MODELLING OF SOME EFFECTIVE PARAMETERS IN FINE COAL FLOTATION
Abstract
The most important energy resource of Turkey is lignites which counts for about 20 billion tones. Despite the high external dependency on energy, only 14.21% of Turkey's electricity production is obtained from domestic lignite resources. One of the main reasons why very low amounts of electricity are received from domestic lignites is that a significant portion of these reserves are low-rank, have high ash and sulfur content, and cause severe environmental problems if utilized without purification.
In this work, to reduce the ash content of these lignite’s thus increasing their utilization in power plants, a series of flotation experiments were carried out. Designing experiments, analysing experimental results, and creating the mathematical models were performed using the Central Composite Design Method. The experimental results revealed that the ash content of the samples was reduced from 52.47% to 29.37% with a combustible recovery of 32.50%.
Keywords
Froth Flotation, Central Composite Design, Modelling of Flotation Variables, Low-Rank Lignite
References
- Andrews, G.F., Maczuga, J. (1982). The bacterial coal desulfurization. In: Fourth symposium for biotechnology in energy production and conservation, Gatlinburg, TN.
- Aksoy, D. O., Koca, S., Koca, H. (2012). The Utilization of Unsaleable Lignite Fines at Eskisehir Koyunagili Region Lignite Deposits, Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects ;34:9, 820-6.
- Aksoy, D.O., Aytar, P, Toptas, Y., Çabuk, A., Koca, S., Koca, H (2014). Physical and physico chemical cleaning of lignite and the effect of cleaning on biodesulfurization. Fuel, 132:158–64.
- Aksoy, D.O., Ozdemir, S., Aytar, P., Koca, S., Çabuk, A., Koca, H., Brito-Prada, P. (2022). Fusion of the Microbial World into the Flotation Process. Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review ;43:1068-82.
- Dube, R.M. (2012). Collectors for enabling flotation of oxidized coal. University of Kentucky, Msc Thesis.
- Jia, R. Harris and G, Fuerstenau W (2000). An improved class of universal collectors for the flotation of oxidized andror low-rank coal. International Journal of Mineral Processing ; 58: 99–118.
- Lizama, H.M. and Suzuki, I. (1987). Bacterial leaching of a sulphide ore by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and Thiobacillus thiooxidans: I. Shake flask studies. Biotechnology and Bioengineering ; 32: 110–6.
- Lynch A.J., Watt, J.S., Finch, J.A., Harbort, G.E. (2007) History of Flotation Technology. In: Fuerstenau MC, Jameson G, Yoon RH, editors. Froth Flotation A Century of Innovation. Colorado, USA. Society for Mining Metallurgy & Exploration. p. 71.
- Oh-Hyung, H., Min-Kyu, K., Byoung-Gon, K., Nimal, S. and Chul-Hyun, P. (2014). Fine coal beneficiation by column flotation. Fuel Processing Technology ; 126: 49–59.
- https://enerji.gov.tr/info-bank-energy, (accessed April 30, 2025).