Economic assessment of resources recovery and utilization from coal fines wastes. Document No. 81/09

The goal of this program is to develop a prototype mechanical cleaning and oil agglomeration process which can economically recover coal fines and make them into salable products in an environmentally acceptable manner. It also provides the basis for land reclamation of existing sites, and for evaluating the potential of resolution of future coal waste problems. Experimental results have indicated that the Coal Fines Recovery and Utilization process developed can successfully remove clay, shale, most of the sulfate, and some pyrites in the slurry materials. The end product is either oil agglomerates or pellets of high quality, which have a heating value between 11,500 to 12,500 Btu per pound. The waste streams of the process have been evaluated. The water can be reused after effective treatment, and the solid waste can be disposed as inert material. The environmental problems are under control. A mathematical model of the economic/environmental aspects of the process has been developed by dividing the overall process into five major processing steps: dry screening, wash, wet screen, agglomeration, and pelletization. Annualized capital, material, energy, labor and overhead costs, and total costs are predicted as a function of production rate and other operating variables, slurry characteristics and productmore » quality requirements. Transportation and reclamation costs are also recognized. The model is used to aid in planning the experimental design for the laboratory and pilot plant scale experiments, and will be of use to predict recovery costs at a proposed resource recovery site.« less