Enhancement of mechanical dewatering of fine clean coal by surface active additives

Abstract

This paper describes couple of dewatering approaches which were found to be very effective in providing filter cakes containing less than 12 percent moisture. These approaches involved addition of flocculant followed by surfactant dewatering aids. Results of dewatering experiments have shown that cationic surfactant such as Cetyl triethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) leads to cake moisture reduction from 21% to 11.7% and the average filtration rate was also significantly improved. The economics of using flocculant filter aids, surfactant dewatering aids prior to thermal drying shows that oil cost saving per tonne of dry solid can be as high as Rs.179.