Coal and oil emulsions as boiler fuels

The recent history of coal-oil emulsions research and development is shown to close some interesting new ways for both basic research and commercial developments. Coal/oil/water mixtures stabilized by ultrasonic irradiation in particular offer another alternative in the use of coal as an energy source. At present, more studies are needed on the environmental impact of the use of these fuels but such studies are in progress. The spherical agglomeration process offers hopes of separating much of the physically bound ash material from coal and provides an excellent feedstock for the coal/oil/water fuels.