Coal Dewatering: Australian R&D Trends

Coal (and tailings) dewatering is a major RD judicious selection, modification and application of dewatering technology; and control of the process in respect of feed material, operational parameters, and product characteristics. For these areas, this paper analyses R&D needs, summarises recent R&D results, and discusses the on-going research in the context of the Australian coal industry situation, including the critical economic constraints. Both centrifugal and filtration technologies and applications to coarse, small, fine and ultrafine coal and also tailings, are covered. The overall analyses are distilled into a summary Table of current status and R&D trends for five distinct categories of coal suspensions.