Beneficiation holds significant significance due to its ability to capture added value from minerals by processing them locally before they are exported. Coal beneficiation deserves our attention as it’s heavily used in the petrochemical industry as well as electricity production. Petrochemicals are chemical substances derived from fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal. They are a large component of our everyday goods. Products made with materials such as plastic, rubber, and fiber all contain petrochemical components. In this article, we will dive into coal beneficiation and petrochemical industry.
What does beneficiation mean?
The word beneficiation is defined as the process of treating raw materials, such as iron ore, to improve the physical or chemical properties of these materials to prepare for smelting (the process of extracting metal from its ore through heating and melting). Beneficiation aims to improve the ore’s economic value, which results in a higher-grade product. It can be found in the mining industry or smelting.
The power plants that use high-quality coal have a performance advantage over low-quality coal. The quality of coal is mainly affected by the degree of ash it contains. The higher quantity of ash, the lower the quality of the coal. This affects the electricity produced by these power plants.
- Beneficiation methods
Beneficiation includes several methods, they are crushing, grinding, gravity concentration, and floating concentration. In the beneficiation process, these methods begin with a process of milling and flotation for further beneficiation and are followed by processing activities such as smelting and refining. Let us investigate these methods in more detail.
- The major advantages of Coal beneficiation
Recalling that the process of beneficiation increases the economic value of raw materials (including metals and coal), let us list the various benefits of coal beneficiation:
– With coal beneficiation, the coal power plants have a lessened responsibility to manage the ash produced as its quantity is reduced by beneficiation.
– Less ash content results in less tearing in equipment and, therefore, a reduction in operating, maintenance, and overall costs.
– Power plants are built to handle a specific among of coal. The inconsistency in chemical and physical quality is balanced with coal beneficiation.
– Beneficiated coal generates more power than raw coal does. The power plant saves more money because less coal is being purchased.
What is beneficiation in Mining?
The process of extracting valuable geological material from the Earth and other astronomical objects is known as mining. In beneficiation, mining is an essential phase of the process as it consists of extracting the coal and raw materials to be beneficiated through several beneficiation methods.
Companies like Anchorage Investments operate in both mining and the petrochemical industry, where the two processes are needed for coal beneficiation and petrochemical production.
What is Coal-Washing Process?
In coal beneficiation, the coal-washing process is the procedure where impurities such as sulfur, ash, and rock are removed from coal to upgrade its value.
How is coal processed in the petrochemical industry?
Petrochemicals are produced from fossil fuels and natural gas. These fossil fuels include crude oil and coal. The products of petrochemicals are used to create derivatives such as ethylene, propylene, and benzene which are then used as raw materials to produce other goods.
Therefore coal beneficiation allows for an optimized value of the coal processed through beneficiation methods to be used in the production of petrochemicals.
In conclusion, coal beneficiation is a multistep process of increasing the economic value of metals and coal. These various beneficiation steps include crushing, grinding, gravity concentration, and floating concentration. Coal beneficiation and petrochemical industry have a proportional relation as the first is the main step to create the second as well as electricity. Beneficiation is highly beneficial as it allows power plants to reduce costs, particularly operational costs, significantly.