Poster Presentation 26th ACMM “2020 Visions in Microscopy”

Applications of X-ray Computed Tomography in the Coal Washing Industry (#213)

Anh Nguyen 1
  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

After mining, coal has to be washed to remove clays and many other ash-forming minerals by applying physical separation principles such as the gravity separation based on the difference in densities. In this presentation, we describe the applications of X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) for determining coal washability, coal breakage and coal maceral composition. The coal borehole samples and the coal samples taken from the feed streams to the coal processing plants in Australia were obtained, characterized and used in this research. Special procedures have been developed for imaging the coal sample by XCT, benchmarking and quantifying the required XCT characteristics of the coal samples and converting the XCT signals into useful output parameters for the coal mining industry. The results show that XCT can be used to analyze coal washability, coal breakage and coal composition. It provides a new methodology for non-destructive and non-toxic quantification of coal samples for the coal mining industry. It is safe and fast. Significantly, XCT will allow for the development of an on-line coal washability monitoring system.