An Investigation into the Enrichment of Coal Wastes of Western Lignite Company (WLC) by Physical and Physico-Chemical Methods

Mechanical excavation and the successive processes coal production are the main reason for the occurrence of fine waste coals. These wastes are normally discharged without being processed from coal washing plants. Therefore, it causes not only economic loses but also severe environmental problems. It was attempted to enrich waste coals of WLC by using physical and physico-chemical methods and the results were compared. From the tests the optimum carbon content and the combustible recovery values were obtained as 85% and 97%, respectively, when heavy media and the coarse particle size group were chosen. From the tests with the medium particle size group using spiral and Knelson separators, combustible recovery of up to 90% was reached together with a carbon content of 80%. Moreover, a carbon content of 86.5% with a combustible recovery of 56.6% was obtained by using MGS. In the fine particle size group, the highest combustible recovery was obtained by using spiral and Knelson separators. The highest carbon content in the fine particle size group was obtained through MGS and Jameson Cell.