Coal preparation

The acid rain control legislation has prompted the Department of Energy (DOE) to seek new technology using the Clean Coal Technology program solicitation. The main goal of the program is to reduce SO2 emissions below 9 Mt/a (10 million stpy) and NOx emission below 5.4 Mt/a (6 million stpy) by the year 2000. This would be accomplished by using precombustion, combustion, post combustion and conversion technology. Utilities are considering installing new scrubbers, switching fuel or possibly deep clean. However, the time required to implement the control technology is short. Due to the legislation, about 110 plants will have to adopt one of the approaches. This paper reports that in characterization of coal, Ames Laboratory used a scanning electron microscope- based, automated image analysis (SEM-AIA) technique to identify coal and mineral matter association. Various forms of organic sulfur were identified using peroxyacetic acid oxidation of coal. This was followed by subsequent microscopic, GC-MS, and HRMS analysis by Southern Illinois University. In ultrafine grinding of coal, it was reported by the Mining and Mineral Institute of Alabama that silica sand or flint shot used less energy compared to steel ball mills