals by surfactants: Experiment and simulation - ScienceDirect https://www.sciencedirect.

com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016236122004367

Fuel
Volume 318, 15 June 2022, 123571

Full Length Article

Enhancement of dewatering performance of vitrinite-rich and inertinite-rich coals by surfactants: Experiment and
simulation
An Ping, Yaoli Peng , Guangyuan Xie, Mengdie Wang, Wencheng Xia

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Abstract

The high moisture content of fine coals, especially flotation clean coals has affected the production of coal processing plants for a very long time. The two main components of fine coals
are vitrinite and inertinite. The percentage of these two macerals present in the coal has an impact on the dewatering process. In this paper, the influence of surfactants on the dewatering
effect of two samples with different maceral contents is studied. The results demonstrate that non-ionic surfactants have an excellent dewatering effect on vitrinite-rich coal, and it
reduced the filter cake moisture by 1.84%, while cationic surfactants have an outstanding dewatering effect on inertinite-rich coal, and it reduced the filter cake moisture by3.81%. For both
the coals, surfactant adsorption reduces the hydrophobicity of the coal. The best dewatering effect corresponds to the lowest filtrate surface tension and the loosest filter cake structure.
Surfactants can reduce the pressure required to remove water from the filter cake by lowering the surface tension of the filtrate. In addition, surfactants have an agglomeration effect on
fine coals, which increases the porosity of the coal and facilitates a low-moisture product. This study will help engineers select the suitable filter aid for the maceral content of coal and
contribute to the development of efficient filter aids.

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Introduction

Coal is the primary energy source of China. 3.9 billion tons of coal were mined for coking, chemical, and power generation in the year 2020 [1]. Although the consumption of coal as an
energy source is declining every year because of the pressure to achieve carbon neutrality, energy consumption is closely related to the country's economic development. According to the
forecast by Xie et al. [2], China's energy consumption will reach 5.5–5.6 billion tons of standard coal, making coal contribute to approximately 50% of the energy consumption by the year
2025. Therefore, the coal industry is a promising industry that will exist in China for a long time. Coal, like other mineral resources, produces a large amount of dust and wastewater which
pollute the environment. Therefore, the clean utilization of coal has been one of the most important topics of research in the field of coal research.

After mineral processing, fine coals contain more moisture [3], [4]. For some special coal, the moisture content of flotation clean coal in some coal processing plants can be more than 30%.
When coal is being conventionally produced, business managers usually require that low moisture coarse coals be blended with high moisture fine coals to meet the requirements of the
customer [5]. However, there will always be some fine coal that cannot be sold in this way [6]. To achieve a dynamic balance between production and sales, these coals can only be sold at
low prices [7], which will lead to a waste of resources and contribute to economic loss. Therefore, dewatering flotation fine coals has gradually become the focus of research [53], [54], [57].

Flocculants and coagulants have a wide range of applications in coal processing plants [8], [9], but both these agents usually have no significant effect on promoting the dewatering of
flotation clean coal. Adding surfactants can reduce the moisture content of flotation clean coals. According to P. K. Banerjee [10], surfactants can effectively reduce the moisture content of
fine coals by 10%, and also have same effect on coarse coals. Singh [11] studied the influence of surfactants on the dewatering effect of fine coals by measuring the particles’ zeta potential,
contact angle, and filtrate surface tension. The results indicated that surfactants could effectively reduce cake moisture and that the filtrate surface tension had an effect on the moisture
content of filter cakes. The enhancement of filtration characteristics is explained by the improvement of hydrophobicity of coals by the surfactants. You Xiaofang [12] studied the
dewatering mechanism of TX100 on lignites. The results indicate that the optimal dosage of TX100 is linked to the critical micelle concentration of TX100 in the solution and that the
TX100 promotes dewatering by increasing the contact angle of lignites.

Using certain surfactants can effectively improve the dewatering effect of fine particles [13]. Behzad Vaziri Hassas [14] studied the relationship between the hydrophile lipophilic balance
(HLB) of surfactants and the dewatering effect. The results indicate that surfactants can affect the dewatering effect by changing the zeta potential. Surfactants with low HLB have a good
dewatering effect on high-rank coals, and surfactants with medium HLB have a good dewatering effect on low-rank coals. Kuh [15] believed that cationic surfactants have good dewatering
effect on coal slurries.

Macerals are strongly related to the properties of coal and have a significant effect on the processing and utilization of coals [16], [17], [18]. Shan Changan [19] explained the influence of
macerals on coalbed methane storages from the perspective of pore structure and pore roughness of vitrinite and inertinite macerals. With an increase in vitrinite content, the adsorption
capacity of coal increases, which leads to the enrichment of coalbed methane storages [20]. Vitrinites contain more volatiles than inertinites, and vitrinite-rich coals can release more
volatiles during pyrolysis, which will improve gas production [21].

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Enhancement of dewatering performance of vitrinite-rich and inertinite-rich coals by surfactants: Experiment and simulation - ScienceDirect https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016236122004367

In coal processing, research on macerals mostly focuses on separation of macerals [22], [23], [24], [56], while only a few studies have paid attention to the effect of macerals during the
separation process. Ping et al. [25] noted that the content of inertinite in fine clean coals significantly affects the dewatering performance. In this study, the dewatering effects of three
types of surfactants on vitrinite-rich and inertinite-rich coals are studied to choose the best type of surfactant for dewatering coals with different maceral contents. The mechanism of the
surfactants that promote the dewatering of fine coal is explained through a combination of simulations and experiments, that help to develop an efficient filtering aid and solve the
problem of flotation fine coal dewatering.

Section snippets

Samples and surfactants

Vitrinite-rich samples and inertinite-rich samples were separated from bituminous clean coals of the Shanghai Miao coal preparation plant in Inner Mongolia. This kind of bituminous coal
is easy to be crushed in mineral processing, which makes the dewatering process of flotation clean coals difficult. The density of the vitrinite sample was less than 1.30 g/cm3, and that of
the inertinite sample ranged from 1.40 g/cm3 to 1.48 g/cm3. The samples were ground by a rod mill in the same method to…

The effect of surfactants on the moisture of filter cakes

The moisture content of filter cakes is the most important parameter that reflects the effect of filter aids. Three types of surfactants with the same length of aliphatic chains were used to
study the dewatering effect of the different surfactants and their dosage on the two samples.

Fig. 5a presents the moisture content of group V filter cake after adding different doses of the three surfactants. The moisture content of the filter cake decreased to 23.20% from 25.04%,
when 100 g/t of Brij35 was …

Conclusion

In this study, the effects of three types of surfactants namely DTAB, SDS, and Brij35, on the dewatering efficiency and rate of two samples with different macerals content were studied. The
results indicated that cationic surfactants contribute to the dewatering of inertinite-rich coals, while nonionic surfactants contribute to the dewatering of vitrinite-rich coals. The
dewatering rate and the calculation of average mass specific resistance indicate that the surfactant improves the filtration…

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.…

Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52174264).…

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…According to Ofori [41], the use of a tri-block copolymer can improve flotation recovery. Furthermore, it can be inferred from Ping’s [42] study on the dewatering process of vitrinite and inertinite that
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that China's energy consumption will reach 5.5–5.6 billion tons of standard coal by 2025, making coal contribute to approximately 50% of the energy consumption [1]. With the development of the coal chemical
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