EFFECT OF STRUCTURED PLATES ON FINE COAL GRAVITY SEPARATION IN A LIQUID FLUIDIZED BED SYSTEM

The addition of structured plates in the hindered-settling bed separator (HSBS) is an improved design for the particle classification and gravity separation on the basis of size and density differences. This work presents the experimental test results of coal separation in a lab scale packed column and a series of numerical simulations of the particle classification and gravity separation in the presence of structured plates using an Euler-Lagrange approach from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In the simulation, the HSBS was used to separate coal particles with a size range of -2+0.25 mm. The changes of liquid phase velocity field and particle separation performance in the packed column are compared with those in the open column to get a better understanding of the possible impact of structured plates on coal separation process. It is concluded that the structured plates can offer a good gravity separation with substantial throughput increase. The throughput is nearly three times higher than that of a HSBS without structured plates. The separation performance in the presence of the structured plates improves with significant decrease in the probable error values.