Gasifier feed: Tailor-made from Illinois coals. Final technical report, September 1, 1991--December 31, 1992

The main purpose of this project was to produce a feedstock from preparation plant fines from an Illinois (IL) coal that is ideal for a slurry fed, slagging, entrained-flow coal gasifier. The high-sulfur content and high-Btu value of IL coals are Particularly advantageous in such a gasifier; preliminary-calculations indicate that the increased cost of removing sulfur from the gas from a high-sulfur coal is more than offset b the increased revenue from the sale of the elemental sulfur; additionally the high-Btu IL coal concentrates more energy into the slurry of a given coal to water ratio. The Btu is--higher not only because of the hither Btu value of the coal but also because IL coal requires less water to produce a pumpable slurry than western coal, i.e., as little as 30--35% water may be used for IL coal as compared to approximately 45% for most western coals. During the contract extension, additional coal testing was completed confirming the fact that coal concentrates can be made from plant waste under a variety of flotation conditions 33 tests were conducted, yielding an average of 13326 Btu with 9.6% ash while recovering 86.0%-Of the energy value.