Mechanical dewatering of sapropel in its small-scale mining technology

The article presents the results of studies on sapropel dehydration. On the territory of the Russian Federation there are about 50 thousand deposits of sapropel, which is one of the types of local raw materials for multidisciplinary use. The reason for the low profitability of sapropel extraction is due to the difficulty of removing moisture from sapropels, the humidity of which can reach 99%. The most promising for sapropel dewatering instead of traditional moisture removal technologies due to filtration and prolonged natural drying is the use of the capillary effect of a thin-porous material. Based on theoretical and experimental data, the design of the sapropel dewatering plant was developed, which allows obtaining sapropel of the required humidity in the conditions of the deposit. As a result of experimental studies, the coefficient of the relative rate of moisture loss from the contact time of sapropel and the microfiber surface was obtained, while the mass fraction of moisture in the dehydrated sapropel is in a nonlinear dependence on the contact time of raw materials with the lining of the drums. It is established that in order to achieve a humidity of 60-65%, the contact time should be at least 1.64 s. The results of the research can be useful in the creation of mining equipment for sapropel dewatering, operating in the conditions of the deposit, allowing obtaining sapropel of the required humidity.