Comparative Study of Separation Performance of a Spiral and Dense-medium Cyclone on Cleaning Coal

Spiral separators and dense-medium cyclones (DMCs) are widely used for separation of -1 + 0.125 mm fine coal. In this study, testing was carried out using -1 + 0.125 mm fine coal with low near density material to produce a concentrate, using both a spiral and DMC. Clean coal with 8.31% ash content was obtained with the spiral at 37.39% yield, 47.76% combustible recovery and 0.150 Ep value. For the DMC, the combustible recovery of clean coal at the ash of 8.31% ash was improved to 80.84% at 62.98% yield, and 0.118 Ep value. The advantage of the DMC is further proved by analysis using Fuerstenau upgrading curves.

Automated summary

This study compared the performance of spiral separators and DMCs in separating fine coal, showing that DMCs outperformed in terms of combustible recovery and yield.