Magnetic Demineralization Of Pulverized Coal

INTRODUCTION The Coal Research Bureau of the School of Mines at West Virginia University is presently conducting laboratory-scale tests to determine the technical feasibility of beneficiating pulverized coal and coal fines with high-intensity electromagnetic fields. Interest in magnetic processes for cleaning fine coals was stimulated by results obtained by Yurovsky, et a1 in 1958.1 This work, while not new in concept,2,3 indicated that pulverized coal which had been thermally treated in a rotary drum in the presence of superheated steam and air underwent thermo- chemical reactions. Films of the ferromagnetic minerals magnetite (Fe2O3), hematite (Fe3O4), and pyrrhotite (FeS[3]) were reported to be formed on the surfaces of the pyrite grains associated with fine coal during the foregoing treatment at temperatures ranging from 120 to 360°C. After thermal treatment the coal was magnetically separated in an experimental magnetic device having a field strength of 10,000 oersteds.