Triboelectric Coal Beneficiation: A Potential Pollution Control Technique for Power Plant

The purpose of coal preparation is to reduce sulfur and other pollutants for utility application. The triboelectric dry beneficiation can work effectively for ultrafine coal particles of <200 mesh, and provide a unique opportunity for treating pulverized coal in power plants. High grade steam coal with low ash, low sulphur and high heat value can be obtained by this process, and then the pollution will be controlled before coal fired. Mineral impurities and coal matrixes can be tribocharged differently, and thus can be separated when an external electrostatic field is applied. This is implemented in triboelectric beneficiation. As a dry process, triboelectric separation has many advantages over traditional wet processes, notably the ability to operate in areas where water resources are scarce, and no need for dewatering. Triboelectric dry beneficiation well adapts to the large-scale pithead power station, especially in arid northwest area where coal resources are abundant. Additionally, triboelectric dry beneficiation has great potential to produce ultra-low ash coal for injection metallurgy and yielding such material of coal-based carbon as high-quality active carbon, etc.