Comparison of coal separation characteristics based on different separating approaches in dry coal beneficiation flowsheet

The separation characteristic of raw coal from Luoyang mining area, China, was investigated by applying a dry coal beneficiation flowsheet with the dense medium gas-solid fluidized bed as main separating equipment. The experimental and simulation results indicate that the dense medium gas-solid fluidized bed can provide uniform distribution and stable fluctuation of bed densities at various heights. Two types of different separating approaches were compared using the dry coal beneficiation flowsheet. Compared with obtaining cleaning coal in the first stage of the flowsheet, a higher yield of the cleaning coal and better separation efficiency can be achieved when discharging gangue in the first stage. Finally, the results indicate that 64.86% pure cleaning coal with an ash content of 11.77% and 13.53% middlings were obtained, and 21.61% gangue was removed in two successive separation stages with the probable errors of 0.05 and 0.07 g/cm3, respectively.