Modelling Of The Coal/Oil Agglomeration Process

Oil agglomeration experiments were carried out on coal fines to study the effect of process variables such as pulp density, bridging oil dosage and intensity of agitation on (i) size distribution and (ii) yield of agglomerated product. It has been observed that the growth of agglomerates follows a self-preserving behaviour and using this, a characteristic curve has been derived. This curve has been found to be independent of the process variables. It has also been noted that the growth of agglomerates follows second order kinetics. In an attempt to model the process for predicting the size distribution and yield of agglomerates at different levels of the variables, the cumulative 50 percent of the agglomerates passing size (d50) has been correlated with the variables (i) through the kinetic equation and (ii) directly. These equations, coupled with the characteristic curve can predict the size distribution of the agglomerates at any levels of the variables tested. The yield of agglomerates has been found to follow a definite relationship with d50.