Editors: | Kongoli F, Gaune-Escard M, Mauntz M, Rubinstein J, Dodds H.L. |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2015 |
Pages: | 310 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-987820-30-0 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
This report has aimed to provide background information on the present situation and future prospects for the coal preparation industry in Russia.
Russia has a second of the world's recoverable coal reserves and a fifth of proven reserves (193.3 billion tons). About 80% of these reserves are thermal coal. Proven coal reserves are sufficient for at least 550 years of production.
The main directions of strategic development of the coal industry defined its long-term program for the period up to 2030: the increase in coal production to 430 million ton in 2030 (by 25% compared to the present day), and increasing its exports from 130 million ton to 170 million ton in 2030; expedited development of the coal industry in the east of the country in order to bring the producers to major markets; the growth of preparation and deep processing of coal; the sharp increase productivity through technological innovation; strengthening of industrial and environmental safety.
Today, 75% of coal production in the country provide 10 large vertically integrated private companies, which include mining, processing, transport enterprises, the objects of heat and electricity generation, coke production and metallurgical enterprises.
The techniques and flow sheet used at new and modernized Russian preparation plants are increasingly compliant with international standards. New technologies include:
- Use of different types of separators (rolling, drum, bath) and heavy-medium cyclones for separation and preparation in heavy mediums.
- Preparation of coarse slime using spiral separators.
- Maximum use of mechanized techniques for dehydration in preference to thermal drying (although we believe that mechanized drying is not always justified, due to the unstable moisture content of coal inputs).
- Extensive use of belt filter presses for dehydration of high-ash slime.
Intensive work is underway to find alternatives to floatation techniques in coal slime processing, and analysis of the physiochemical characteristics of slime suggests that selective flocculation for fine-grained slurry could be used instead of flotation.
Coal extraction from pits with coal-bearing overburden rock presents a major environmental and economic challenge. Coal losses from coal-bearing overburden rock with 50-75% ash content amounts to 10-15% of total coal output at open pits. A new method for coal extraction from overburden rocks with more than 50% ash content using steeply inclined separators (SIS) has been developed by the Institute of Solid Fossil Fuel Preparation and implemented at Kuzbass mines.