Performance characteristics of pilot plant dense media hydrocyclone for beneficiation of coal and 3-D CFD simulation

Dense-medium separators have proven to be the most efficient processes for removing the undesirable material from run-of-mine coal. The application of high-pressure feed injection into dense-medium cyclones to provide an elevated centrifugal force has recently been found to allow efficient separation performances for the treatment of fine coal (i.e., < 1000 mu m). However, high-pressure injection requires specialized pumps and results in relatively high maintenance requirements. the Current study involves experimental investigation of separation performance characteristics of the dense media hydrocyclone (DMC). A pilot plant DMC has been designed and fabricated for performance characterization. Experiments have been conducted on 300 mm dense medium cyclone treating coal in the size range of -6 to +2 mm using magnetite as the medium under operating conditions. The operating variable was the specific gravity of the medium, feed inlet pressure and feed inlet flow rate. The ash contents of the feed coal reporting to the overflow and underflow have been analyzed qualitatively. The result indicates that the use of magnetite as dense medium in DMC resulted in the yield of clean coal, which is 5% more when the air core is suppressed as compared to the same conditions when the air core remains. A 3-D geometry is created in Gambit to support the experimental findings by using CFD simulation. It is interesting to observe that experimental findings agree well with the simulation results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.