The beneficiation of Western Anatolian lignites by gravite based on dry methods

The rise in energy demand is proportionate to the growth of the world population. Such an urgency mandates diversification and efficient deployment of energy resources. Fossil fuels are still an integral part of energy production. Coal, with its vast reserves, world-wide availability and high rates of utilization, remains in the forefront. Developing countries, for the most part, exploit coal to cover their energy needs. Turkey has capacious coal rezerved but the majority of it consists of low quality lignite which cause environmental problems due to combustion products (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter) with high humidity, ash and sulphur content. Due to our economic interests, these resources need to be improved with the help of new technologies before burning. It is possible to improve low quality coal by removing ash and sulfur. For this purpose, techniques are used which generally use high amounts of water. It's known that such a composition poses severe environmental threats. Strict legislations enforce new technologies to improve coal before combustion in order to control polluters like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particules. In the midst of ever growing air pollution since late 1980's, Turkey faced the dilemma of reforming the treatment of its coal resources against importing high quality, high-priced coal. Within the scope of this thesis, samples of three different (Imbat u.g., Sarıkaya, Eynez o.p.) landfill coal samples belonging to TKI from Soma Region were taken. The samples subjected to characterization and float - sink tests were subjected to dry beneficiation tests with laboratory-scale AKAFLOW and ALL AIRJIG. Moisture content factor, grain size factor etc. in dry beneficiation tests. parameters were systematically researched. Using the result of obtained in the laboratory scale, A pilot scale ALL AIRJIG by ALLMİNERAL company, with a capacity of 20 t / h constracted by SOMA with in the scope of TUBITAK the project number 109G045 and the results were examined. We extracted lignite from various sources across Turkey and put it through a dry beneficiation process. The delivarables are ash and sulphur free fuel and development of a new technology which is in turn expected to considerably curb the transport costs in open pit and underground mining under TKİ administration. Based on the evidence presented by a pilot enrichment rig, this paper proposes significant contribution to the generation of quality products and TKİ's enery policies in the upcoming decades. This thesis, it was determined that the coal that belongs to the Imbat – Soma region is the most susceptible to dry beneficiation. At the end of the dry beneficiation tests made with samples taken from this area, coal with partical size of -4 + 1 mm was obtained with AKAFLOW, 25.35% ash containing lave from % 31.7 ash sample with 23.8% separation efficiency. On the other hands the lave containing % 20.1 ash was obtained by ALLAIR JIG experiment with % 38.8 separation efficiency. Partical size of -13 + 4 mm, it was obtained 14.2% ash containing lave with 49.8% separation efficiency by ALL AIRJIG. At the end of the pilot scale tests of the same sample, 19.74% ash was recovered. Lab-scale and pilot-scale tests with dry beneficiation show that dry beneficiation may be an alternative to wet beneficiation for some ore occurrences. Considering future water problems and technological developments, it is inevitable that dry methods will come to a more advantageous position. It is suggested that R & D studies should be carried out in cooperation with Universities and Industry for the development of dry beneficiation methods in our country.